One of the oldest inventions of mankind, the appearance of which is due to the acute vital need to protect oneself and one's home from the sun or bad weather, is an awning or canopy. The very first primitive constructions appeared in ancient times, when a person, building a dwelling, wrapped a wooden frame with animal skins or cloth. Remember, for example, Bedouin tents, Mongolian yurts, Indian tepees and other types of portable housing of nomadic peoples.
The principle of construction of awnings has remained the same for many thousands of years
Over time, the range of their use only expanded — canopies over household buildings, luxurious canopies for nobles and kings, tents of all kinds, trade stands, circus tents, military camps and current camps for refugees, tent pavilions in gardens and parks, exhibition spaces and sports facilities, hangars for military and other equipment, places for public gatherings and recreation — and this is far from a complete list.
By the way, the Colosseum is considered the first large-scale use of tent structures. Plyny the Elder wrote that "nothing in Rome, not even a gladiatorial fight, was as surprising as the gigantic tent stretched over the Coliseum." This was a retractable fabric tent-canopy - a velarium, which was supported on masts above its amphitheater. It is interesting that savvy sailors were among the first to use awnings in a professional environment. Brockhaus and Efron write this in their dictionary: "Awning is a canvas or canvas over the deck of a ship for protection from the sun or rain." After many thousands of years, tent structures have not lost their relevance. Yes, the materials have changed, they have turned into whole high-tech systems, but their main principle has remained unchanged: it is a rigid frame covered with a flexible material. In addition to the purely practical purpose, modern variations of awnings have another function — providing comfort during outdoor recreation, be it a patio, garden, terrace of a city institution or the deck of a pleasure yacht.
Awning structures have left and continue to leave a tangible mark even in large, serious architecture. This is due to the 40th winner of the Pritzker Prize, the German architect Otto Frei. The focus of his interests has always been temporary structures made of light materials, perhaps because of the heavy military past, when such structures literally became a way to survive. The consequence of this was the creation of tent and membrane structures: it is Fry who is considered their author. He made giant shells, tents, if desired, tents - from canvas, polyvinyl chloride, plastic. And he approached it with German pedantry, clearly classifying his works into awnings, nets, umbrellas, domes, inflatable and complex structures, and carefully studying and examining each of these "subspecies" from the point of view of the tested materials.
With the light hand of the German architect Otto Frei, awning structures firmly entered the larger architecture
However, behind such a serious technical approach is hidden an acute desire, literally an existential necessity to be freed from everything monumental, oppressive, pathetic, burdensome — to return, at least in part, to a simple paradigm of existence: a woven canopy over the head of a nomad, when architecture is unable to dictate the way of life. The desire is so familiar to the generations who survived the war, when people strive for the lightness of life, ephemerality, and the main task is not to harm the peace with their existence, therefore the key principle of Fry's designs is to leave no traces in the place where they stood.
His first significant project was three pavilions for a garden exhibition in Kassel in 1955, and world fame came to Fry after the construction of the FRG pavilion at EXPO 1967 in Montreal. The main work in his life was the 1972 Olympics in Munich, the same one where the Palestinians captured and then destroyed the Israeli national team. In 1980, he made the Tuwaiq Palace tent for the Saudis in Riyadh, in 2000 - the Japanese pavilion for the international EXPO in Hanover, and this is the last known work of this architect. However, Fry's "tent cities" and his engineering and design ideas gave rise to a whole direction - awning architecture - and found their continuation in the works of whole generations of colleagues, such as Nicholas Grimshaw, Peter Cook, Richard Rogers, Norman Foster, Michael Hopkins, Renzo Piano, Shigeru Ban, as well as European and transnational architectural and construction firms, including Ove Arup & Partners, Omrania Architects, Planners and Engineers, HOK International, Taiyo Kogio Corporation, Sturchio Architects & Designers.
For example, the Japanese Shigeru Ban, who collaborated with Otto Fry on the creation of the Japan Pavilion for EXPO 2000, covered the branch building of the Center Georges Pompidou in Metz, completed in 2010, with a curvilinear structure of the awning type, and Santiago Calatrava, working on the expansion and reconstruction of the international airport in Denver , covered the main terminal, which bears the name of the aviation pioneer American pilot Elra Borg Jeppesen, with a multi-part awning roof. And in the work of the outstanding architect and designer of the XNUMXth century, a Finn by origin, Eero Saarinen, there is a worthy example: a construction with an original tent covering is the hockey ice arena of David S. Ingalls (aka the "Yale Whale") at Yale University, the architect's alma mater .
Among the fresh ideas of the large-scale application of awning structures is the project of the central quarter of the new district of Aljad for 70 square meters. a man in the Emirate of Sharjah in the UAE, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. This is a huge area of 220 hectares, which by 2025 is planned to be built with housing, offices, various infrastructure and recreation facilities. From the central observation tower, public squares with pools and awnings will diverge, which will create a comfortable microclimate primarily for pedestrians, as well as optimal conditions for landscaping (for this purpose, they plan to use local flora, as well as "recycled" and "reclaimed" water ).
If we talk about awning canopies as a tool for sun protection, then from a constructive point of view, their main advantage is the absence of massive horizontal load-bearing elements, which allows them to look extremely light, practically weightless. And if earlier such systems could only be installed stationary, which required special preparation and did not allow changing the general appearance, modern technologies have made the task much easier. Moreover, their management is becoming more and more automatic and can be easily integrated into the "smart home" system.
The most simple and easy-to-operate version of the modern type of canopies are free-standing tension awnings or sun protection sails. They are of several types. For example, retractable solar protection sails, consisting of two sections, when the one located across the beam stretches triangular sections of cloth, resembling wings in shape, in both directions. Or a simple structure made of tension cables, canvas and three or four supports.
In addition to the purely practical purpose, modern variations of awnings have another function — providing comfort during outdoor recreation
There are also variants of sails built into the wall, when the wide side of the canvas is mounted like an ordinary cassette awning and, if necessary, is removed or pulled back onto the mast. This type is preferable for smaller spaces and does not require any cross beams. In general, it was established that sails block up to 97% of UV rays, and the temperature under them is 5-10 °C lower.
In Ukraine, the company is a leading specialist in the field of outdoor sun protection systems MANEZH. The range of products developed by it includes not only canopies for open spaces, but also sun protection canopies for houses. They are attractive, first of all, for their ease of use: they are instantly opened to their original position and just as quickly removed if, say, you want to go out in the sun or there is a need to free up space for other purposes.
The most simple and easy-to-operate version of the modern type of canopies are free-standing tension awnings or sails
Similar systems protect not only from sunlight, but also from insects, wind, rain and even hail. Moreover, the MANEZH product range includes shade canopies for gardens, allotments and summer cottages. Experts have estimated, for example, that the increase in productivity under awnings is up to 50%, and the consumption of water and fertilizer is significantly reduced. In addition, they can be used to cover almost everything, from barbecue areas and playgrounds to cars.
One of the most affordable and effective ways of shading open spaces is the GLORIA tension awning system produced by the MANEZH company. It is installed stationary and is intended for protection from the sun of outdoor areas of cafes, restaurants, hotels, terraces of private houses, and swimming pools.
GLORIA is a stylish free-standing tent structure that allows you to cover up to 30 square meters at once. m. Its advantage is also that it is possible to create a whole complex with common racks from such sun protection sails, which will allow you to cover a much larger area, as well as solve a number of additional tasks in arranging any area in the open air, regardless of its specific purpose. In other words, the model can be easily adapted individually for each project.
It has been established that sunscreen sails block up to 97% of ultraviolet rays, and the temperature under them is 5-10 °C lower
A convenient system of manual tensioning of the fabric makes it easy and quick to install and dismantle the awning. For uniform tension of the material, a simple and quick adjustment of the angle of inclination of the awning is used with the help of a special handle. An additional cable around the perimeter guarantees uniform tension, which provides an aesthetically attractive appearance of the system. As a rule, a triangular or tetragonal canvas is used for the sail itself.
The main feature of the GLORIA tent system from MANEZH is the use of a special Australian-made Tent Mesh fabric. It has high resistance to UV rays, so its main purpose is protection from the sun. Depending on the color, this material transmits from 4 to 23% of visible light and from 2 to 9% of UV rays. Thanks to its durable fine-mesh structure, Tent Mesh creates light diffused light. In addition, it is wear-resistant, durable, resistant to natural pollution, mold and rot, which means that it is simple and easy to care for. Another significant plus is that the blown structure of the fabric allows the GLORIA system to withstand high wind loads — 7 points on the Beaufort scale (51-61 km/h).