A Google Cloud

Our partner, Duvall Design, recently engineered three hundred Tenara fabric panels for Google's Tech Corners campus expansion in Sunnyvale, CA.

Google's vision was a trellis to diffuse and scatter patterns of light, like sunlight passing through trees onto the ground. The design creates deep shade, yet does not darken the space. 

Because the project was to fit an existing steel structure, the fabric panels could not be identical. Nine panel shapes had to be connected in fourteen combinations. Duvall devised a folded, laser-cut stainless steel connecting hub which accommodated all combinations, using only two parts.

Tenara fabric, made from Teflon fiber by Sefar Architecture, is very strong and durable, with a twenty year life span. But its most complling feature is that it cleans itself. It also meets the engineering load requirements for pretension, which was critical for passing the California State inspection.