We’re not masters of the bespoke. Plain and simple. That’s not to say your balcony cannot be unique, nor that we don’t provide customised products for every project that we work on – it’s to say bespoke, one-off, or luxury just aren’t words in our vocabulary. We, with the help of our dedicated design team and accredited installers, work with a custom modular model to keep our products rigid, ready, and right, never compromising on quality.
So, with that in mind, why should modular design be considered the way forward? Why aren’t we masters of the bespoke?
Whilst it may be tempting to create a bespoke metalwork design and speak to a metal fabricator to manufacture your balcony, it’s worth considering the drawbacks. Firstly, the design hours spent on a luxury piece of metalwork will be drastically higher as each element of the balcony will need to be considered from scratch. Furthermore, if the design isn’t repeatable, these design hours (and therefore the cost of the project) will increase further. Multiply these costs by the price of the variety of materials used and it’s easy to understand why bespoke design is a luxury.
Conversely, the benefits of custom modular design are huge. By choosing from a variety of select options on offer, we’re able to reduce the total design hours, manufacturing costs and ultimately, the cost of the project. We also aim to keep project designs repeatable, meaning not just uniform design across the external envelope, but an even further reduction in overheads. Finally, through modular design, we can accurately control the quality of every balcony leaving our factories using our Passport system.
Just like buying from a car showroom, we offer custom options across our balcony and balcony balustrades. Bespoke design would be like trying to make design choices on the chassis of your car. We’ve already sorted the chassis (the Cassette®), and the engine (the Glide-On™ system) – all you need to do is decide how to customise the balcony to your liking.
Each of our options can be customised to your liking. We offer several types of non-combustible decking through our partner MyDek, as well as balconies and balustrades in any RAL palette colour. Should you want a baby blue vertical bar balustrade, we have the customisation options available for you to request it through COACH – what isn’t needed is the redesign of the bar profiles every time.
At Sapphire, standardisation doesn’t mean sacrificing choice. Our approach to modular balcony design provides flexibility within a proven system, allowing project teams to explore different configurations without requiring every balcony to become a bespoke design.
Our Balcony Visualiser and Configurator make it easier to explore the options available and see how different design choices could work for your project. From balcony size and layout to balustrade and other design options, you can begin shaping a solution around the needs and character of your scheme.
This approach allows greater consideration to be given to standardising balcony types and sizes across a development, rather than introducing unnecessary one-off designs. By defining the right repeatable configurations early, projects can retain architectural variety while benefiting from a more streamlined approach to balcony design.
Our specialism is customisable modular balcony design. It combines the flexibility architects and developers need with the advantages of a system that has been designed for repeatability, quality and efficient delivery.
That is why we say we’re not masters of the bespoke. A balcony shouldn’t need to be completely reinvented for every project to suit its architecture. Instead, we focus on providing a flexible system that can be configured around the needs of the building and the people who will ultimately use it.
Take a look at our Balcony Visualiser and Configurator to start shaping your balcony design.
Think about the five key considerations in balcony design here: /five-key-considerations-for-balcony-design/
