How shall I put it, your architect forgot one vital part of the balcony

[Belatucadrus]

[andsome]

You are meant to wear a parachute 

[catgate]

There is another oddity too. The drain pipe is delivering any roof rain into the house. (or is it uphill water )

[D4\/!d]

Its a fire-guard - in case of fire spitting out smuts.

[AlanHo]

2 hours ago, catgate said:

There is another oddity too. The drain pipe is delivering any roof rain into the house. (or is it uphill water )

It possibly takes the roof water from the front gutter through the space between the floor of the upper flat and ceiling of the one below to exit at the rear - where it runs down the wall and into a large water collection tank.

 

We rented an apartment in Portugal 2 years ago which had a similar feature. The water was used to irrigate the gardens.

[Gandalph]

It sounds a bit daft Alan. Why didn't they just take the pipe from the gutter on the back of the apartment straight down to the collection point. 

[Belatucadrus]

32 minutes ago, Gandalph said:

It sounds a bit daft Alan. Why didn't they just take the pipe from the gutter on the back of the apartment straight down to the collection point. 

If the roofs gabled at both sides, they probably do.

[AlanHo]

47 minutes ago, Gandalph said:

It sounds a bit daft Alan. Why didn't they just take the pipe from the gutter on the back of the apartment straight down to the collection point. 

Because they would  then collect the water only from the back of the building and not the front of the pitched roof. Simples.. 

[Gandalph]

I had thought of that. But it seems a bit strange that they are taking it through the floor to the back of the building. If they should ever be a leak there's going to be a right mess to put it right. You would have thought that it would have been easier for them to collect the water at the gutter end and have it run down a pipe fitted on the gable end to meet the pipe collecting water from the other side of the roof, then into the collection point. 

[AlanHo]

14 minutes ago, Gandalph said:

I had thought of that. But it seems a bit strange that they are taking it through the floor to the back of the building. If they should ever be a leak there's going to be a right mess to put it right. You would have thought that it would have been easier for them to collect the water at the gutter end and have it run down a pipe fitted on the gable end to meet the pipe collecting water from the other side of the roof, then into the collection point. 

That would spoil the appearance (from the road) of a beautiful building. 

[Gandalph]

It certainly look's like a beautiful building Alan. Especially with no balcony floors to stand on. 

[AlanHo]

27 minutes ago, Gandalph said:

It certainly look's like a beautiful building Alan. Especially with no balcony floors to stand on. 

It is known as architectural creativity - it was never intended as a balcony. Balconies are too often used to drape washing on. Ugly!.  To render it safe only the top quarter of the windows open.

[Gandalph]

What a waste of Balcony Doors. 

[Belatucadrus]

2 hours ago, Gandalph said:

If they should ever be a leak there's going to be a right mess to put it right

True but they look to me like flats, so will have utility pipes anyway so it may not be any riskier than usual.

When my parents had a flat in Poole one of their neighbours had a leak in the central heating, fixing it required lifting much of the flooring and after it was repaired they had to run dehumidifiers to dry the place out for weeks.

1 hour ago, AlanHo said:

Balconies are too often used to drape washing on. Ugly!.  To render it safe only the top quarter of the windows open.

Problem with that theory is that the windows appear to be French ones, which makes the balcony rails only usable as rather dangerous laundry racks.