Sun View, Ludhiana Swimming Pool Tensile Structure

In this part of Punjab a private pool is close to unusable in the middle of the day for much of the year — the sun is too strong on the water and the surrounding paving gets uncomfortably hot underfoot. The brief was to shade the pool and its deck without turning the space into an enclosed room: the owners still wanted daylight, moving air and an open outlook onto the garden.

Ekra Decor handled the whole structure — a site visit and survey, the 3D design of the sail geometry and its steel supports, fabrication of the galvanised frame and the fabric, and installation and tensioning on site. The covered area works out at about 360 m², enough for the pool and the deck around it.

A sail canopy gets its stiffness from shape. Rather than a flat sheet, the membrane is pulled between high masts and lower anchor points so it forms a saddle-shaped, double-curved surface. That curvature pre-stresses the fabric, so it stays drum-tight and stable in wind instead of flapping, and it gives the roof a natural fall that sheds rain to one side clear of the pool.

Keeping the structure light and the supports few is what makes it feel open. A slender galvanised steel frame carries the sail on a handful of points around the deck, so there is nothing bulky between the pool and the garden. The steel is designed to IS 800 and the canopy is checked for wind and rain loads to the applicable Indian codes; because the roof weighs so little, the anchor foundations are sized mainly to resist wind uplift.

Materials matter more than usual around a pool. The fabric sits in constant UV and humid, occasionally chlorine-laden air, so a coated architectural membrane with a stable, cleanable surface is the sensible choice, on a hot-dip-galvanised frame that resists corrosion.

Almost everything is made before the crew arrives. The steel masts and fittings are welded and galvanised in the workshop, the sail is cut to its computer-generated pattern and its edges reinforced and cabled, and the small pad foundations are cast on site.

Installation is then quick: set and plumb the masts, spread the sail, and tension it evenly to its design stress so the curvature comes up true. On a domestic site the work is kept tidy and self-contained, and the whole job — from first survey to a tensioned, finished canopy — took about 45 days.

The finished canopy gives the pool reliable shade through the hottest hours while staying open to the garden and the breeze. It is a durable, low-maintenance addition — a wash now and then and an annual check of the cable tensions is effectively all it asks for.

Ekra Decor designs swimming-pool tensile structures and shade sails for homes, clubs and academies. See more finished work on the projects page, or read about tensile structures in Ludhiana.