We all know that architects in Aotearoa New Zealand are some of the greatest in the world at designing decks and espousing designs with great indoor-outdoor flow. Our houses are designed to effortlessly flow people, dogs, lunch, and barbecued food from inside to outside with barely a pause in breath. But what about balconies? How can it be that we live in a country where almost every house in the nation has a big deck or a patio under an overhanging verandah, yet when it comes to medium density housing (MDH) some developers and designers seem to regard a decent slice of the outdoor as anathema to them? There are tiny little townhouses being constructed all over Auckland and other Tier One cities without the slightest shred of a balcony for the future inhabitants. This has to stop!

As we noted in the Medium book, the recent Covid times have illustrated to the world the importance of being able to get outside, even when you are high up in the air. In Italy we saw operatic arias being sung from rooftop to rooftop, via small personal balconies integrally attached to the ancient stucco walls of Roman apartamentos. In Britain we saw people crammed into MDH terraces all burst forth with a cacophany of sound as they banged potlids together in support of the National Health Service (thank goodness that we did not inherit that particular madness!). Even in the smallest of Hong Kong multi-storey flats, there is still room for a small balcony to go and stand on, outside, to feel the air all around and to enjoy the sunshine and the view. Balconies are life-affirming, life-enabling, and life-enhancing. Balconies are life.

Some recent apartment projects we’ve seen go up around us in the city have resorted to what might euphemistically be called a “Juliette balcony” which just means there is no balcony at all, but instead there is a single pane of toughened glass to stop you falling out a full height opening window. Surely you can do better than that, for the sake of the future occupants?

Yes, balconies will cost some money, but the added value to an MDH home is enormous in terms of sanity and reducing anxiety. Balconies can be large or small, they can be externally mounted or internally sited, or somewhere in between. They can be used for storage for all sorts of things – but hopefully not used like that if they are all glass. They are a place for cats and dogs to feel sane, for bicycles and barbecues, for plants of all shapes and sizes. They can open off just one room, or they can become a central hub for the whole house to revolve around. Look at chapter 6 in Medium for some basic balcony ideas, and look at the manufacturer’s details for a multitude of ways in which balconies can be detailed.

Balconies provide privacy and indoor-outdoor space even when you’re five floors up. Give the balcony a solid floor so that someone on the next floor up doesn’t spill their coffee through the floor onto your head, or if their dog misses the litter tray. If you can, design the balcony with some parts solid and other parts glazed or thinly balustraded, to allow glimpses out and sunshine in. Think about how best to support a row of pot-plants for the inhabitant and how they will be watered every other day, and think about how useful the balcony will be to stand on to wash the windows of the living room. Don’t make the balustrade all glass, as that entails someone having to clean it frequently, and cleaning requires dangerous movements on the outside of the balustrade and frequent funding for maintenance. If you can, keep the balcony solid for the lower 800mm and situate a handrail on top at 1000mm or 1100mm high – that way, you can still look out to the horizon even while you are sitting inside. It also provides a modicum of modesty for you to do or store whatever you want on your own balcony, as well as a chance to get much needed fresh air into the building.

Above all, balconies give life not only to the occupants but to the building facade as well.

Arrange your balconies carefully so that they can provide shading from the sun where needed, or protection from the wind from a certain direction. The balcony will help animate your building as the sun tracks across the facade, but also helps the people inside get animated as they come onto the balcony to enjoy the spectacle of others enjoying their own MDH unit as well. It does not matter if the occupants only use the balcony for half an hour a day, or if they are out there five hours a day – this is all a question of giving people the choice to make their own decisions, as to how they want to live their own life. Balconies ARE life. Medium is the message.