Fabric Architecture Specifier's Guide 2022 - 8

REDUCE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
$4,320 per day of added sales. At a 25%
margin this equals $1,080/day of profit.
For the longevity of a fabric structure,
Shellshear suggests an average of 10plus
years. " With the cost of an average
small fabric structure for a restaurant
at $50,000, this gives you/your client
an ROI of 46 days or six weeks. When
put in these terms, clients can easily
see the value of adding directly to their
pocketbooks and contributing to their
operating expenses. "
An example of demountable structures, this temporary pavilion was designed by GA estudio + ArtWorks
for the 2019 Festival de las Artes Walk&Talk event held in Portugal. The fabric roof, held up by an
inflatable balloon, is anchored to movable modules housing exhibits. Photo: Mariana Lopes
Sustainability of materials
M
aterial recycling will be required for all industrial fabrics, as they
will need to become carbon neutral and Cradle to Cradle (C2C)
Certified®
. Cradle to Cradle is a manufacturing process that
models nature; all pieces in a product are treated like nutrients
that are either upscaled and reused in a new way or returned to the earth.
They fall into two categories: either technical or biological. We can use
wood instead of steel when possible and recycled aluminum; however,
membranes generally today use chlorine and fluorine compounds, which
are not sustainable.
There are some greener membrane products like the NovaShield®
membranes from Intertape Polymer Group, which are currently
C2C certified. Another example is NOWOFOL®
's ETFE foil, which is a
homogenous product that can be completely recycled, turning the foil
into granular products and then refabricate it as a new foil, helping make
NOWOFOL a climate neutral company.
Another fabric manufacturer, Serge Ferrari, developed the Texyloop®
system for PVC recycling, closed it in 2018, and is now opening a new
system called Polyloop that, rather than be a single location for recycling,
has become smaller locations throughout the world giving recycled
products an easier path for installers. Ferrari currently has an EPD rating
for cradle to grave.
-Nicholas Goldsmith, FAIA, FTL Design Engineering Studio, New York City
8
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IMPROVEMENTS OVER TIME
Hector, RA, LEED AP, associate
professor at the University of Miami
School of Architecture, Miami, Fla.,
conducted research at the Institute for
Lightweight Structures under Frei Otto
in Stuttgart, Germany. With many years
of design and project management
in fabric structures, he's seen vast
improvements since his start, but feels
the need for more sustainable efforts.
" There certainly is a lot to be
done, both within the architectural
community and the fabric architecture
communities, " Hector says. " One area
that has shown improvement is between
the different players in the fabric
architecture field, especially between
the designers and the fabricators. In the
number of years I've been in the fabric
structure field, the number of companies
and individuals working in this area has
grown significantly but not as much as
we may have hoped back in the 1970s.
It was very exciting at the time and the
potential since then has been explored
greatly, but there still needs to be more.
However, both sides need to learn more
from each other. For instance, there is a
huge difference in scale between a small
fabric structure-such as demountable
clearspan tents [as used for weddings
or events] and large-scale tensile
structures like major sports arenas and
stadia. This shows up dramatically in

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