By William

We are a team of passionate designers who convey your architectural visions into reality, and nothing makes a designer’s satisfaction greater than seeing their own sketches come true in real life.

In this two-part series, we will showcase the workflow of our designers from the initial concept stage to the installation process through one of our renowned projects, the M3 Main Boulevard in Sunway Iskandar (Johor Bahru, Malaysia).  An ADAS® ETFE Skylight system which combines both single layer ETFE and ETFE cushion systems, the canopy serves and shelters the shophouse tenants and patrons from bad weather conditions.

Creating initial concepts

Sketch of the Tender Concept

It all starts with a design request in the form of either an architectural idea, a roofing enquiry or a tender request for a canopy structure. We then study the as-built layouts or the 3D visualisations to determine and identify the required coverage area/s before we doodle forms and shapes of canopies on our drawing papers. Then, we convert our conceptual sketches into 3D models, and superimpose the 3D content against the as-built drawings in relation to the surroundings, ensuring that the overall design fulfils the architect’s intent. Feasible Concepts are then presented to the client for approval.

Visualisation of Initial Concepts

Tender Proposal

Concept development with engineering

The next phase of the design process is the Concept Development stage, where we designers work along with our dedicated engineers to refine the structural integrity of the proposed structure. By providing a skeletal framework of the steel structure, the project can be imported into Windas®, our in-house formfinding and structural analysis software.

By taking into account the tensile properties of the membranes, in this case single layer ETFE and ETFE cushions, the forms and associated forces can be accurately modelled in a manner that cannot be achieved with 3D-modelling software alone. The designs will then be adapted and updated accordingly to these analyses in order to ensure the optimum solutions are achieved.

Analysis of structure and ETFE cushion in Windas®

To construct our specialised ADAS® structures, our design expertise and experience is paired with software capabilities such as in Rhinoceros 3D and Windas®. This enables us to translate our hand drawings into 3D models to aid us in the design process, from design visualisation and client presentations to fabrication and installation, which will be covered in Part 2.