If size matters, use steel: making light of Steel Glazing in Residential applications

We are all adversely affected by bad buildings that make poor use of light. Indeed, recent studies suggest that a major cause of UK work-related absenteeism is caused, directly or indirectly, by poor lighting. However, the detrimental use of light can be just as pronounced in our homes.

In comparison, good building design that lets light flood in, bringing the outside world into our homes, can have the opposite effect. With modern glazing technology, it also blurs the dividing line between the outside and inside, giving our homes a fundamental sense of space and place within their surroundings.

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

Only steel can realistically 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.

Key project

A new home in New Zealand supplies a compelling example that architects and designers in the UK are beginning to follow.

It’s an application that we’re particularly proud of because it demonstrates that a UK firm with a good idea and products can help lead the way in other parts of the world. The contract involved 16 steel glazed and openable door leaves for a home in Queenstown, New Zealand. 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. The architect designed the challenging specification and our system and local fabricator rose to meet it.

Other architects have taken note, and not just in New Zealand. It’s a concept that is also coming here.

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. These methods include air-dry, multi-coat or thermo hardened powder coating and can be matched to any colour requirement. This ensures that our systems are as visually appealing as powder coated aluminium.

Deciding factors

All that said, there is no specific glass size at which aluminium must give way to steel. There are a variety of deciding factors, with the most important being glass dimensions – for example, overall size, thickness, classification and application – plus other requirements such as wind loading. In a specific location, aluminium might be okay, in another, not okay. Put simply, as size and performance requirements increase, the balance tips inexorably towards steel.