Outdoor screens protect a home from the elements

By Sigrid Tornquist

High-end home owners demand high-end solutions. Michael König and his team from Douglas Auto & Marine Upholstery were called to a stately residence on a hill in Hawke’s Bay to design, manufacture and install outdoor screens to protect the home from the harsh New Zealand elements. “The size of the patio openings—nearly 4 meters wide and 3 meters high—were at the outer limit of what the system could bear, but the crew worked through the challenges and found a way to design a solution.”

Two of the resulting screens were manufactured of clear PVC, allowing the owners a full view of the plains below. On the western side of the home, to provide protection from the setting sun, the crew manufactured the screen of mesh. “Besides looking stunning, that project generated a huge amount of work for us, both from the people who own the house—for their businesses—and also from people who have seen the photos of or visited the installation,” Mike says. “The project won the 2010 OFPANZ Excellence Award for screens, and to me epitomized the innovativeness and quality of work that our team does.”

Sigrid Tornquist is a freelance author and editor based in St. Paul, Minn. She is also the associate editor of InTents magazine, a publication of the Industrial Fabrics Association International.