Like a record that lingers

The story of the outdoors

The story of the outdoors is like a record that sticks: always the same. Outdoor living has taken off in recent years. The awning industry capitalized on that trend early on, and it has done the industry no favors. To this day, outdoor living products are a particularly successful product group.

This was demonstrated once again at Polyclose in Ghent and R+T 2024 in Stuttgart, where once again many manufacturers and suppliers presented their - latest - outdoor living products. The reviews, at Polyclose in Z&R 1 and at R+T in Z&R 2, testify to this. 

Outdoor living has a thousand-and-one manifestations, of course; for the awning industry, the patio cover is the foundation of outdoor living. Of course, the patio canopy was not invented by the industry; canopies have been around for centuries. What the industry has done is combine the concept of the canopy with the skill of working with aluminum profiles, which, after all, awning companies already had shiploads of experience with. 

The result is that patio covers can be produced relatively simply and standardized, easily and custom-made, in numerous designs, in different price ranges, even for the smaller purse, and easily expanded and dressed up, with numerous accessories, from lighting to glass walls and from heaters to awnings. 

That concept continues to this day. There are no shocking new inventions at Polyclose, the R+T or in this theme. The existing concept is constantly being honed, improved, refined, renewed, expanded and so on. In this theme, the pergolas Movie from Gibus and the style from markilux or the Viewline glass wall system from Deponti Group, which approaches enclosure in yet another way, are examples of this. This record will stick around for a while. The awning industry benefits.