A postmodern profile solution
Letter boxes in the staircase are becoming more and more common in Swedish apartment blocks. Markus Berglund, who had worked with Sapa in several development projects for the telecom and automotive industry, saw an opportunity to create a solution based on aluminium profiles. He started the BlockBox company together with Per Magnusson and they contacted Sapa immediately.
The basic version of the box has a clear anodised, brushed front. ”The tenants should be able to feel that the home beings in the lobby.” |
BlockBox is also preparing a variant in which the front system is built into a wooden frame. Different sorts of wood are going to be available. |
Integrated rubber strips are supposed to provide the feeling of quality and eliminate the sound of metal. |
Many residents of apartment blocks are going to have their mail delivered in letter boxes in the lobby instead of the letter slot in their own entrance door. One should also remember that Denmark is at the same conversion stage and that there is demand for such boxes in companies handling their internal mail, at office hotels and in companies hiring out letter boxes.
BlockBox has created a solution based on aluminium profiles. The postman can open the front of the box which is provided with a central lock, a requirement imposed by the Post Office in their specifications. Every apartment gets its individual box with an own key. We are talking to Markus Berglund:
- The number of apartments in apartment blocks varies a lot. Therefore, it is important for us to create a flexible solution. Aluminium profiles make it easy to work with modular solutions. Using the same profiles, we can build anything from three boxes in one column up to four columns with seven boxes each.
The front system, which is the core of the product and the common denominator for all model series, consists of five different profiles. The side consists of a bigger profile or can be made of a laminate panel or massive wood.
- We have been responsible for project management and requirement specification. Sapa has been a valuable sounding board during the whole development process. I do not think one can find better expertise on aluminium profiles than that of Sapa technicians. They have seen extremely many profiles and they have contributed to our construction with many important detail solutions which have made our product more interesting.
- A decisive advantage with profiles, when you start a new business, is that the tooling costs are low compared to other production techniques. This means that one can keep the investments on a very reasonable level.
What is it then that makes BlockBox a competitive solution? Markus concludes:
- In a time of ”home styling” it is, of course, important that also the staircase is stylish. This is where the home begins. Earlier solutions were mainly based on traditional sheet metal boxes. As far as design and function are concerned, we believe that BlockBox appeals to more landlords, housing co-operatives and architects. In our solution we have also attached great importance to eliminating all metallic sounds.
- Modular thinking is, of course, also one of our strengths, as we can freely extend both the width and the height of the letter box sets. Apart from this, Sapa offers an enormous variety of surface treatment alternatives. With few components we can create a great number of variants.
BlockBox starts serial production in autumn 2008.
Text: lg.linden/text
Updated: 2008-10-30