Folded Entrance Canopy

Karen Eichler, art consultant, submitted a proposal for the project in 2017. The original submission included inspiration from the creek that runs under the building. DEKA wanted to bring that flow of water above ground into the design for the piece. The design had to be reconsidered because the space for a Bocce ball court was added and the canopy footprint needed to be reduced.The resin panel deletion pattern matches the ground’s tile design, and the green color matches the balconies and other building design aspects.

Three facets were creased and folded to create the canopy’s point, which reaches out. Usually, something is “clad” on the outside, yet in this structure, everything is hanging on the inside of the canopy. When inside the canopy, you see mostly the resin panels, but from the outside you see the full structural design. Three triangles are the primary structure with bracing. Most would use “pig-noses” point supports for the resin panels— We supported everything along the long edges. By doing this, we created continuous support strips rather than various points of support, which allowed for greater spans.

The original design involved the idea of a flowing glass stream used to catch falling rainwater. The rainfall would be channeled into the exposed underground creek beneath the building.

FFold Canopy was going to be made with clear glass panels which would give cover for the entrance.

The new idea came for the canopy because of the KODA XT panels and the canopy’s angle.

3Form’s KODA XT are the resin panels used in the FFold Canopy. Installment of an adjacent Bocce ball court to the canopy required a reduction of obtuse angle support. Angles and negative space were used throughout the finished canopy. The purpose was to play with the folding of the original design. Charles Irby of DEKA scripted a program to provide varying degrees of panel coverage using a slide bar that gave not only the overage/negative space, but also the cost. This allowed for a balanced and elegant solution to the engineering, cost, and artistic aspects of the project.

No pig-nose point supports were used for this project, which are common in the industry. The secondary structure would have been incredibly dense and heavy if pig-nose point supports had been implemented in this design. Our secondary structure holds the resin panels in place. The primary structure would be heavier because of the weight created by the secondary structure. This would have made it difficult to install the FFold Canopy.

We were able to lighten the canopy using the continuous strip supports on the secondary structure and by intersecting them along the edges of various supporting points on the primary structure. The secondary structure is made of aluminum to reduce weight.

Building owners also wanted the color of the canopy panels to be the same as the preexisting green panels used on the building.

Green KODA XT panels were used to pick up the already used green KODA XT panels in the building façade.

DEKA decided not to make this an orthogonal piece, which made the construction more complex, and time spent on this project more than otherwise originally planned.