The Catalan company Gradhermetic, specialised in technical and decorative solutions in solar protection, metal roofing and cladding, has obtained the patent licence for the industrialised folding balconies (BIP), invented by the researcher Vicente Sarrablo, coordinator of the Laboratory of Technological Innovation for Industrialised and Sustainable Building (LITEIS) and professor of Architectural Constructions at UIC Barcelona.

Sarrablo explained that, during the pandemic, he detected “a growing social demand for terraces and balconies on buildings that in recent times had been overlooked when it came to offering this type of essential element for enjoying the outdoors”. He therefore came up with the idea of having “lightweight prefabricated balconies that were easy to install on any type of façade.”

Hence the design of the BIP, industrialised folding balcony “which can be stacked on a truck and unfolded and anchored to the facades like large shelves that are mass-produced in a factory”, as Sarrablo explained in his patent.
The head of the project stated that the prefabricated balconies that existed until now on the market ‘’take up too much space with the addition of railings and brackets for attaching them to facades, which has a negative impact on the price of the balcony when it comes to transporting and storing them.” Unlike these, the BIPs “are lightweight and can be folded so that several units can be stacked on a single truck to reduce the number of trips”, he added.

Besides their application in the renovation and refurbishment of existing buildings, it has become interesting to consider these balconies for new buildings, taking advantage of the current trend towards more industrialised construction. In the same way that prefabricated bathrooms are being produced and introduced in hotels or new residential blocks, these balconies could also be integrated onto the facades of these new industrialised buildings.

The team led by Sarrablo that undertook the design of this device is made up of Oriol Carrasco, lecturer of Construction and member of LITEIS, and Doctor in Architecture, and Sofía Argelich and Martina Mussacchio, research assistants at UIC Barcelona School of Architecture.

The balcony prototype was presented for the first time at the Cevisama international trade fair in February 2023, where it already piqued the interest of architecture professionals and companies in the sector.

An example of knowledge transfer

The patent licence obtained by Gradhermetic is an example of how academic research “can contribute to the development of architectural solutions that help industry and society in general”, as Vicente Sarrablo explained. “At LITEIS, we have a great deal of experience in accompanying companies with research projects in different innovations protected by patents,” he added.

In the same vein, Òscar Carbó, director of the Centre for Knowledge Transfer and Research Valorisation (CTC) of the Vice-Rectorate for Research, Innovation and Transfer, stressed that the new commercialised patent is an example of how universities can contribute to the exchange and transfer of knowledge to the business world. Carbó pointed out that, once again, “it highlights the maturity of UIC Barcelona in terms of knowledge transfer’ and recalled that at the university ‘there are already 15 families of patents in progress”.