On top of the world's cities
Vestre's furniture can be seen on roof terraces around the world. Despite changeable weather conditions, with high and low temperatures, strong winds and heavy rain, this furniture can easily cope with being left outside all year round. It also makes a positive contribution to the urban scene.
Making use of rooftops is an idea that is attracting more and more attention as urbanisation increases and towns and cities become ever more densely populated. Roofs are often referred to as “the fifth façade of the city” and making use of this area offers many benefits. By including more green plants, roofs can help to increase biodiversity and improve air quality, as well as reduce dust and noise. It also gives the world more meeting places and, at Vestre, we have furniture which is ideal for such elevated social meeting places.
Attractive roof terraces also impact on the aesthetics and the environment around the building. It has been claimed that being able to rest your eyes on a lush roof terrace rather than a large, dark roof area can help to reduce the feeling of stress and make us feel calmer.
World leader in materials and guarantees
Roof terraces are often extremely exposed to the weather, fluctuating temperatures, rain and wind, making furniture that is solid and robust essential. Even under such conditions, our furniture requires only minimal maintenance. This is ensured through the use of robust materials and solid surface treatments, from the largest surfaces right down to the smallest screws.
At Vestre, we use high-quality FSC-certified pine from Norway and Sweden as standard. Because of the cold Scandinavian climate, trees grow slowly and are therefore not felled until they are between 80 and 120 years old. This means that Scandinavian pine is harder and better suited for use in outdoor furniture than pine from warmer regions, which normally grow 3–5 times faster. On the Brinell scale, Scandinavian pine has a hardness of 1.7. We also impregnate the timber with natural linseed oil, which increases the degree of protection against rot and gives an almost maintenance-free result.
As regards the steel we use, this has also not travelled far and is of very high quality. It is supplied by Swedish company SSAB and produced with 30% less greenhouse gas emissions than the global average. This is possible thanks to modern production facilities and the use of a high proportion of renewable energy during production.
All steel components that Vestre uses are hot dip galvanised in a bath of liquid zinc at a temperature of 450°C. The bath is entirely heated using renewable energy, which means zero emissions of harmful greenhouse gases. The process forms a rust-free alloy (80–120 μ), which means that products from Vestre can remain outdoors for many decades.
We are so confident in the methods we use that we are willing to offer leading guarantees on all our products. Our furniture therefore comes with a lifetime guarantee against rust, as well as a 15-year guarantee on surface coatings and woodwork.
Standing firm even in New York and Chicago
As they are located on a city’s rooftops, roof terraces tend to be particularly exposed to strong winds and gusts, which can even cause some furniture to be blown away. At Vestre, our furniture has a solid construction which withstands both wear and use. And wind of course. This is because the steel we use is between 3 and 16 mm thick.
To test the wind strength that our furniture can withstand, our popular Times Square series, APRIL GO, was put to the test by SINTEF – one of Europe's largest research institutes. Despite being our lightest furniture, the series passed the test with flying colours. In fact, the wind tests performed by SINTEF showed that gusts of wind of up to 16–17 m/s were required before the furniture began to move even a little.
“We are often asked how our furniture is installed, particularly in extremely windy cities like New York and Chicago. Furniture can be blown off a terrace and hit people on the ground below. Our furniture is so heavy that it just remains in place, partly because we use thicker steel than most other manufacturers,” says Kristoffer Vestre, Marketing Director in the USA.
Lush oases
If you would like a product proposal and inspiration for meeting places at height, all you have to do is continue reading. At Vestre, we have a huge range of planters, which can be used to transform grey and boring roof terraces into lush oases. VROOM planters can for example be used to create a type of “oasis” with separate zones separated by long rows of planters. The dimensions of VROOM can also be customised.
Another alternative is the POP urban screen. With these screens, plants are free to grow up the screen, while a clear divide is also created between the different zones. They are easy to install, without any need to build large permanent structures. The urban screen is available in three sizes and can be used either alone or together with POP planters.
The perforations on the POP also enable it to be used as a windbreak. A very compact windbreak can lead to air flows on the back of the windbreak, which can have a detrimental effect on the climate close to the screen. A well-designed windbreak like the POP urban screen will therefore reduce the speed of the wind, rather than stopping it altogether.
We offer self-watering systems for virtually all our planters, which makes maintenance easier and offers a particularly practical solution when the sun is strong and wet surfaces dry out faster. Using such systems reduces the need to replenish the water as often, and the plants draw up the liquid they need.
Work, play and relaxation
Another popular choice is our BLOC sun bench, which decorates roof terraces all the way from the Munch Brygge in Oslo to Dumbo in New York. A practical option offered with this bench is wheels which enable even solid and heavy furniture to be easily moved around, whether you want sun, shade or floor space for other uses.
Our STOOP bench is ideal in combination with the BLOC series, and is a more playful addition which is perfect for young and old alike.
“We have a STOOP stepped bench on a roof terrace in Dumbo, New York. This can be used as a bench or a playful item of furniture which children can climb on and hide under. The top step can be used as a sort of bar table for laptops,” says Kristoffer Vestre.
Create unique projects
Remember that you can always order our furniture in over 200 RAL colours for powder coating, enabling you to tailor the furniture to suit your particular project. You will also find more inspiration for your roof terrace on our Flickr profile here.
