Windows
Puddling Puddling goes beyond a simple break. It moves into a sense of excess. It can look very formal or just the opposite, depending on the fabric. For a relaxed feel, use a soft, gauzy fabric, which won't look too fussy if left a bit unkempt at the bottom. Much like the difference between a break in faded jeans versus a break in suit pants or dress trousers, one kind of fabric will look casual, another stylish. Fabric and style work hand in hand here.
Large sliding doors span floor to ceiling and move completely clear of the opening to create a seamless connection between indoors and out. The color and frame size of the doors match the window system above. It's hard to distinguish what is wall, what is door and what is window, because each is treated as part of a compositional whole. By increasing the height of this door to match the ceiling height, the architect has hidden the sliding track of the door elegantly within the floor thickness above, effectively dissolving the boundary between inside and out. Many types of spaces can benefit from thinking about the elements of buildings as part of a larger system. Doors specifically tailored to room dimensions are strong statements of intent in design.
Here's another example of a sliding door functioning as a wall. The architect made a conscious decision to conceal the sliding track in the ceiling to allow the proportions of the room and the adjacent stone wall to dictate the panel size, rather than the opening its meant to conceal. So the wall panel has become another tonal element in the architectural material palette, along with the wood floor and stone wall. It's rendered here in wood, but a sliding door panel such as this could be almost any material — cast glass, perforated metal, etched stone — and function as both a sliding art object and a door
Charlie Barnett Associates The structure here dictated the scale of the pivoting door. A door sized to the proportion of a person would've meant more divisions in the wall and more separation between inside and out in this design, which relies instead on breaking down those barriers. Care has been taken to match the size of the stone threshold to the size and reach of the pivoting door, lending the open panel a natural point of repose.
A hopper window is much like an awning window except that the bottom of the sash is hinged to the frame so the top tilts in. While the traditional hopper would only function this way, titling in from the top, today most hopper windows are made as tilt-and-turn windows. This window will either tilt in at the top (being hinged at the bottom) or swing in (hinged along one side). A lever is used to engage or disengage the hinging system so that either the window tilts in at the top, as a hopper, or swings in from the side, as an inswing casement. These windows are an excellent choice where there's a desire for an easy-to-clean window that can meet building code requirements and just be open a slight bit when some fresh air is desired. Some extra care will have to be taken when designing a room due to the swing feature. Furniture, lamps, etc. will all have to be placed so the windows can be easily opened and closed.
Awning windows are a favorite of architects and designers trying to achieve a wall of large glass sheets with a minimum frame and where fresh air venting is desired or required. A classically contemporary setup is the large fixed glass panel set above an awning window that is kept low in the wall. This setup allows for expansive, unobstructed views to the outside while making sure that it's possible to get fresh air into the room.
Arched Window
Bay Window
Bay Window
Bay Window
Bay Window
Bay Windows
Bay Window
For an opulent look, really push the length overboard. This method is most often used to reinforce a sense of history in a traditional or historical home.
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