Chapter 2

The first pergola carport was a rather industrial looking affair, with parallel trusses and the signature feature columns .The cover was a Laser lit tinted grey plastic screwed to the arches so that the ribs were perpendicular to the arches. Anyway it looked a lot better than a metal deck carport. With no gutters it was relatively easy to keep off the gum leaves. The shade cloth over the veranda pergola was also replaced by a series of arches with sunroof screwed to the arches which in turn were bolted to the original mountain ash 200mm by 50mm rafters salvaged from the old Government temporary offices constructed in Barton in the 1930's and finally demolished in the 1980. The arches were radiuses 25mmby25mm rectangular or more accurately square hollow section, commonly abbreviated to RHS or SHS.

Around this time my brother Tom and Janet moved up to the corner of La-Perouse St. and Carnegie Street, Red Hill and as the car accommodation under their house be designed for midgets, was only used for storage. Janet wondered if I had a solution, so it wasn't long before I found 4 more columns, welded the trusses into a series of multi arches kept apart by steel rings that transfer shear forces from the top to the bottom flange and covered the arches with a laced-on water proof, UV resistant, fire resistant PVC reinforced nylon cover. This looked a couple of notches better than the industrial prototype and Janet was just so happy with it, she coined the name that stuck with us ever since! " We just don't have a pergola - it's a 'Vogue' Pergola."

Because the Pergola were so unique, and no two pergolas were, or are, ever the same the description of "steel framed PVC covered pergola" did little to entice enquires so the business was reliant on word of mouth and enthusiastic converts knocking on the doors of proud "Vogue" owners. Several early Pergolas were designed and built for less than cost to demonstrate the range of possible solutions and at the same time attract some enquires.

Because of the variety and unique challenges that were being met for most of the designs, a " show room" of typical designs was not a practical option. Invariably the modes -operand of most of the early pergolas followed a similar "genetic code"

After the client managed to track down the vogue pergola "manufacturer", generally by pulling over and asking the owner of an existing vogue carport, I would make an appointment and inspect the site and ascertain the clients' needs and wants. One of the major breakthroughs came when we took out the first space ad in the Canberra Chronicle in colour showing four different styles of pergolas! The response was amazing and demonstrated the power of a graphic image; four years later some of our clients tell me they still have one of these ads stuck to the fridge door and they are now ready in their landscaping timetable for a pergola! Often the lady of the house will state they have been trying to describe the curvy shape to their husband for years without success----until now! As all quotes are obligation free it is somewhat disappointing when there is no response and the only compensation in a few cases, which more than makes up for the negatives, is the development of a totally new shape which is invariably utilised on a future project to the benefit of a very happy client. Because of the unique nature of each pergola there is an enormous sense of association with the result and feeling of being special and owning a personalised structure in a world increasingly dominated by repetition and mass production! As no two sites, aspects, houses, landscapes, are the same it would be difficult to standardise the pergola shape. And that is why steel fits into the pergola structure so readily! Steel is just such a flexible and malleable material! And by all accounts so unfertilised.

Some clients would pre-empt the apparent difficulties and reduce their "wants" to what they thought was physically possible -generally pre-conditioned by previous limitations of timber framed or metal framed pergolas with flat roofs.

But the "best" customers were always those that presented the biggest challenge because it was those challenges that pushed out the boundaries and forced the creation of completely new designs, concepts and construction techniques, as well as stretching the capabilities of roll formed work hardened steel section. All clients in the end demonstrated courage and a great deal of faith because there was no other pergola exactly the same to be compared to.

Meeting those challenges would ultimately lead to another "style" to add to the library and so on. Invariably it was true to say " The last pergola was always the best one" - as every smidgen of knowledge based on all the previous "prototypes" would be called on to refine, improve, and reduce costs to make the design and qualities of the next one better or cover more for less.

In the beginning, building one pergola every month or so, it was just a creative challenge to provide a water proof cover in the most aesthetic way, that would blend or even disappear into the landscape preferably disconnected from the residence so as to avoid any architectural clash of style. Computer aided drafting was still in its infancy so a lot of the early pergolas were eyed in on the shopfloor with often pleasing results. Now most pergolas are fully designed by AutoCAD and the quote drawings become the workshop drawings as well. After rolling the steel arches they were welded by some excellent part time welders such as Zoran, then painted by hand or sprayed in the early days (now sandblasted then powder coated) before being taken to the site on the roof racks of a commodore holden (now on extended racks on a mighty hilux). Being a mind relaxing but physically taxing activity in the early days construction would take place on weekends with my father or mate Allan Overton being conscripted to help. Being a fairly casual and friendly affair we would provide nice pastries from the French Pattisserie at the Chapman shops which we shared with our clients. Now as the one pergola a fortnight has turned into 3/week and the activity has justified full time marketing manager Nicholas, draftsmen Enzo and Jose and construction supervisors Danny and Production managers Corry, the productivity is increasing daily and my main task is to concept new designs as well as refine the more complex projects. Benefits of the vogue style ranged from a waterproof, relatively frost free environment, to an arched ceiling giving the feeling of space, space and more space to the point where you forget the overhead cover altogether.

Features include a virtual flame proof, U-V resistant, water proof cover, and low maintenance powder coated steel frame that is meccano style bolted together and able to unbolted without any great difficulty should the need arise. Most of the design variations were introduced as a consequence of challenges put up by new happy clients.

The early pergola had the trusses bolted to the inside of the columns. The eccentrically loaded columns complimented the symmetry of the arches, the truss and the shear rings, and the columns themselves. This eccentricity did not suit all designs and the circular column was developed so that the truss was connected over the diameter of the column .As necessity is the mother of all invention the two posted cantilevered pergola was developed to meet the need of limited driveway width and a one post system is currently on the drawing board! At the moment we need more and more clients who are brave enough to try dozens of new ideas which would personalise and grace their porches and carports!