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GuildWorks gives a California park its first shade

March 1, 2025  |  Features

River Park in Petaluma, Calif., is transforming. Its inaugural structure is the peninsula’s first shaded area—there aren’t even any trees—underneath a shade sail array composed of diamond shapes and providing a covered area more than 70 feet in diameter. It rises 20 feet and was created by G…
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Blue and green roofs use many kinds of geosynthetics

March 1, 2025  |  Features

In the global push to lower buildings’ carbon footprint and energy and water use, some look to blue and green roof construction. These roofs can help combat urban environmental challenges such as the heat island effect and rapid inundation of sewer systems from stormwater and are a small but growi…
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Awning business succession: An in-and-out approach

March 1, 2025  |  Features

The awning business offers enough challenges to keep you growing, consistency you can plan around, and is rewarding enough to keep you fulfilled.
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Australia’s Wangun Amphitheater honors cultures

February 1, 2025  |  Features

Fabric architecture includes innumerable possibilities with shape and form, which can result in imbuing even an amphitheater with rich cultural symbolism. Wangun Amphitheatre in Kalimna West, Australia, commissioned by the Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (GLaWAC), is such a place.…
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Indoor shade trends: Regulations, automation and more

February 1, 2025  |  Features

New regulations are affecting shade products, but that’s not the only thing going on in this market. Changes in motorization, the way products are used for light control, available color options and demand for sustainabilityare all happening too.
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New Zealand backyard shade sail solution

February 1, 2025  |  Features

The clients for this project asked for a shade sail to cover their north-west facing courtyard. The solution from SunCraft NZ, Ltd., won an Award of Excellence in the Commercial Awnings & Canopies category of the 2024 Advanced Textiles Association International Achievement Awards.
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Fabric skin completely transforms riverboat casino

January 1, 2025  |  Features

Calling it “a complete overhaul” doesn’t even begin to describe the transformation of the Bally’s riverboat casino in Kansas City, Mo., done by Structurflex of Merriam, Kan., with the FlexFacades cladding system. There’s nothing “old-timey riverboat” about the current look, although th…
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Covered rotunda offers comfort for medical center

January 1, 2025  |  Features

Tropical J’s, a Hawaii-based awning and canopy manufacturer, had completed an awning for the rear of the Straub's Medical Center during COVID. That project so impressed the CEO of the center that when it came time for another shade project, he asked his facilities manager to reach out to them agai…
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Textiles combat noise pollution

December 1, 2024  |  Features

In August, Hollywood Park, adjacent to the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., hosted the HARD Summer music festival, a two-day celebration of genres including electronic, techno, house, and drum and bass. The venue included four outdoor stages in the parking lots around the stadium, drawing more tha…
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Robotics plus ETFE fabric architecture in a Chinese building

December 1, 2024  |  Features

When you think of robotics, architecture probably is not what first comes to mind. But design company line+, of Hangzhou, China, partnered with robotics systems company RoboticPlus.AI to create a dynamic building like no other.
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