UHSC balconies

Pieters collaborated with Danish company Hi-Con to develop the UHSC balcony; a system based on ultra-thin balcony slabs made from ultra-high-strength concrete (UHSC), which fits perfectly within the floor height envelope used for façades. One of the main advantages of these special balconies is their low weight, just one third of the weight of traditional balconies, in combination with an ability to support more than five times the permitted load. The slender slab and minimalistic balcony design allow abundant daylight into the building and enrich the building’s architectural appearance. The balconies are also extremely durable and require little maintenance.

In order to use the balconies across a wide range of applications, various attachment systems have been developed: e.g. for solid slab floors, hollow core slab floors and timber floors. Various renovation solutions for attaching the balconies to existing buildings have also been developed. We have a steady stream of new projects with UHSC balconies in the design and execution phases, and we continue to develop the balconies in collaboration with Hi-Con.

Pieters’ UHSC projects include Huize het Oosten in Bilthoven, Amber-Poptahof in Delft, Heiligharn and Baljuwstraat in Den Helder and the Modular Student Units in Leiden.