Safety barriers for fall protection are a must in multi-storey build-to-rent apartment blocks. But while safety is paramount, it’s not the only consideration.
Unlike properties owned by small-scale investors, build-to-rent schemes aim to offer tenants stable, long-term leases that allow them to form connections with the local community. By using transparent barriers, this theme can be carried through within the buildings as well, without compromising on safety.
How transparent barriers foster community interaction
Transparent barriers can promote community engagement and wellbeing by:
- Creating sightlines across shared spaces, rather than closing them off from each other. This can encourage interaction between individuals and allow them to feel a part of the building’s community.
- Facilitating interior daylight. Bringing natural light indoors has been shown to improve mood. This effect has the potential to benefit both wellbeing and willingness to interact with others. Transparent barriers allow for natural light, while cumbersome, heavy barriers can make interior spaces dark and uninviting.
- Enabling views outdoors – helping people feel a connection to the outdoors can improve feelings of wellbeing and calmness.
- Improving air flow, which when combined with good ventilation can help dilute indoor pollutants and create better air quality.
Materials for transparent barriers
Glass is often the material of choice due to its transparent qualities. It can also look sleek and modern, and it has very good longevity.
A downside of glass that it can lose its transparency when dirty or smudged, which can happen quite easily! It can also be heavy, which can add to installation costs, and it doesn’t offer much in the way of flexibility or options for customisation.
At Tensile, we use Jakob stainless steel materials for transparent barriers, in the form of wire rope vertical cables or woven Webnet mesh.
We choose these materials for their high transparency, but for many other reasons as well:
- Stainless steel barriers combine excellent robustness, security and longevity while remaining light and translucent in appearance.
- The materials are relatively light in weight which can speed up installation and reduce labour costs, and they have low maintenance needs which reduces ongoing expenses.
- They offer enormous scope for large spans and security, which is particularly good for full-length barriers on multi-storey atriums.
- Both Webnet and vertical stainless steel cables can be used to make barriers that support climbing plants.
- The materials are very malleable, making them highly adaptable to a wide variety of geometric shapes.
- Jakob materials are made from a minimum 70% recycled content in facilities that run on solar power. This can make them a great option where sustainability is a priority.
The use of stainless steel for barriers
Being corrosion and weather resistant, stainless steel barriers can be installed both indoors and outdoors on multi-storey buildings.
Here are some examples.
ParkLife building at Nightingale Village, Melbourne
We installed barriers both indoors and outdoors for this building, using both Webnet and vertical wire-rope cabling.
Our brief was to install the safety barriers across the common areas, and green facade barriers on the outdoor balconies. For the safety barriers we used 100mm aperture Webnet, while for the facades we installed 4mm vertical cables.
The Webnet barriers provide the required safety while keeping the spaces open and airy allowing for community interaction, while the balcony cables allow for climbing plant growth.
Albermarle Street Apartments, Melbourne
The Webnet barriers on the internal curved walkways of this building demonstrate the malleability of the material – something that wouldn’t be possible with a solid material such as glass.
Residents have also been encouraged to use greenery to decorate their own section of the barriers, encouraging a sense of ‘ownership’ of the space.
In both of these projects, the design and transparency of the barriers have the potential to foster community interactions and improve the wellbeing of occupants. To find out how transparent barriers could work for your next build-to-rent project, please get in touch.
