Sectors
ETFE canopies for leisure, retail and public realm
Covering a public space is a balancing act: people want shelter, but the moment a space feels enclosed and dim they stop treating it as outdoors.
ETFE keeps the outdoor feeling under cover. The foil is highly translucent, so a covered market or dining terrace stays bright and connected to the sky, and the curved, tubular and freeform shapes that make a canopy a landmark are straightforward to build in foil.
In pools and malls, ETFE's acoustic liveliness is a feature rather than a fault: the buzz of a busy space and the reverberation of water are part of the atmosphere clients ask for. It is also unaffected by chlorine and humidity in a way many roof materials are not.
The Canteen on Greenwich Peninsula is the example here — a tubular ETFE and steel canopy over an outdoor market and dining space that works year-round without feeling indoors.
- Outdoors under cover
- High light transmission keeps spaces feeling open.
- Landmark geometry
- Tubes, curves and freeform shapes at sensible cost.
- Pool and humidity tolerant
- Unaffected by chlorine, condensation and UV.
Projects in this sector
