Do compromises have to be made to achieve both beauty and safety in architecture?
There was a time when features that were required primarily for safety came at a cost. Clearly they were important, but they always seemed to be at the expense of elegance, style and aesthetics.
Think ugly fire escapes stuck on the sides of apartment buildings; looking like a last-minute addition, they weren’t integrated into the design and did nothing for the visual appeal of a building.
Our awareness of safety issues, and the standards we must adhere to, are quite rightly higher now than they’ve ever been. Thankfully then, materials have been developed that enable both safety and design objectives to be achieved.
Our own Jakob stainless steel architectural systems are a great example of these modern solutions. Combining quality, strength, elegance and flexibility, our systems are suitable for a wide range of safety applications including fall protection, suicide prevention and much more.
Whether it’s a viewing platform 200 feet in the air, a bridge spanning a 350m wide, 100m deep gorge, or a 260m long suspended walkway in the Swiss Alps, our Webnet wire mesh system is helping to provide safe and secure protection, without detracting from the structure they are an integral part of. Although incredibly light, the stainless steel Webnet system is also exceptionally strong and durable, providing the perfect combination of contemporary elegance and reassuring safety.
This combination of qualities makes the system suitable for a wide range of applications and it has been used in projects of all scale, scope and complexity around the world. For example, for the higher levels of car parks, Webnet has been used extensively to provide both a secure fall prevention system and an effective suicide deterrent, whilst still allowing light and air into the car parks.
It can also be used to safely enclose spaces; at an infant school in the South East of England, the system has effectively been used to fully enclose a flat roof to create a safe and light additional play space. And on the subject of enclosures, the system is also widely used to create attractive yet secure enclosures at zoos and wildlife parks, where Webnet not only keeps animals safely enclosed, but importantly also allows visitors to enjoy virtually uninterrupted views of them in their habitat. A measure of the system’s flexibility is that it has been used to enclose a wide variety of animals - ranging from birds to tigers.
The range of applications really is incredibly broad, including a project in Switzerland, where Webnet was installed around the perimeter of a new rescue helicopter landing pad at a hospital in Bern. Over 250 m² of Webnet was incorporated into the design to create a ‘fall-stop’ around the complete perimeter of the pad.
We really enjoy working with architects and designers to help find safe and effective solutions. So, if you’re working on a project, please give us a call. We’ve got lots of experience to draw on, and we love rising to meet a new challenge!