FAQs
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What is architectural steel joinery?
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Architectural steel joinery is the custom fabrication of steel-framed windows, doors, screens and glazed systems as part of a building’s architecture.
Unlike standard window systems, it is typically designed and made for a specific project. That might mean an oversized pivot door, a wall of glazing, an unusual opening, a particular grid or profile, or a detail that simply doesn’t exist off the shelf. It sits somewhere between joinery, fabrication and architecture.
Big things. Odd things. Very specific things. That’s where steel gets interesting.
Why choose steel windows instead of aluminium?
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Steel lets you do more with less.
Its strength means finer profiles, smaller sightlines and larger areas of glass. It can handle big spans, high wind loads and heavy specialist glazing without needing the visual bulk of other materials. That strength also gives architects and designers more freedom. Openings can be larger, proportions can be more refined, and the frame can become a deliberate architectural detail rather than something that needs to be disguised.
There’s a reason enormous old factories were filled with steel windows. They needed light, and steel let builders create huge glazed areas without huge frames getting in the way. The architecture has changed. The advantage hasn’t.
And then there’s how steel looks and feels. That’s harder to quantify, but easy to understand once you stand in front of good steel joinery.
Why is steel joinery expensive?
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Because the things that make it good aren't cheap.
The steel itself is expensive. Zinc protection and finishing are expensive. Good hardware is expensive. Then there are the hours. Every bespoke piece has to be drawn, cut, welded, straightened, finished, fitted, and checked by people who know what they're doing. Complexity adds to that. More mullions and transoms mean more fabrication. Specialist hardware adds cost. Bifolds and other moving systems require considerably more work than fixed glazing.
You're not buying a standard window in a different material. You're buying something made specifically for the building.
And there's a nice irony in it: some of the most complicated pieces we make are designed to look incredibly simple when they're finished. That's the point.
What if I want steel but can't afford it throughout the whole house?
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Put it where you'll see and touch it every day.
A front door is a great place to spend the money. So is a fixed internal steel window. You get the character, proportions and feel of steel without needing to specify it for every opening in the house.
And sometimes steel simply isn't the right place to spend the budget. If you've got a conventional 2.4-metre stud with relatively small windows and doors, we probably wouldn't tell you to put steel everywhere.
Steel makes the most sense when you give it something worthwhile to do.
Yes. Southern Steel Windows is a “we can do that” business. If an architect can imagine it, we’ll work out how to make it.
We manufacture everything from straightforward steel joinery to oversized windows, curves, facets, mitres, unusual shapes, complex moving systems and completely bespoke pieces made for a particular building.
The limits are physics and the Building Code. Inside those, we like figuring out how to make ambitious ideas work.
Can you make what my architect has designed?
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How big can you make a steel window or door?
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Do you change an architect's design?
Do you work throughout New Zealand?
Big. That's one of the reasons architects specify steel in the first place.
At Tucker Beach, one of the panes of glass weighed around 800 kilograms. At that scale, the structure, glass, hardware, transport and installation all become part of the design problem. There isn't a useful standard answer to "how big?"
Give us the drawings, and we'll tell you how we'll make it work.
As soon as the joinery becomes interesting. Straightforward steel joinery doesn't need us sitting around the concept table. But if you're asking whether something is possible, working through how a large piece of joinery meets the building, or drawing something unusual, get us involved early.
For the weird and wonderful stuff, concept stage is ideal. It gives us room to work out how to build what you've drawn without having to compromise it later. We’ll still find a way if construction has already started, but the building might have to do some of the compromising. Once concrete is poured and openings are fixed, the parameters get tighter.
It's much easier to solve those problems on a drawing than beside a finished concrete opening.
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How early should I talk to Southern Steel about a project?
We try not to. The architect has designed it that way for a reason. Our job is to work out how to make it.
We'll step in when something affects workability, performance, or function, or when we can see a better way to achieve the same intent. The goal isn't to make the design easier for us. It's to make the design work.
Yes. We manufacture in Southland and work on projects throughout New Zealand. We've supplied joinery as far north as Tara Iti in Northland and have sent Southern Steel joinery across the Tasman to Australia. Manufacturing in Southland makes a difference. There's an attitude here that suits this kind of work. Interesting, difficult projects don't put us off. They're generally the ones we want to have a look at.
We also keep more of the process under our control. Having capability within the business means we're not simply passing the difficult parts down a chain of subcontractors. When there's a problem to solve, the people solving it are the people making the joinery.
You don't need to be down the road from our workshop. Send us the architectural drawings, and we'll price the project, then develop detailed shop drawings showing how the joinery will be made and how it interfaces with the building.
The builder confirms the rough opening heights and widths. We update the drawings, make sure everyone is happy and then manufacture the joinery. It is finished, fitted with hardware, and transported to site. Depending on the project, the builder installs the frames and the glaziers follow.
We've been doing it this way across New Zealand for years.
Is architectural steel joinery difficult to manufacture?
Movement makes things interesting. A fixed window can be enormous and still be relatively straightforward. Start adding doors, hinges, locks, sliders and bifolds, and suddenly a lot has to happen within a very small amount of steel.
Bifolds are the epitome of that. They look simple when they're finished, but there's a huge amount of hardware packed into a fine frame. Everything needs to be square, level and plumb for the whole system to work.
Then there's the steel itself. Welding introduces heat. Heat makes steel move, buckle and bow. Getting it straight again, allowing for paint tolerances and making the hardware work perfectly before and after finishing is where the craftsmanship comes in. The hard work is making all of that disappear.
There are hours of skilled work behind a piece of bespoke steel joinery: shop drawings, fabrication, welding, grinding, filing, sanding, straightening, finishing, hardware fitting, checking, and adjusting.
Specialist hardware can also have long lead times, which is why it pays to get us involved early. What looks beautifully simple once it's installed often has a surprising amount of work hidden inside it.