Tata, Panchkula Inverted Umbrella Tensile Structure

A forecourt or plaza that needs to be usable in the sun and the rain calls for continuous overhead cover, but it also has to stay open and easy to move through. An inverted-umbrella canopy answers both: it roofs the whole area module by module, keeps the supports to a minimum, and handles its own drainage so there is nothing at the edges.

Ekra Decor delivered the canopy as a turnkey package — survey, 3D design, fabrication of the galvanised steel and membrane, and installation and tensioning — over about 1,000 m² in roughly 35 days.

Each module is a shallow cone turned inside out. Arms cantilever from the top of a single central column and lift the membrane at the perimeter, while the centre is pulled down into a funnel around the column. That puts the fabric into a taut inward-sloping double curvature and sends every drop of rain to one collection point.

Assembled on a grid, the modules interlock at their high edges to give a continuous roof, and each one drains independently through its own column — so a 1,000 m² canopy has no external gutters and no single point of failure in its drainage. Ekra Decor form-finds the module in 3D, designs the steel to IS 800, and checks it for wind loading to the applicable Indian codes; the cantilever makes uplift the governing case, and each column foundation is sized for the resulting overturning moment.

Building the canopy from one repeated, pre-engineered unit is also what makes the programme short and predictable — there is one module to fabricate and one erection sequence to repeat.

The columns, cantilever arms and funnel assemblies are fabricated and hot-dip galvanised in the workshop, and each membrane unit is cut and high-frequency welded to the same pattern. The canopy therefore ships as a stack of identical kits.

On site the crew works module by module — cast the foundation, stand the column, fit the arms, spread and tension the membrane — and repeats it across the grid. With single-point foundations and a repeating sequence, the 1,000 m² canopy went up in about 35 days.

The Tata site gained about 1,000 m² of continuous covered space that stays open and navigable underneath, with rainwater handled invisibly and a grid that could be extended if needed. The canopy asks only for cleaning and periodic clearing of the column drains.

Ekra Decor builds modular and custom fabric structures for corporate and institutional clients. See more finished work on the projects page, or read about tensile structures in Panchkula.