Balustrade's & Bi-folds

The Gallery Apartments are a recent addition to Adelaide’s architectural landscape. Designed by Woodhead International in conjunction with Denton Corker Marshall Architects this new development is situated on the old Balfours Cake factory site, Morphett Street Adelaide.

The bold and colourful apartment block was designed to service the local student population providing modern and affordable living spaces for student accommodation. The development has seven levels with a number of SOHO apartments on the ground floor.

Street facing balconies were a key feature of the design, providing an extension of usable living space for apartment dwellers. “When you are dealing with relatively limited internal space, balconies are a fantastic way to extend the usable space of an apartment, they provide an opportunity for alfresco living and invite the outside in, improving light, ventilation and lifestyle”.

The project architect recognised the importance of balconies as a feature of the building design but also identified a number of specific challenges their inclusion would present. The building is located in Adelaide’s CBD, road noise would inevitably be a problem along with the potential for balconies to become dusty with street grit. There was also a specific desire to make the balcony spaces of each apartment usable regardless of weather ensuring additional usable space was available to tenants year round.

A balustrade system with an integrated bi-fold to create enclosed balconies was specified however architects were unable to find a system on the market which met their design and performance criteria. Harkk, a leading Australian supplier of balustrade systems was approached to provide a solution.

Principal designer for Harkk, David Adderton saw the opportunity to incorporate a top hung Aluminium bi-fold system above the Harkk balustrade and began working with AWS’s leading system designer David McCleary. In May 2008, after a series of meetings in Melbourne and Adelaide Harkk was successful in having the Rect 86 balustrade system with Elevate™ 411 bi-fold specified for The Gallery Apartments.

AWS had extensive involvement with Harkk in developing an adaptation of the Series 411 bi-fold to work above the Rect 86 system. A collaboration between Harkk, AWS and hardware supplier Centor enabled a high performance system capable of withstanding 200 + km/hr winds to be evolved. The Elevate™ 411 bi-fold system is top hung, load is supported at the head with custom designed stainless steel roller guides which guide the bi-fold panel along the balustrade system.

The designers requirements to minimise road noise were achieved, the closed bi-fold provides an excellent sound barrier, laminated glass has been used to improve acoustic performance. Dust and dirt entering the balcony is drastically reduced as the bi-fold system acts to enclose the space, this also enables the balcony to be used in bad weather.

More than 1.6km of Elevate™ Series 411 bi-folds are used throughout the Balfours site. The response to the inclusion of the system in the Gallery Apartment project has been extremely positive, tenants are impressed by the ease with which the bi-folds, some as wide as 8m can be opened to reveal uninterrupted views. The ability to utilise balcony spaces on cold windy days is a definite lifestyle bonus.