KewResidential builder
Blackened steel stair balustrade, Kew
A blackened mild steel and glass balustrade to a three-flight floating staircase, template-fitted to a stair that had already been built.
View projectLoading page…
Fitzroy · 2025
Rooftop terrace screens, Fitzroy
Perforated aluminium privacy screening and a matching balustrade to a rooftop terrace, set out so the perforation pattern runs unbroken across nine panels.
The brief
The architect specified a continuous perforated screen across a rooftop terrace to satisfy an overlooking condition on the planning permit, while keeping sightlines to the north. The pattern had to read as one surface across nine panels and two direction changes, and the screen also had to act as the terrace barrier.
Our approach
We nested the perforation pattern across the full elevation as a single artwork and then cut the panels from it, rather than cutting nine identical panels and hoping the joints disappeared. The support frame was detailed behind the panel line so no framing interrupts the face. Because the screen doubles as the barrier, the frame and its fixings were detailed to the barrier loading nominated in the structural documentation, and a full-height sample was signed off before the run was cut.
The outcome
The perforation pattern runs unbroken across the whole elevation, including through both direction changes. The screen satisfied the planning condition at final inspection and required no additional balustrade.
Scope of works
- Nine perforated aluminium screen panels, pattern nested as one elevation
- Concealed support framing behind the panel line
- Screen detailed to double as the terrace barrier
- Two mitred direction changes with pattern continuity
- Full-height sample panel for architect sign-off
- Crane access and rooftop installation
Project details
- Client type
- Architect, mixed-use development
- Location
- Fitzroy, Victoria
- Completed
- June 2025
- Extent
- 9 panels, 17 m elevation, 1.8 m high
- Material
- 5 mm perforated aluminium sheet
- Frame
- Concealed aluminium support framing
- Finish
- Architectural powder coat, matt bronze
- Program
- 9 weeks including sample approval
We work throughout Fitzroy
Architectural metalwork, facade screening and heritage-sensitive structural steel across Fitzroy and Collingwood.
Fitzroy service areaGallery
Detail and installation
The pattern was nested across the full elevation, then cut into panels. Both direction changes were mitred to keep the pattern continuous. Support framing sits behind the panel line so nothing interrupts the face.
I have specified perforated screening on a lot of projects and the panel joints usually give it away. They nested the pattern across the whole elevation and cut the panels out of it. That is not the standard approach and it is the reason it works.
Marcus Ellery
Associate Architect, Ellery Studio
See the project in FitzroyMore work
Related projects
Port MelbourneProperty developer
Industrial security gates, Port Melbourne
Six cantilever sliding gates and 140 metres of matching security fencing across a multi-tenancy industrial estate, all automation-ready.
View project
HawthornArchitect
Heritage shopfront steel, Hawthorn
A structural goalpost and slim-profile shopfront framing inserted into a heritage-listed facade, with every member sized to sit within the existing masonry reveal.
View projectRequest a quote
Have a project with a constraint like this one?
Send through what you have — drawings, a sketch or a photograph of the problem — and we will tell you how we would approach it and what it costs.
- Workshop
- Unit 6, 42 Hume Reserve Court
Campbellfield VIC 3061 - Phone
- (03) 5550 0142