Sleek appearance on street, roof or patio

Prefabricated border edges and planters offer benefits

Masonry a border or planter is not only time-consuming and costly. Find another mason who can get this done quickly and competently. The shortage of personnel is also starting to cause problems in the landscaping industry. Manufacturer FURNS from Uden is cleverly responding to this. By making the containers in aluminum or steel and prefabricating them. This not only saves time and money, but also weight. And that's great for roof gardens.

"The trend for prefabricated construction continues," says Sil van Duijnhoven, co-owner and creative director at FURNS Street Furniture. "Not only in the construction of houses, but also in the infra and landscaping industry there is a great shortage of people. Because of this, prefab solutions are increasingly being sought and FURNS is fully committed to this."

With Corten steel or powder-coated aluminum, FURNS replaces the traditional way of making planters: with a brick wall with a cover border. Van Duijnhoven: "By simply connecting and setting metal prefabricated border elements, you quickly create a flower box or large planting area. In addition to saving time, this results in significant weight savings on roof gardens and can even be used circularly."

FURNS not only produces the planters and border edges, but also keeps a substantial assortment in stock. Van Duijnhoven: "In every conceivable size. We can therefore deliver very quickly. That is appreciated in the market." 

Elevation

FURNS recently delivered a substantial amount of border partitions and planters for the Laan van Spartaan project in Amsterdam. Van der Tol Hoveniers created a roof garden there to a design by Rob van Dijk. That garden consists of a private and a semi-public part. The gardens, public garden and height differences are separated by corten steel borders and planters.

Van Duijnhoven: "No less than 33 tons of steel were used in this project. That may seem like a lot, but compared to masonry edging, we saved as much as 210 tons of weight. For a roof garden, that's a significant weight."

In addition to the enormous weight and thus structural savings to the building, FURNS was also able to provide substantial savings in time. "Installing a prefab planter is not only much faster, it is also many times easier; think of setting profiles, grouting, foundations, etcetera," Van Duijnhoven said. "Of course, it takes a little more time in preparation. A steel element is fully drawn at FURNS in 3D and 2D. These drawings are used for the client, but also for the personnel in the workshop. Fortunately, the drawing of these is fully automated from weld composition to 3D file, so it doesn't take very long now either."

Low maintenance

Van Duijnhoven also points out that Corten steel is a durable material that requires little maintenance and is highly resistant to vandalism. "It was originally developed for bridge and shipbuilding. Drainage and ventilation around the material are important here, though. And thanks to the primitive bolt construction, elements are easy to reuse. In our range, we offer a standard range in addition to customization that is universally interchangeable," Van Duijnhoven explains. 

Because Corten steel is a pure type of steel, with no chemical preservations, it is also highly recyclable. Thirty percent of the planters and borders manufactured by FURNS come from scrap metal.