Location: Gauteng · System: Architectural Pergola — open slat
The brief
A white double-storey with an outdoor kitchen at one end of a large paved terrace and a first-floor balcony over part of it. The terrace worked, but the stretch of paving in front of the covered patio was open to the sky with nothing over it.
Nothing here is asking for weather cover. The job is to define the seating area and break up the hard midday light.
What we built
An aluminium pergola in a dark bronze finish, built from rectangular box-section slats carried on a beam frame and slim posts, spanning the seating end of the terrace and running back to the edge of the balcony above.
The slats are fixed and evenly spaced. They cast a moving pattern across the paving through the day, take the edge off overhead sun, and leave the terrace entirely open to the sky and to rain — which is what a pergola is for.
The system itself is set out under our full awning range, and the gallery has more of it.
Aluminium instead of timber
Traditionally this is a timber structure, and timber is the reason so many pergolas look tired after five summers. Highveld sun and afternoon storms are hard on softwood, and a pergola is the worst possible shape to maintain: every slat has four faces and all of them are above head height.
Powder-coated aluminium removes the maintenance entirely. It also allows slimmer sections, because it is doing the same job with a stronger material.
The specification behind it
- Aluminium pergola with fixed rectangular box-section slats, dark bronze finish
- Beam frame on slim posts, the slat ends landing on the edge of the existing balcony slab
- Open to the sky — no sheeting, no gutter
- Powder-coated finish; no sealing, staining or annual maintenance
- 15-year guarantee on aluminium
Pergola, awning or louvre roof?
The three get used interchangeably and they are not the same thing. A pergola breaks sun and defines space, and lets rain straight through. An awning is a solid roof: full shade, full weather cover, no adjustment. A louvre roof is the adjustable version of an awning — open like a pergola, closed like a roof.
If you want to sit outside in a thunderstorm, you want one of the last two. If you want the terrace to feel like a room without being one, a pergola is the right instrument.
If you’re considering the same
Be clear with yourself about rain before you choose. A pergola is the more beautiful structure and the one most likely to disappoint if what you actually wanted was cover.
If you want the adjustable version, look at louvre awnings.
