Tubular aluminium structures with printed stretch fabric for the Ontario Science Centre

What the job demanded

A science centre audience is close, curious and largely made up of children, which means graphics are handled rather than observed. Anything at low level will be leaned on, pushed and occasionally climbed, so hardware has to be blunt-edged, stable and free of pinch points, and the graphic surface has to tolerate fingerprints and cleaning without going patchy. Dwell time is the other difference. Visitors stand in front of an exhibit for minutes, not seconds, so print quality is inspected at conversation distance and any banding, seam or slack panel is fully visible. Long installations also mean the graphic will need refreshing before the structure does, so the two have to be genuinely separable rather than built as one object.

How it was produced

The skins were dye sublimated onto knitted stretch polyester. Under heat and pressure the disperse dye converts to gas and bonds inside the fibre, so the colour is part of the yarn rather than a film sitting on it. That is what makes the material practical for a public interior: it can be stretched, handled, wiped down and, if necessary, taken off and laundered without the print degrading. Patterns were developed from the tube geometry with a negative tolerance so the fabric goes on under tension and stays visually taut across curves and corners, and closures were sewn where they fall out of sightline. Procura tubular aluminium assembles on numbered push-fit connectors, so a skin can be removed and replaced later without dismantling the structure or ordering new hardware.