IT'S Cover Architecture

IT'S Cover Architecture deals with the manufacture of all buildings that use the membrane as protective wrap system. Membrane represents an alternative solution to traditional materials that abandons the gravity effect given by the flexural regime to embrace a project governance operating with the logic of membrane structures in which the link between structure and architecture is implicitly commanded by the balance of the building.

We would like to emphasize the idea of “conceptual alternative” as the membrane allows eclectic and cloying shapes towards elegance and

visual impact: its translucency lightens the internal volume, optimizing sunlight and, last but not least, endorsing the covering/housing of very large spaces without intermediate support structures. Membrane structures are lightweight thus sustainable given that most of the materials are recyclable, with low construction and maintenance costs and an average life which can reach 30 years.

We believe building with membranes is a concept, not an alternative.

Many existing types and the infinite solutions based on a specific archetype justify the impossibility of creating a heterogeneous and functional grouping, but it is essential to underline the pre-stress as the common characteristic of all types of tensile structures using membrane. The equilibrium of a tensile structures requires a hyperbolic geometry surface, that it must naturally be a "curve", without load and deformed too. The double curvature used in the membrane tensile structures, consisting of a thin textile material, is the result of a minimal synthesis between material and tensions, which allows the designer an expressive freedom that is all the more eclectic the more he has metabolized this technology.

To use the textile membranes as a covering element, pre-stress and a stabilizing three-dimensional shape are required, which is obtained with a double-curved surface. Both features ensure that the membrane is able to withstand all external loads while transmitting only tensile stresses. The curvature can be anticlastic (membrane stress obtained mechanically as in saddle-shaped structures) o synclastic (membrane stress obtained pneumatically by pumping air into the internal volume such as airdome structures, cushions or inflated beams).

The most common characteristic configuration of a tensile structure is formed by load-bearing elements usually in concrete, wood or metal to make up the primary structure and by a membrane that represents the secondary structure that reacts to the stresses of external loads by deforming, inducing tensile stresses to the primary structure . The transmission of tensile stresses to the primary structure is a very important concept that is always present to keep the membrane's own “shape” even without any external load and is the salient feature that differentiates tensile structures from traditional structures. Contrary to traditional structures, the “shape” of a textile membrane must be found in the first phase of the project and represents a balance surface between the geometry of the edges and the level of tension in the membrane that satisfies aesthetic, structural and maintenance requirements.

The following phases in the design process of tensile structures are the static analysis of the system to size the various elements and the study of the cutting pattern for the preparation of the membrane slits for the subsequent manufacturing of the membranes to form the covering envelope. Another fundamental aspect for the use of membranes is the compensation coefficient which represents a reduction of the geometrically designed dimensions in order to obtain the design pre-stress once the membrane is elongated during installation. The goal of the cutting pattern and the skill of a manufacturing company is to obtain the theoretical form at the end of the installation while keeping the design pre-stress.

The design activities of a tensile structure can be schematized by separating them into well-defined activities with a preparatory course that figure out the entire process, but it must not deceive, because if it is true that the previous activities are necessary to carry out the subsequent ones, the entire cycle is the sum of an iterative process implemented until an acceptable mathematical approximation is reached.