Lucknow Project Tensile Structure (20,000 sq ft)

A courtyard between buildings is often the least useful space on a site — too hot in summer, wet in the monsoon, and awkward to program. Roofing it with a tensile membrane converts it into genuine floor area: a covered atrium or court that can be a lobby, a food court or an events space, at a fraction of the cost of building a solid roof over that span.

Ekra Decor delivered the structure as a turnkey job: survey and setting-out within the court, 3D structural and membrane design, fabrication of the radiating steel and the welded fabric, and installation and tensioning, over about 1,858 m² in roughly two months.

Roofing a courtyard means working entirely to the geometry that is already there. The membrane and its supporting steel span from one surrounding block to the other — often on radiating ribs from the perimeter — so nothing lands in the court and the floor stays completely open. The fixings tie back into the existing building frames, which have to be checked for the new loads.

The fabric is form-found in 3D and pre-stressed into double curvature so it stays taut under wind uplift and drains to defined edges along the building lines, into the existing drainage. Ekra Decor designs the steelwork to IS 800 and checks the structure for wind, rain and seismic loading to the applicable Indian codes, with the perimeter connections designed for uplift. A translucent membrane keeps the covered court daylit.

The steel is fabricated and hot-dip galvanised in the workshop and the membrane is cut and welded into panels off-site, so on-site work is fixing the perimeter steel, assembling the span within the court, and running and tensioning the membrane.

Working inside a courtyard ringed by occupied buildings means careful access and protection of the surrounding finishes, with the space handed back as a finished, tensioned roof in about two months.

The building gained a roofed courtyard that works as a bright, weather-protected internal space all year — usable floor recovered from what had been an exposed light well. The roof needs only periodic cleaning and a routine check of its connections and tensions.

Ekra Decor builds courtyard and atrium roofs for commercial and institutional buildings. See more finished work on the projects page, or read about tensile structures in Lucknow.