We spoke last week with a company for terrace roofs and conservatories. The strip foundations are apparently indispensable, as the running rails are mounted here.
In the showroom, they also had an example with a wood/WPC terrace. There, you could only see the guide rails in the wood, which were flush. I have to google [Sonne-Rundum] sometime. There are some example pictures on their site where you can see how the guide rails are mounted.
We also considered the idea of a cold conservatory that opens completely with sliding elements, but then our newly paved terrace would have to be taken up and redone, as it has a slope. And for the guide rails, there must be no slope in the terrace.
Now it will probably come down to a normal aluminum/glass terrace roof. Then with under-roof and vertical awnings. Although the mentioned dealer really outdid himself with his offer:
Terrace roof of 6m x 3m with two under-roof awnings and three vertical awnings (1x west on 3m and 2x south on 6m) is supposed to cost just under €35,000! That makes no sense to me! Even if this is brand-name equipment. Closed, the whole thing is supposed to cost twice as much! That would be a quarter of our house cost-wise....