South West Lands, Wembley

“My experience with Sapphire? Well, I wrote a long piece on LinkedIn about you! It’s been wonderful working with you – you people are a dream! The logistics team especially have been amazing.”

Nana Aboagye, Senior Site Manager, Hills Partnership

History

The redevelopment of Wembley Park has been home to many Sapphire balcony projects, each one different in design and approach from the last. The development at South West Lands SW01, 02 + 07, now known as Arc at Wembley, is no different, with a unique panel design that we were pleased to be able to streamline by experience for Hills Partnership.

Executive Summary

• Distinctive Architectural Vision: The project aimed to create a unified block of 156 homes with full-width balconies that added expression to building corners, inspired by 1970s residential design.
• Seamless Aesthetic Integration: Sapphire collaborated with Hills Partnership and Haworth Tompkins to design fascia panels that mirrored the brick façade, achieving a cohesive, ‘brick-like’ balcony appearance.
• Compliance with Safety Standards: To meet NHBC requirements and prevent climbability, Sapphire added internal panels to the fascia design while maintaining visual appeal.
• Consistency Across External Metalwork: Sapphire ensured balcony metalwork matched other building elements, delivering a unified look across balustrades, railings, and façades.

Streamlined by Experience, Delivered by Sapphire

Distinctive Architectural Vision

With a large swathe of land acquired by Quintain Living and developed by Hills Partnership, the aspiration in place was to create a ‘unified block’ across several buildings, consisting of 156 new homes, split as 42% affordable rent and 58% shared ownership. It was noted from an early stage that the architecture should provide ‘animation and expression’ to the corners of the building through the use of full-width balconies.

Seamless Aesthetic Integration

Aspiring for such a distinct design, inspired by the 1970s residential buildings of the old Wembley Park and nearby Brentford, the design of the project needed the metalwork of the balconies to match the brickwork of the façade, creating a ‘brick-like’ pattern on the balcony fascia panels. Furthermore, Hills Partnership was met with the constraints of having to reach NHBC approval and avoid the fascia panels being climbable.

Compliance with Safety Standards

Working closely alongside Hills Partnership and architects Haworth Tompkins, our design team worked to match the metalwork of the fascia panels to the brickwork on the facades. We also added an extra internal panel to each fascia panel to ensure the balconies were not climbable.

Consistency Across External Metalwork

A consistent design across the external envelope can add an engaging visual appeal to a building. At Sapphire Balconies, we design and create exceptional balconies that engage with that brief and as a result, are market leaders in balcony design. Often, accredited installers are asked to match the metalwork in the balconies with the metalwork in the façade of the building to ensure external balustrades on the podium, terrace railings and other building metalwork perfectly match our balconies. To learn more about matching metalwork, visit our website: https://balconies.global/resources/matching-metalwork-with-balconies/