The window is the architectural element that satisfies our innate need to relate to the outside space, providing us with ventilation and light. The more extensive and clean the window is, the greater the sensation of "being outside". Consequently, opening up spaces to the outside has become a common requirement for people who want and need to inhabit flexible, adaptable spaces, in contact with the air and nature. There are many ways to do this, but not all of them allow an airtight enclosure to become fully open and continuous, clearing the boundaries between both spaces.
In order to optimize interior spaces and blur its physical limits, Vitrocsa has developed the Turnable Corner technology, which consists of the integration of large glass panels that slide around corners using pivoting bearings. This allows the panels to be completely removed from view, freeing up front and corner space. The panels can reach an area of up to 10 m2 (300 kg) using single double glazing.
The ingenious particularity of this technology is that it allows independent sliding of the panels in any direction, using rails and frames no more than 140 mm wide, embedded and hidden in the floor, walls, and ceiling. Additionally, each panel can be completely hidden along a wall on the side of a building, or stacked within a cavity. The result generates visual continuity by incorporating the views of the landscape into the interior space and achieving a feeling of spaciousness.
At the Crescent House in Sydney Harbor, the architects used this technology to fully extend the living room of the house towards the bay and the sea in front. The landscape is then able to virtually enter the interior and the climatic conditions can be fully felt in almost all of its spaces, while the glazed panels pivot and are attached to the adjacent side walls.
Designed by nabil gholam architects, AZ House follows a similar logic, fully opening its lower ground floor towards an outdoor deck and the pool: "The gaze is constantly drawn towards the sea, Jounieh’s dramatic mountain backdrop or the shimmering towers of Beirut on the horizon. Where neighboring buildings impinge, windows become slit-like. Where the view is open, they become more generous, framing the landscape like a painting."
Privacy was an important topic in the Sunrise House's design by MCK Architecture & Interiors. Closing towards the street and locating the living spaces towards the Pacific Ocean, the house had to have the necessary flexibility so that its users could manage its opening levels. "The entire living space opens up via perpendicular sequences of floor-to-ceiling glazed doors. The living zone becomes a deck hovering over the landscape, from which one gazes across the ocean to the horizon," say its architects.
As we have seen, solutions such as the Turnable Corner system work effectively in a residential space, but they can also be an added value for public or mixed-use buildings, where adaptability and multiplicity of functions are essential, and where the direct relationship with the context can contribute to a better quality of life. Learn more about them here.
