Location: Gauteng · System: Louvred Pergola — charcoal, adjustable blades
The brief
A raised composite deck with a hot tub, set beside the covered patio of a modern Gauteng home. It was the best spot in the garden and the least usable one: open to the sky, it was too hot to sit on through the middle of a Highveld summer day.
The job was to make the deck its own outdoor room and take the edge off the overhead sun, without boxing it in or cutting it off from the garden.
What we built
A charcoal aluminium louvred pergola carried on a slim perimeter beam and two posts at the open corners, the back edge fixed to the house so the frame reads as one line with the covered patio beside it.
The blades are adjustable. Angled, they cast a moving pattern across the deck and cut the glare; opened, the deck is back under the sky; closed, the roof sheds a summer storm. That range is the difference between a pergola you photograph and one you sit under.
The system itself is set out under Aluminium Pergolas, and the gallery has more of it.
Aluminium instead of timber
Traditionally this is a timber structure, and timber is the reason so many pergolas look tired after five summers. Highveld sun and afternoon storms are hard on softwood, and a pergola is the worst possible shape to maintain: every slat has four faces and all of them are above head height.
Powder-coated aluminium removes the maintenance entirely. It also allows slimmer sections, because it is doing the same job with a stronger material.
The specification behind it
- Aluminium louvred pergola, charcoal powder-coat throughout
- Slim perimeter beam on two posts, back edge fixed to the house
- Adjustable blades — angled for shade, open to the sky, closed against rain
- Powder-coated finish; no sealing, staining or annual maintenance
- 15-year guarantee on aluminium
Pergola, awning or louvre roof?
The three get used interchangeably and they are not the same thing. A traditional pergola breaks sun and defines space, and lets rain straight through. An awning is a solid roof: full shade, full weather cover, no adjustment. A louvred pergola is the adjustable version of both — open like a pergola, closed like a roof.
If you want to sit outside in a thunderstorm, you want a roof that closes. If you want the deck to feel like a room without being one, the louvred pergola is the right instrument, because it can be either on the day.
If you’re considering the same
Be clear with yourself about rain before you choose. A fixed-slat pergola is a beautiful structure and the one most likely to disappoint if what you actually wanted was cover — which is why we build ours with adjustable blades.
The same system over a patio rather than a deck is set out under louvre awnings.
