Grille shutters: closed and still visible

A shopping mall unit has to be secure overnight and legible from the concourse. A grille shutter is the curtain type built to do both at once.

A grille shutter is a curtain of linked rod rather than a curtain of slat. Closed, it secures the opening and still shows what is behind it.

That single property decides where it is used: mall units and concourse frontages, where the landlord needs the unit readable after hours, and display frontages where a solid shutter would turn the street face into a blank panel.

Two builds are in normal use. Stainless link is the higher specification and the one to use where the shutter is seen close up or where the atmosphere is corrosive. Powder-coated steel link costs less and is the ordinary choice for an internal mall opening.

The trade against a slat curtain is honest: a grille gives up weather sealing and most of the acoustic separation. It is the right door for an internal frontage and the wrong one for an external wall.