8th Lock Apartments, Dublin

“It’s been a great experience working with Sapphire. Great design, great product, great service – supply has worked well.”

Sean Walsh, Project Manager, Ballymore Properties

History

Named after the closest lock on the Grand Canal, Ballymore Properties’ 8th Lock Apartments project is located on the site of the former Ormond Printworks in Ashtown. The 8th Lock Apartments have been developed as a new suite of apartments alongside the Royal Canal in Dublin 11, just a stone’s throw from the city centre. The project, wonderfully designed by Reddy Architecture & Urbanism, features 361 balconies manufactured and supplied by Sapphire Balconies, which overlook a stretch of Dublin whilst allowing for a sense of community between residents.

Executive Summary

• Ballymore’s Aspirations: Ballymore required a reliable supplier for over 350 offsite-manufactured balconies, with cost-efficient standardisation and a bespoke anchor compatible with their precast system.
• Innovative Collaboration: A lightweight, modular aluminium balcony system was developed to ensure rigidity while accommodating the constraints of precast slab connections.
• Rationalisation: Balcony types were streamlined to 20+ per type to reduce material costs, unify aesthetics, and improve installation efficiency.
• Efficient Delivery: Anchors were precast in the factory and balconies installed on-site using the Glide-On™ system, enabling fast, just-in-time delivery and installation.

Streamlined by Innovation, Delivered by Sapphire

Ballymore’s Aspirations

8th Lock Apartments was a landmark scheme for developer Ballymore. With this came some strict aspirations. Firstly, Ballymore were looking for a safe pair of hands in a supplier who were able to handle the manufacture and supply of balconies at scale, with over 350 balconies specified for the development.

Secondly, Ballymore required offsite manufacture of balconies for this development due to the limited space on site. Ballymore had requested a streamlined type quantity for their balconies, not only to keep costs from ballooning, but also to unify the balcony aesthetics across the project.

Finally, Ballymore needed a system that was able to attach to their precast solution for the building. A bespoke anchor was needed, not an ‘off-the-shelf’ solution.

Innovative Collaboration

Ballymore’s constraint arose from the need to use pre-cast connections on the slab whilst still maintaining a rigid balcony. It was important for Ballymore to use a lightweight, aluminium balcony to reduce the loads back to the precast beam. Due to the precast beam taking our anchor, the balconies could not be cast into the floor slab, and so using a lightweight, modular solution meant that rigidity could be preserved when hanging balconies from the precast panels.

Rationalisation

On 8^th Lock, we worked with Ballymore and architects Reddy Architecture and Urbanism to rationalise the types down to a more productive average of 20+ balconies per type. By standardising the balconies across a project, material costs can be reduced, and aesthetics can be unified more easily, whilst also improving installation efficiency due to reduced typing.

Efficient Delivery

Sapphire supplied anchors to the precasters, which were cast in at the factory. Stubs were installed on-site, allowing for efficient delivery and install of the precast beams.

By casting anchors into the precast beams in the factory, this saved time on site on the construction of the frame.

Once the frame was complete and the building façade had finished being installed, our balconies were delivered to the site as and when needed to be installed via our Glide-On™ connection method, which allowed for a quick and efficient installation process.