Threshold and transition
Balcony
housingapartment buildinghotelhospital
It is a platform that projects from the facade at an upper floor, protected by a railing or a timber enclosure.
What it solves
It brings the interior out into the air of the street and lets you see without going out. Well roofed, it shades the window below and ventilates the room.
Today
Give it a useful depth for sitting, a roof or eave to protect it and a safe railing that lets the breeze through.
Common mistake
Making a balcony so narrow that no one uses it and it only serves for hanging laundry.
Tomorrow
In tall buildings a balcony with pots of native plants can be a stopover for hummingbirds and butterflies. It is also a cool refuge when the power goes out.
Where it comes from
- 1Islamic world Egypt, around the 12th century
The mashrabiya enclosed the balcony with timber lattices that give shade and ventilate. - 2Viceregal Lima Peru, 16th to 19th centuries
The box balconies of Mudéjar origin made it possible to watch the street without being seen and provided shade and air.
Masters
- Alvar Aalto Paimio Sanatorium, Paimio, Finland, 1933
He adds sun balconies on each floor where patients could be wheeled out in their beds. He shows the balcony as a place of health with sun and fresh air.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Threshold and transition
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.