Elegant balconies with added comfort

Balcony glazing on glass fence as an additional option

All of the Bernini Tower's glass balcony railings are made by FEK Metal. As a buyer's option, it makes floor-to-ceiling glass railings and sliding and pivoting balcony glazing to further close off the balconies. The wall railings in the stairwell also come from FEK Metaal.

FEK Metaal specializes in balcony and gallery railings, stair railings, balcony glazing and related products. This is all produced at its own production site in Waalwijk. The company became involved in Bernini's design as early as January 2022. According to account manager Thijs Schalken, this is because client Nederlandse Bouw Unie (NBU) knows that the company is actively thinking along. "We regularly work with NBU as a partner and they involved us in the process three years ago. For more than a year, we worked out the fencing step by step. We already make drawings for the quote and visualize what we come up with. This is how we arrive at the best solutions together."

Balcony open or closed

FEK Metal custom makes all fencing and balcony glazing in-house and also has a system that mounts on top of the fencing. This glass wall can rotate and slide open, giving residents the choice of an open or closed balcony. Says Schalken, "It provides additional comfort for the residents, and this also allows us to meet noise reduction requirements." Buyers of the homes within Bernini could choose whether or not they wanted this system. Ultimately, half of the homes will be fitted with it. This did raise some additional issues constructively, Schalken says. "Together with NBU, we came up with a construction that allowed the later application of the buyers' option. In fact, the buyers who chose this option were not notified until a later date. Because we paid joint attention to this at the front, we prevented running into new challenges later in the process. Now we can easily implement this."

Good foundation

Fence assembly will start in October and production will start four months in advance. Should there be any changes, there is plenty of time to make them. Everything will be delivered and assembled on site just-in-time. Schalken: "There is little space on the construction site and we cannot store our products there. Just-in-time delivery is no stranger to us. We make sure the right fence is in the right place at the right time." Cooperation with NBU has been absolutely fine. "We successfully realized the Bramante tower near Bernini. After a good run, we are involved at Bernini. We have a good basis to continue working together in the future," Schalken said.