Clearly this is a retro-fit solutions. Sure, a bespoke balcony would be better - but those are built during construction. As far as some of the other valid objections that have been raised I would point at that while BB has just discovered this item, it has been around a long time. A couple of points about its use in the Beijing ad - that must be CGI - it would have taken forever to wait for a clear day to film that ad. The air is often so despicable that relaxing on the balcony is exactly the last place I would want to be. Also, typically in Asian construction the buildings are framed in concrete and the external apartment walls are bricked in and stuccoed. Building one of these windows into anything other than the structural concrete would be fraught with danger - and then still maybe.
I guess the problem is: what happens in 10+ years after installation. You’ve bought the apartment with it already installed. All documentation has gone missing. The warranty has expired. The company has gone out of business. It’s raining on a Sunday evening and the mechanism has just failed.
Having said that, it’s pretty frigging cool. I wouldn’t be worried about the “glass” floor. I bet it’s some polycarbonate composition that can hold thousands of pounds and resist huge amounts of impact force.
The bottom is literally the bottom half of the original window. So if it wasn’t glass you’d be talking about a much smaller window in the closed format.
A balcony is just a window shutter that folds down horizontally, right?
It’s not a structural part of the floor that has to be balanced over load-bearing pillars or anything
Man, I’ve seen this picture before, and all I can think is “how much does that water weigh…?”
I would walk away from that apartment and never ever return. Imagine if you got used to the idea of stepping out on to pure invisible nothingness. You might grow to like it, and then what?
i wondered the same thing back when i first saw this picture, so i did a rough calculation-
based on the height of the rail probably being around 36", i figure the balcony to be approximately 12’ long and 4’ deep. the water looks like it’s around 12-18" deep. water weighs 62.42 lbs per cubic foot
total water 48 - 72 cubic feet, putting it at 2996 - 4485 lbs
i shudder to think of all the ways that could have ended
Shut Up! Mind your own business!
[Excuse me, I’m not usually a pervert.]
Ha, you are far more motivated than I am.
Kudos to the balcony maker on that one.
This looks to be a Dutch product installed in new or converted apartment buildings. That means cinder block or concrete construction. I don’t think the walls have to be strengthened for this. I would make doubly sure it’s installed correctly and inspected regularly, though.
My god. This is a prime example of people not realising how heavy water is. That is a catastrophe waiting to happen.
Edit: I see that has been pointed out further down in the comments
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
