Modular tensile fabric ceiling system streamlines Dublin airport

Each year, 15 million passengers will traverse Dublin Airport’s Terminal 2 (T2), visiting Ireland’s capitol for tourism or business, and the Dublin Airport Authority wanted a striking modern statement in the T2 design. Architects Pascall + Watson of Dublin created an airy, modern space with a white ceiling, natural light, soaring fan-shaped vaults and 290,000 square feet of tensile fabric ceiling panels. Fabric Architecture, Gloucestershire, England, developed ArchiClad, a modular and flexible self-tensioning frame system, to meet the project’s unique requirements.

The tensioned panels had to be lightweight, easy to install and easy to remove for maintenance. The terminal’s main trusses articulate the geometry of the ceilings and are central to lighting and service access, so panels had to be offset from the trusses. Each panel had to be faceted on both its width and length to create the terminal’s organic shape. Fabric Architecture rose to the task, elevating the ceiling panels and the T2 space into an ultra-modern art gallery in which the traveler is sculpture.