Wedding Canopy

This project is a canopy for an outdoor wedding ceremony. The roof was botanically inspired; its pleats are like the leaf of a fan palm. The idea was that the pleated roof would be stiff enough to span without additional rafters. The leaves, made of thin plywood, twist along their length. At the center they are vertical and at the perimeter, they are folded out to make a flat angle. Thin plywood, if bent in two directions, becomes very strong, like an eggshell. The 'leaves' are connected in a hinged way so that the roof can be folded up like an umbrella to transport it in the back of a car. The leaves are stitched along their top edges and along their bottom edges to form groups of three. They are then pulled down onto the ring beam with a rope from the apex of each leaf ridge, through a hole drilled in the ring beam, and tied off with a couple of turns and a clove hitch. The teak oil finish on the birch plywood gives a nice golden glow. The supporting legs are made of steel fence posts and cedar rails braced with thin stainless steel wire. Diameter is about ten feet.