Innovative balcony glazing saves construction costs

'New modular system offers solution for noise and ventilation'

Because of the scarcity of building land, more and more apartment buildings are being built in the Netherlands, often in locations with high noise levels. In addition to complying with the Noise Pollution Act, balconies built here must meet strict ventilation requirements. Solarlux Nederland's new balcony glazing systems Proline T and Proline T Mega offer a suitable solution for this.

According to André Jansen, account manager at Solarlux Nederland, the building industry in the Netherlands is facing a gigantic challenge. "There is a shortage of 300,000 homes, but at the same time the laws and regulations are getting stricter. Everything is under pressure, think of prices in the construction industry, shortage of skilled labor, but also a shortage of administrative capacity at municipalities which means that permit applications often take forever. Due to a shortage of building land, more and more high-rise buildings are being built. This automatically obliges every apartment to have an outdoor space in the form of a balcony. These apartments are mostly located in inner-city areas with high noise levels. Solarlux has developed a new balcony glazing system especially for this purpose: the Proline T and the Proline T Mega, the successor to our renowned system SL25 and SL25 XXL."

High sound insulation value

With the new Proline series, Solarlux is responding, among other things, to the desire of architects to make profiles of a balcony glazing system as narrow as possible. 

"The fragile profiles of the Proline series provide not only an aesthetically pleasing appearance, but also optimal daylighting," says Jansen. 

"Despite those narrow profiles, with this innovative balcony glazing system there is the possibility to apply sashes from as much as 1 meter wide to 3 meters high. Also, heavier glass than before can be used with the Proline T, namely from 6 to 12 mm.
With the Proline T Mega, even a tempered pane of 12 mm to as much as 18 mm is possible, fitted with four sound-insulating films. This achieves a significantly higher sound insulation value than existing renowned balcony glazing systems. Thanks to this glass thickness glass, the Proline series is also ideally suited for buildings with high wind loads, such as in coastal areas."

Modular system

Jansen emphasizes that a balcony always adds value to your apartment anyway. "Living comfort is significantly increased by it. If you put a glass screen around it, then with the sun shining on it in the morning and with an outside temperature around freezing, it quickly becomes 20 to 25 degrees on your balcony. Lovely isn't it?" 

But in construction practice, it often proves difficult to make a balcony meet both the strict requirements of the Noise Abatement Act and the ventilation requirements in accordance with the Building Code."

For example, to properly comply with official ventilation requirements, a balcony may not be completely enclosed. However, this in turn compromises noise requirements. The result is a continuous field of tension between ventilation and soundproofing," Jansen clarifies. "With the new Proline series, we have come up with a solution to this in the form of a modular system. This is because we offer the parapet in combination with a permanent ventilation grille that also blocks noise. This ventilation grille ensures that even when it is closed - i.e., when the swing-open system is not open - fresh air of outside quality can still enter the balcony, at the same time keeping out noise. Not for nothing has this modular system already been used in several renowned projects, including The Valley, the iconic residential and office tower on the Zuidas in Amsterdam."

Saving on construction costs

Another big advantage of the innovative Proline series, according to Jansen, is that it allows substantial savings on construction costs. "Partly due to the purchase of computer-controlled machines, Solarlux is able to produce ever more efficiently, resulting in shorter delivery times and a favorable price. Moreover, thanks to the modular system, where the system is already pre-assembled in the workshop, assembly and installation costs are reduced. An additional advantage of such a prefabricated system is that it ensures far fewer transport movements to the construction site, with fewer CO2 emissions," he concludes.