28
The past decade has very much seen the trend switch to sliding doors
open-plan house layouts, as occupants make an effort to stay connected to one another. Having settled upon an open-plan living space for the whole family, the next steps are to fill these spaces full of natural light and to break down the boundaries between inside and out.
For the first 10 years of the 21st century, the trend in achieving this was focused on large glazed folding doors. The concertina design allowed for larger openings filled with glass that slid and stacked to one end to create a seamless transition between the home and garden.
Originally an import from continental Europe where the long, consistently warm and sunny days are perfectly suited for having the doors open, the limitations of folding doors comes with the changeable British climate and particularly when the doors are closed, because with narrower panels and larger frames there is more obstruction to the view out and the light let in.
For this reason the past decade has very much seen the trend switch to sliding doors, where the huge panels (up to 3 m across and minimal sightlines down to an incredibly slim 20 mm) make them far more suited to being closed. The slender frames provide an almost completely unobstructed view helping to breakdown
the boundaries between inside and out and to create contemporary, light-filled spaces in the house.
What we have seen over the past decade has been a more educated and informed end-client. They are much more comfortable with the products that are available to them and we know from talking to architects on a regular basis that has allowed the style of door to play a greater role in the briefing process and the design of the project. We are now in a position where it is very rare for an architect-specified project to contain bifold doors, which would never have been the case 10 years ago.
In recent years the choice between door systems has been expanded to include slide and turn doors with systems. With narrow frames like sliding doors but with the ability to slide and stack the panels at one end just like bifold doors, this style of door provides an innovative third option. Without the requirement for a fixed frame like a sliding door, slide and turn systems can maximise the opening when the doors are stacked to one end and yet with slender 45 mm sightlines they allow for larger panes of glass with less visible frame.
Edward Stobart is head of projects at ID Systems
WWW.ARCHITECTSDATAFILE.CO.UK
ADF FEBRUARY 2021
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
