Form follows function: profile series extensively deployable

In our contemporary architecture, architects are often looking for facade accents that make a building unique. This adds a certain statement to a building or gives it a unique look. But today, it is possible to extend that accent on the facade that gives the building a piece of personality. ALINEL's system, originally designed as façade cladding, can be used for multiple applications. This gives architects unprecedented opportunities to work with the system's building blocks and extend the creativity in their designs to include, for example, front doors, garden elements and mailboxes.

Speaking is Jan de Paepe, owner of ALINEL: "Whether it's a gate, front door or mailbox, more and more often the question is how the function can be filled in as minimally as possible. The function disappears into the form, so to speak." ALINEL is always looking for a perfectly integrated way of both creating a functional design. Without losing, or even improving, the functional objectives.

Garden closet wall.

Eye for detail

"Our patented ALINEL total system is designed for cladding virtually every conceivable surface," continues De Paepe. "All our systems can be mounted seamlessly and in the same plane on both facade and door or gate. Thanks to the clever way in which the profiles are invisibly attached and slide into each other in an inventive way, they adapt to any surface. With great attention to detail, such as in corners and at closures. And speaking of details, ALINEL facade cladding can be finished down to the smallest detail. Elements such as intercoms, sockets, transparency, or LED lighting can be integrated without any problems."

Letterbox wall with house number.

Letterbox walls

De Paepe cites a great example where the facade design extends to the driveway: "Our mailbox walls. A nice product that appeals to many people. The mailbox walls give a new dimension to the driveway and combine form with function. The wall obviously has a mailbox but can also be fitted with a house number, a parcel hatch and much more." ALINEL offers standard mailbox walls per linear meter, but again, a wall can be fully customized.

Legion of possibilities

"Meanwhile, we are already thinking beyond mailboxes," says De Paepe. "For example, we are now working on garden cabinets." A beautiful architectural element in the garden, in the same style as the facade or mailbox wall, where garden cushions, small tools or other items can be stored. "The possibilities are endless," De Paepe concludes. From January 2020, ALINEL will launch an EBD (E-Business) platform, and from the second quarter of 2020, people will be able to use that platform to create their own complete composition online. "Until then, self-composition is of course also possible and documentation can be requested from us." He concludes, "With the expansion of the ALINEL range with these ready-to-install high-quality products, we remain in the ideology of the house where architectural elements can be applied not only on the façade but also independently in style with the rest of the house."