Orchard Road in Singapore is the main thoroughfare of this City State. Rivalling Rodeo Drive as a retail nirvana, Ngee Ann City is its focal point, a modern shopping plaza filled by the world’s leading designer brands. It was also the site chosen by one of the most highly respected amongst them - Chanel - to launch its new collection to the Far-Eastern world.

One major problem though. Being the tropics, most afternoons the plaza is deluged by rain of unbelievable ferocity - not the ideal environment then for a fashion show. Which is why event producers Faber Image, and particularly director Robert Seah, began to give this conundrum some serious thought. "This was to be a big show, a reception followed by the fashion parade for a seated audience of almost 1,000. We needed a large, flexible structure, at least 40 by 20 metres, and it needed to be elegant as befits our client."

Step forward Winston Goh of Total Fabrications Ltd (TFL). He, together with TFL’s technical director Peter Hind, put forward a system based on the company’s award-winning safety truss, T2. "Seah immediately saw the advantages," said Hind. "As a major player in the world of corporate presentation, Faber Image would be in possession of an eight-mast tower system and substantial quantities of the safest truss available." There were other benefits for Faber Image: the structure is designed to be free standing and is still rated for 25 m/s winds and a four-tonne payload. Thanks to its design, it can easily be split into two separate, fully-enclosed units, and it requires no cranes or heavy lifting gear to put it up.

Much to Chanel’s delight, the structure itself attracted great attention when it was first taken to its full 8.5m trim. For Faber, the benefits are only just beginning: TFL’s Chris Higgs is to run a training programme for the company, thereafter expect to see Tower and T2 combinations at major corporate events all over Singapore.


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