With the Balcosy window balcony, Florian Holzmayer also creates an airy place in the sun for anyone living without a garden or terrace.
As the supposed beginning of all immoral vices, idleness still has a bad name among some people today. Wrongly so, because cultivating idleness is often the father of knowledge and inspiration. There are plenty of examples of this: Newton, lying idle in the meadow, who was helped to understand the law of gravity by an apple falling from a tree. The chemist August Kerkulé, who discovered the structure of benzene through a dream in his sleep. Or the metallurgist Paul Schwarzkopf, who had the brilliant idea for the production of tungsten powder for the manufacture of lamp filaments while out walking.
As far as the scope of unexpected discoveries is concerned, Florian Holzmayer is one size smaller, but his invention also has the potential for major changes: The fruit of his relaxation unit in the lockdown spring of 2020, at the window of his old flat-share room at Goethestrasse 53, is a mobile window balcony that can be folded up and transformed into a work table when it is not needed for sitting.
However, comfort and versatility were not the primary motives of the young man from Wahllinz, who was lured to the Danube from Salzburg by love in 2019: "I was just soaking up the sun sitting in the window and thought that I would feel more comfortable on the third floor with fall protection," recalls the graduate of the Hallein HTL for wood and building construction, recalling the silent big bang of the Balcosy, which in its very first form consisted of a simple board in the window reveal.
After the safety of comfort
When the danger of a window falling - in Goethestrasse - was averted with the board, Maslow's pyramid of needs once again came into play. True to the motto that after securing one's livelihood, it's all about well-being, Holzmayer pondered ways and means of making the consumption of light and air in the window frame more comfortable. As the grandson of a carpenter's grandfather, the art history student developed a first version of the seating balcony with simple tools and wooden panels, which he never let go of mentally. After much research and reflection, the lively engineer decided in the summer of 2020 to fully commit to the window balcony project. Last but not least, a thesis written in 2013 about a similar project with the beautiful name "Freisitz" - which Holzmayer found online - strengthened his belief in the potential of the Balcosy, as he began to call his construction in combination of "balcony" and "cozy". "One sixth of all Austrian households have neither a terrace nor a balcony and therefore have a potential need for a Balcosy," says Holzmayer, "if you add the corresponding households in Germany and Switzerland, you get a gigantic number."
Development in the thicket of standards
Holzmayer proved his resourcefulness not only in the gradual further development of the Balcosy with the table folding mechanism as a highlight. But also by immediately contacting the Upper Austrian furniture and timber construction cluster MHC after deciding on the Balcosy company in order to find out about standard specifications. The MHC immediately put him in touch with a carpenter, who advised Holzmayer with his 40 years of experience and long involvement in the standardization committee. This is one of the reasons why the Balcosy is declared a mobile piece of furniture: As such, it does not protrude beyond the building line of the building in question and does not require planning permission or the consent of a landlord.
As far as the standards are concerned, things proved difficult, reports the Balcosy inventor: "There are some semi-applicable standards, such as the one on the prescribed railing height when seated." The Balcosy underwent an extensive series of structural tests at a structural engineering institute. In order to provide further reassurance, Holzmayer commissioned an expert opinion from a civil engineer, which cost him around 1o,000 euros - although as a furniture manufacturer he would not be obliged to do so. But safety comes first for a product that is used at lofty heights. The young entrepreneur, who has enjoyed the support of tech2b since summer 2021 on the recommendation of a friend with a pasta business, had to sacrifice two of the eight Balcosy models he has built so far for the destruction test.
Image: tech2b / Andreas Balon
