Smartworks, Noida Interior Tensile Roof

A managed-workspace operator sells a finished, comfortable environment, and the ceiling is a big part of how a floor feels. The brief for a membrane ceiling is to give a clean, quiet, well-lit plane across the whole floor, hide everything in the slab above it, and keep the void accessible for the services that run through it — all on a fit-out programme that does not wait.

Ekra Decor’s scope covered the ceiling system: 3D design of the barrel-vault geometry and its suspension steel, the slung maintenance walkway, fabrication, and installation and tensioning within the floor, over about 1,800 m² in roughly 35 days.

An interior tensile ceiling is hung, not stood up. A light steel frame is suspended from the slab above, and the membrane is stretched across it and pre-stressed into a gentle barrel curve so it stays perfectly taut and wrinkle-free across the span. The curve is shallow — enough to read as a deliberate form and to keep the fabric tight, not so much that it eats headroom.

The loads are small — the fabric pre-stress, self-weight, and an allowance for the walkway and maintenance access — but the suspension points into the slab still have to be designed and the steel worked to IS 800. Because the ceiling is often backlit, the membrane is chosen for even translucency and colour stability, and the lighting is set in the void above at a spacing that gives a uniform wash with no hot spots.

The slung walkway is part of the design: it lets facilities staff reach light fittings, dampers and cabling above the membrane without disturbing the ceiling below.

The suspension steel and the walkway truss are fabricated and finished in the workshop, and the membrane is cut to pattern and welded into panels. On site the frame is hung from the slab and levelled, the walkway is installed, then the membrane is lifted, clamped and tensioned.

Because it is indoor work, it is weather-independent and runs in parallel with the partitioning, services and flooring — here, completed in about 35 days as part of the wider fit-out.

The fit-out gained a continuous membrane ceiling that gives the floor a clean, quiet plane and a soft, even light, with all the services hidden but reachable from the walkway above. A tensioned ceiling stays taut for years and only needs occasional cleaning.

Ekra Decor builds interior membrane ceilings and custom fabric features for commercial fit-outs. See more finished work on the projects page, or read about tensile structures in Noida.