External venetian shading

The physics, in plain terms

An internal blind manages heat that is already inside the room. An external venetian stops most of it before it ever crosses the glass. On a north or west wall of stack doors — the kind that opens a Val de Vie living room straight onto the vine rows — that difference is not subtle. It is the reason European and high-end South African architects specify exterior shading on glass buildings rather than relying on curtains.

What we actually fit

Slats run from 60–90mm wide, guided in side rails or cables, and tilt and raise like an interior venetian — except they live outside, exposed to weather, so the system is engineered for it: powder-coated aluminium, marine-grade hardware where the site calls for it, and effectively always motorised. A sun-and-wind sensor is standard practice, not an upsell: an external blind has to look after itself in a gust or a sudden Boland thunderstorm while the house is empty for the day.

Where it earns its keep on this estate

• Tasting decks and living rooms facing the vine rows — the classic four-o’clock glare problem, solved outside the glass.
• West-facing main bedrooms — heat kept out well before bedtime, not fought after the fact.
• Architect-designed frameless glass — a clean facade line that estate design guidelines tend to approve readily once the profile and colour are agreed.
• Any elevation where the aircon is losing — if a room never quite cools down in January, this is usually why.

The honest limitations

This is a premium spend, and it changes the look of a facade — on an estate, that usually means submitting the profile and colour for design approval before it goes up, which we help prepare. It is not a retrofit for every elevation; fixing points and, ideally, some design-stage planning make the difference between a system that looks intended and one that looks added on. Coastal-adjacent sites further down the valley want marine-grade hardware specified from the start.