Sapphire brings beautiful balustrades to the heart of retirement homes

Beautiful balustrades by Sapphire, featuring custom-coloured screen printed glass, are bringing a sense of light and space to a brand new retirement development in Bracknell. Located off Sandy Lane just north of the town centre, Clement House offers 65 well-appointed apartments and communal facilities for older residents. Sapphire’s solutions include glazed balustrades to projecting balconies and around three upper floors of the building’s magnificent galleried atrium. Sections of the faceted glass infill panels are screen printed in blue and green to echo the corporate colours of Bracknell Forest Homes, which part-funded the £12 million project together with the local council and the Homes and Communities Agency. Sapphire’s package for Clement House is completed by clear glass balustrades for two internal staircases.

Sapphire designed, manufactured and installed internal and external glazed balustrades for the flagship retirement living scheme. The modern, open plan apartments are specially designed to meet the needs of elderly occupants and have access to their own balconies. The balcony platforms are an integral part of the building’s structural frame, with balustrades fixed into the concrete balconies with resin anchors. The screen printed glass infill panels are combined with flat baluster uprights from Sapphire’s Jasper range, manufactured in hot zinc protected mild steel with a polyester powder coating to resist corrosion. Balusters were specified in a smart grey finish to complement the satin-polished stainless steel handrails. In addition, Sapphire supplied opaque glass privacy screen dividers between double-width balconies. Screen printed glass balustrades, designed and manufactured to the same exacting specification, also provide a stylish and functional guarding solution to the building’s large central atrium. The light-filled atrium is at the heart of the scheme and extends over four main floors, with a lower ground floor at one end. Curved handrails were specially fabricated by Sapphire in polished stainless steel to accommodate bowed sections of these striking internal balustrades.

Offering a unique combination of manufacturing expertise and system design flexibility, Sapphire is able to provide balustrades to suit individual project specifications without the extra cost and time normally associated with a bespoke solution. Marketing Manager, Nick Haughton, explains: “Starting with essential elements from our core ranges, we can mix-and-match innovative ideas from our huge bank of design permutations and add distinctive touches, like the screen printed glass specified for Clement House, to create beautiful balustrades that make a real difference to a residential development.”