Story at a glance:
- Renson products are designed to create sustainable, luxury outdoor living spaces.
- Covered solutions like pergolas allow you the flexibility to control your outdoor experience.
- Designing outdoor spaces should be about connecting people comfortably to nature.
Luxury and sustainability are not often two words strung together. Historically designers have often had to choose between one or the other. But when it comes to designing elevated outdoor living spaces—spaces where embracing nature should be the focus—it’s more important than ever to combine the two.
At Renson luxury and sustainability go hand in hand. The design-forward outdoors, sun protection, and ventilation manufacturer focuses on creating healthy spaces—both for the people and the environment. It’s a philosophy that has been at the heart of Renson since it first started in 1909—and one that continues to propel it forward.
With a sustainable emphasis on materiality, efficiency, and minimum waste, Renson products—like its sleek aluminum pergolas with louvered roofs and loggia doors—are designed to create sustainable, luxury outdoor living spaces that boost your connection to the environment and become part of it.
The roof of this pergola has aluminum louvres with various functions so you can keep out the sun or let in a breeze. Photo courtesy of Renson
“If you’re going create an outdoor space, it’s about creating structures that are easier to put than brick-and-mortar but aren’t going to be temporary and promote replacement culture, where you get an inferior good that then breaks down over time and will need to be replaced,” says Peter Chlebogiannis, marketing manager at Renson. “The whole purpose is to become a fixture of the landscape.”
In fact, the first Renson Camargue aluminum pergola ever installed still stands today—more than 20 years later. “We’re building things that will allow people and their families to enjoy their outdoor space for a much longer period of time without having to replace it and creating waste,” Chlebogiannis says.
You don’t achieve that kind of longevity without luxury, quality materials and processes. And though luxury products can be an investment, it’s one that creates an elevated outdoor living experience that can’t be beat.
Leaning into Biophilic Design
Renson’s luxury outdoor living selection can also blend seamlessly with nature. Photo courtesy of Renson
The main focus of any outdoor living space should be a return to nature. Yet so many are designed at odds with it—destroying the landscape or introducing harmful materials and an artificial experience into the environment.
A successful luxury outdoor living space is seamless with nature, offering the opportunity to be a part of it, rather than mask it. “Beyond outdoor products themselves, what we’re actually providing is a lot more important that I think most people don’t appreciate until it’s in front of them—the ability to be outside,” Chlebogiannis says.
The key is in creating spaces that are made to be open. “Architecturally, if you look at a colonial house from back in the day, all the rooms are separated. More and more, people are busting down walls to create open concepts,” he says. “That works really well if there are not a lot of perceived barriers between you and the outside. There’s a huge benefit of looking through a floor-to-ceiling window, even if you are inside, and just feeling like you’re still in nature. The more space and connectivity—even visually—the better.”
Access to plenty of natural sunlight, plants, and greenery is also important. But where designing an elegant outdoor space can get tricky is accounting for the weather. Mother Nature, after all, is unavoidable—especially as weather events become more extreme.
That’s where covered solutions that allow you the flexibility to control your outdoor experience, like pergolas, come in. “Being able to control how much of the weather you experience is more feasible than controlling the weather or just staying out of it. Otherwise you stay inside all the time,” Chlebogiannis says. “If you have a backyard with no sun covering and you live in Dallas, even if the backyard is beautiful, all it is is a picture frame because you can’t experience it. What’s important is creating healthy spaces in nature that people can actually use—giving them the experience of being outside but getting to decide how much of the outside gets in.”
Prioritizing Sustainable Parts and Processes
Photo courtesy of Renson
Materiality is important to any project, but especially in projects rooted in nature. Choosing outdoor structures and furniture crafted with materials that are nontoxic, chemical-free, and built with the planet in mind is essential.
It’s why Renson’s pergolas are made exclusively of 100% recyclable aluminum—which can be recycled over and over again—and why it otherwise limits its use of raw materials. All of Renson’s pergolas are pre-cut and drilled onsite, and any excess materials are reclaimed and re-entered into the material pool or recycled. Its state-of-the-art factories also focus on reducing waste.
“Every Renson product is designed to be environmentally conscious, as everything at Renson is,” Chlebogiannis says. In fact, Renson’s headquarters in Belgium generates about 70% less energy and CO2 emissions than standard offices. That’s thanks in part to the company’s commitment to using renewable, inexhaustible energy sources like sun and wind power.
Beyond product and manufacturing, Renson also partners with organizations like the National Forest Foundation and supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals to push its sustainability initiatives further.
At the end of the day people spend an estimated 90% of their time indoors, where indoor air quality can be 10 times worse than outside air. If you had the opportunity to create a healthy, luxurious, and sustainable outdoor living space that allowed people to relax, work, eat, congregate, and generally live their lives outside—why wouldn’t you?
