In Atlanta, GA, the weather often embraces warm temperatures, making suburban outdoor spaces highly desirable. With scorching summers and mild winters, there’s a yearning for a haven that combines fresh air with respite from the sun’s intensity. For homeowners who love to entertain outdoors, an all-season outdoor space becomes a coveted retreat, providing a sanctuary where family and friends can unwind, socialize, and enjoy the outdoors without succumbing to the relentless Southern sun. Whether sipping iced tea or relishing a meal, these homeowners outside Atlanta wanted to make their existing outdoor grill station and dining space accessible in any of Georgia’s weather conditions.
- 📍 Atlanta, Georgia
- 🏡 Type: Residential
- 📅 Date: May 2023
- 👷 Installed by Viking Custom Construction
Product Choice
- Product: R-BLADE™ adjustable louvered roof pergola
- Size: 23’x15′
- Options: Patio fan, LED lighting, motorized retractable screen
- Color: Black
- Benefits: All-season outdoor space with kitchen and dining area
Project Overview: A Free-Standing Louvered Roof Pergola Seamlessly Accentuates Architectural Lines
Consistently listed as one of the best places to live for the weather, Atlanta and its surrounding suburbs enjoy plenty of sunny days. Especially on these hot Southern days, the unencumbered sun can turn an uncovered patio into a pretty uncomfortable place to gather. To ensure they could get the most out of their new outdoor grilling and dining space, these Atlanta-area homeowners called up Azenco’s regional dealer, Viking Custom Construction, to design an innovative shade structure that would give them the utmost control over the sun and shade balance on their backyard patio. The Viking team collaborated with this homeowner, an architect with a discerning eye for design, to create a motorized adjustable louvered roof pergola that seamlessly integrated with the geometric architectural lines of the existing patio space. Incorporating a motorized retractable shade screen along the western side of the pergola also allowed the homeowners to block out the sun’s glare as it set in the evening.
Design Challenges For an All-Season Outdoor Space
Designing outdoor spaces for design-savvy customers is always a unique challenge. Balancing their professional acumen and personal preferences requires a meticulous approach. Every detail, from material selection to spatial layout, must harmonize with architectural principles. The challenge lies in exceeding expectations, navigating a fine line between creativity and adherence to design fundamentals. In this project, the Viking team engaged a collaborative dialogue with the customers, intertwining the client’s vision with their pergola design expertise. The result was an all-season outdoor space that not only complements the existing structure but also stands as a testament to the seamless integration of artistic flair and architectural precision, a true fusion of form and function.
1. Protect The Existing Outdoor Grilling Station
Functionally, the homeowners were looking for a shade solution that would protect their existing outdoor grilling station and adjoining dining space from the elements. The team designed a custom Azenco R-BLADE™ louvered roof pergola that leverages the latest outdoor home automation to allow them to adjust the louvers at the touch of a button. With the motorized louvers fully open, the patio could be bathed in direct sun for cool days and early summer mornings. As the sun rose to its zenith, the homeowners could adjust the angle of the louvers taking advantage of the pergola’s bioclimatic architecture to create shade and improve airflow throughout the large covered space. When rain showers or the rare snow flurry approached, the louvers could close tightly to seal out the rain.
2. Architectural Styling Of The Existing Patio Space
The architectural styling of the existing patio space also posed a unique challenge. It incorporated leading lines throughout, with white stone flooring cut at sharp right angles to the contrasting surround of black stones. The linear elements were an important aspect of the outdoor design scheme that also included white stone pathways leading off the patio to the nearby pool deck. So, the team sought American pergola styles to complement this look. Ultimately, the Azenco R-BLADE’s sleek exterior, with no visible assembly hardware to interrupt the clean pergola roof line, was the ideal selection. The installation team also needed to be precise in the placement of this large freestanding pergola. With exacting measurements, the team landed the pergola footings perfectly along the perimeter of the existing white patio, allowing the new structure to accentuate the leading lines that ran throughout the patio design.
3. Block The Setting Sun
The final design challenge the team faced with this all-season outdoor space project came from the often-powerful glare of Atlanta’s setting sun. With the positioning of the patio and only young surrounding trees to block the setting sun, the patio could become quite warm in the later afternoons and evenings. To alleviate this issue, the team integrated a motorized retractable shade screen along the western side of the pergola. Fitted with a sheer material, the outdoor patio screen could be lowered when the sun became burdensome to partially block the glare while allowing just enough sunlight through to illuminate the covered patio. For the post-sunset hours, LED lighting was also introduced into the pergola roof allowing the homeowners to perfectly balance the ambiance for any lighting condition.
Color Selection
With the patio decked out in black-on-white color stylings, it was important that the new pergola seamlessly carry through this design aesthetic. So, in collaboration with their architect client, the team coated the pergola in a standard all-black exterior powder coating that would ensure the all-season outdoor space would stand up to the heat and rain for a lifetime.
Before and After – Perfect All-Season Outdoor Space
The Turn Around
This fully customized R-BLADE™ pergola was completed in just seven weeks from design to fabrication and delivery to the project site. The expert installation team took just three days to fully assemble the pergola along the perfect angles to compliment the architectural vision for this outdoor living space.
- Design and Fabrication: 7 weeks
- Three days on-site installation
If you are looking to protect your all-season outdoor space from the elements, please contact us to learn more about our innovative outdoor structures and be connected with one of our local expert dealers in your area, at 305 306-3204.
