P.I. Industries, Udaipur Tensile Structure

A large research campus moves people and equipment between buildings all day, and in Udaipur that means a strong sun for most of the year and a sharp monsoon. Covering a key route or gathering space with a tensile canopy keeps the campus working comfortably, without the cost and disruption of an enclosed structure next to laboratories.

Ekra Decor delivered the structure as a turnkey job: survey and setting-out, 3D structural and membrane design, fabrication of the galvanised steel frame and the welded fabric, and installation and tensioning, over about 1,400 m² in roughly two months. The archive does not record which space it covers, so this page keeps that general.

Whether the structure covers a walkway, an assembly area or a parking space, it is designed as a clear span with the columns kept to the edges and the circulation lines, so the area underneath stays open and flexible.

The membrane is form-found in 3D and pre-stressed into double curvature so it stays taut under the wind uplift that governs a large light roof and drains cleanly to defined points. 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 foundations sized against uplift. In a strong-sun location a translucent but well-shading membrane keeps the covered space bright while cutting the solar heat.

The steel is cut, welded and hot-dip galvanised in the workshop and the membrane is cut and high-frequency welded into panels off-site, so on-site work is limited to casting the foundations, erecting the frame and tensioning the membrane.

On a working campus the work is fenced and timed around site activity, with the space handed back as a finished, tensioned structure in about two months.

PI Industries’ campus gained a large covered area that keeps a key route or gathering space usable through the Udaipur summer and the monsoon — added cleanly alongside a working research site. Maintenance is limited to periodic cleaning and a routine check of the frame and tensions.

Ekra Decor builds covered walkways and campus canopies for industrial and research clients. See more finished work on the projects page, or read about tensile structures in Udaipur.