High real estate costs and lack of vacant land in our cities has led to the growth of ‘vertical schools’ – multi-level buildings that extend upwards rather than outwards. In turn, this has led to the rise of rooftop sports courts – ballgame facilities built on top of a building.
In such situations, safety must be addressed and maintained, along with practical issues such the impact of crowds and vigorous sports activities.
Stainless steel Webnet mesh is ideal for sports courts in general. The material absorbs noise, is resistant to UV degradation, is very low-maintenance, and has sufficient strength to withstand the impact of hard-hitting balls and large crowds.
Webnet’s transparency ensures clear sightlines across the facility, and helps to create connection point between a sporting enclosure to its surrounding landscape. It can also be made more rigid or more flexible according to need, and can be used to create ball-stop nets and ball catchers as well as enclosure fences.
But for rooftop sports courts it also shines in its ability to maximise fall protection and to meet stringent safety codes and standards. In that sense (and others!) it is a truly versatile and multi-purpose material.
Here are some project examples.
Inner Sydney High School
Inner Sydney High is a high-rise school that used Webnet extensively to address fall protection while maintaining views across the city. This includes seven levels of outdoor terraces that have been covered in full-length nets.
Applying the mesh for the rooftop basketball court for the school came with some challenges. For example, mesh was needed for the walls and overhead, and it had to be able to span across 26 metres without any existing support. It also needed to be light and near transparent in appearance to complement the building’s architectural design.
At Tensile, we always endeavour to find solutions for challenges that come our way! To solve this one, we drew on the expertise of our team to create a unique post-and-cable design and fabrication to support the Webnet.
The finished result is a screen that might look light and elegant but is in fact extremely robust – features that Webnet excels in.
Chatswood Public School
Similar to Inner Sydney High, this school has Webnet barriers distributed throughout to fulfil safety requirements while maintaining transparency.
Part of the brief was to build the rooftop sports enclosure. We used a blend of aperture sizes for the mesh – 40mm lower down to prevent climbing and 80mm mesh above the non-climbability section in a continuous sheet. This approach helped to reduce materials costs for our client.
It also demonstrates the versatility of Webnet – in the way it can be customised in terms of span and aperture size. Other ways Webnet can be customised include in terms of wire-rope diameter, wire configurations and colour.
Get in touch with us about rooftop sports courts
If you would like to know more about the use of Webnet for rooftop sports courts, or you already have a project idea to discuss, call us today!
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