The purpose of the new shade structure at St. Mark’s School, Inala was to provide an effective shade system over the amphitheatre seating area without heavily impacting on the pedestrian pathways in the area. The challenge was to design a custom shade structure that would protect the area from sunlight and glare during school hours, while offering a full view of the cross from every seat in the theatre.

The footings and the frame connection details required significant input from Global Membrane Designs (GMD), specialist engineers in the field of tension membranes. Shallow plastic sewer pipes were located at almost every point where the footings were due to be placed and as a result, most of the post holes had to be dug by hand. To accommodate the sewer pipes, the footings were changed to bridged pier footings which required large reinforced cages and considerably more concrete than had originally been ordered.

Once the footing challenges had been overcome, the prefabricated frame was installed in one day as the posts, members and connections fitted together comfortably. The shade fabric covers were also patterned by GMD which enabled us to fabricate the shade cloth tops before the structure was assembled. The fabric used in this project is the Australian made Monotec 370 shade cloth in 'Koonungra Green'.