Southern Steel Windows Limited - Architechual Products

Until recently, glazing technology could only offer limited spans of glass because the framing systems used in residential applications were made from either timber or aluminium and therefore lacked tensile strength. That’s not to disparage timber or aluminium glazing systems; merely to emphasise that, when it comes to size, both have practical framing and wind-load limitations.

The lesson is that, if size matters, it has to be steel – a framing system that has quietly moved from the commercial sector to make visually exciting inroads into residential housing.

In New Zealand we are seeing a quiet revolution in residential glazing, with creative designers making use of internal and external space and designing a new dynamic between the two. In some cases, where large glass spans have been utilised, the dividing line between inner and outer space has effectively been removed.

In a room without walls, the effect can be aesthetically stunning. For the architect, it represents a new freedom to design homes in radically new styles, making use of new technologies to offer their clients a unique and better living experience.

Only steel can achieve this because of the medium’s superior strength. Once confined to large span curtain walling on commercial buildings, a high-performing steel system can cost-effectively make possible what was hitherto impossible in a residential context. This is especially so with large glazed doors and other moveable glazed panels that requires strength and stiffness which is unachievable with aluminium or timber.

For example, we recently designed and installed sixteen steel glazed and openable door leaves for a home in Queenstown. The house itself looks out on the Remarkable ski field to one side and, on another, to the Coronet Peak ski slopes – both vistas of immense natural beauty.

Rather than create a barrier between the home’s inner space and the beautiful views outside, the design solution was to create a glass wall nearly sixteen metres long and four metres high – utilising the largest double glazed unit size available in New Zealand.

The enormous expanse of glass, within a building itself designed to resemble a ship, entirely removes the boundary lines between internal and external spaces, placing the home and its occupants at the centre of the countryside outside.

The unrivalled strength of steel glazing not only gives architects greater freedom to design uniquely wonderful buildings, but to integrate any colour scheme into the framing system – an outdated concern of some architects who believe, wrongly, that steel cannot perform to the highest aesthetic standards.

At Southern Steel Windows, we use high-performing steel glazing systems from Wright Style, a UK company that now exports worldwide, and finished with an acrythane wet paint system that can be matched to any colour. This ensures that our systems are as visually appealing as powder coated aluminium.

It all comes down to light and how today’s designers can utilise that greatest of all natural resources. With a steel glazing system, size is no longer a constraint; rather, utilising light itself as a building medium, size can liberate the design process and produce homes that are a unique and integral part of their natural surroundings.