Enclosing the balcony

Type 5: 1960-2000

The industrialised apartment building often has a longitudinal facade with internal balconies, meaning that the balcony front sections visually make up the building’s actual facade. The balcony serves as both an escape route and an opportunity for the residents/users of the building to experience outdoor life in the vicinity of the dwelling, without this being too weather dependent.

As improvements in outdoor areas and communal living spaces take place in line with increasing demands for more space inside the modern residence, enclosed balconies are becoming increasingly important as living spaces proper. Very often, the first stage in this process is to install glass sections that shut the balcony off from the wind and rain and which can partly serve as passive solar heaters for the balcony space. The use of transparent glass means that the building’s original expression and the availability of natural light to the dwelling behind will be preserved to some extent, but from an energy perspective, including the balcony in the actual living space is often problematic, because the balcony guards and enclosures are not designed as weather screens against heat loss.

The enclosing of balconies is normally unproblematic from a technical point of view, but architecturally must be done with care. In terms of energy conservation, residents will usually be given thorough instructions not to treat the balcony as a heated living space.

Fotos: Bygherreforeningen/Graves Simonsen