‘A sense of light’
October 2019

A rare combination of architectural aluminium window, door and curtain walling product applications from SAPA have been brought together in the design of a contemporary five-bedroom private house in Cheshire.

Christian Gilham, design architect and managing director of Manchester-based Leach Rhodes Walker, explained his vision for this home: “Creating a sense of light and maximising the spectacular views were key design priorities. These factors made the glazing an important element of the build, requiring a systems package that would deliver the slim sightlines to enhance the views whilst at the same time creating a uniform architectural appearance.

“We also wanted to specify a range of systems that provided dual colour capability as well as contributing first-class thermal and weather performance together with high security throughout the house.”

In the indoor swimming pool room, Sapa’s C160 Aluminium Sliding Door system has been installed as a six-pane configuration spanning 11m x 3.6m. 

The feature room of the house is a large kitchen diner and lounge area that runs from the front to back, opening on to an orangery.

Two sets of Sapa Sliding Folding Doors have been installed in the orangery. One, featuring a six-pane run that splits and opens in the middle, the other, a three-pane configuration that opens to the side - exploiting the open aspect of the rear and side elevations. 

Three gables shape the focus of the house to the rear, with a curved on-plan bay entrance to the ground floor that features faceted Sapa Dualframe 75 HP Aluminium Hinged doors. This structure creates a balcony area for the master bedroom suite at first floor level where Dualframe doors have been installed, opening out on to the balcony. The doors are framed by a raked head detail, produced using Elegance 52 curtain walling to mirror the pitch of the roofline.

Sapa Elegance 52 curtain walling has also been used to create a full height feature glazed entrance screen, ensuring a light and airy entrance hall, together with two small rooflights that connect the main house to the swimming pool and leisure suite.

The main window module comprises Sapa Dualframe 75 Si casement and tilt-before-turn windows throughout the house. All other exterior doors are single and double sets of Dualframe 75 HP Aluminium Hinged residential doors with high security hardware across all of the Sapa systems.

Martin Spencer Managing Director of Fabricator/ installer Bonam & Berry said: “Bonam and Berry has supplied Sapa architectural aluminium products continuously for almost 40 years, and uses the complete range of Sapa products for residential, commercial, education and all public and private sector applications.”