Light the way with amazing glazing!
GLAss has long been a fashionable choice among home improvers, housebuilders and architects. And now, thanks to technological advances and innovative design techniques, it’s breaking new ground.
This is particularly the case for extensions, which can be bright, light, thermally and solar-protected spaces that stay cool in summer and warm in winter.
By using glass as part of the structure, held together with structural silicon seamlessly bonding glass to glass, homeowners can create a contemporary, frameless effect. Inside, skylights, atriums, conservatories in internal rooms, interior glass walls, floor-toceiling windows, glazed balconies, staircases and walkways are all increasingly incorporated into new developments or added to existing ones.
When Graham and Regan Bentley applied for planning permission for a traditional dormer window similar to their neighbours’, in the loft of their Victorian terrace house in Berkhamsted, hertfordshire, it was refused because it was within a conservation area. ‘our architect then suggested another idea, to seek planning permission for a glass box,’ says Graham, 43, head of global property at independent financial firm deVere Group. ‘My initial thought was that a normal dormer would be more in keeping with other properties than a glass box, but the council approved it.’
Their architect stephen Crawford, of Crawford Architects, says of the design: ‘The frameless glass box was the least visually intrusive option, being transparent. Not only did it provide enough headroom for the stairs up to the new loft room, but also served to flood daylight into the previously dimly lit staircase and hallways below, as well as provide views out across the Grand Union Canal and Berkhamsted’s medieval market town.’
This option certainly didn’t come cheap.
‘The cost of the glass box was just under £30,000 and the building works were about £23,000, and it was an extra few thousand for the crane to install it, which meant shutting off the road while we did it,’ says Graham.
‘But it was a large box. If it had been smaller it would have been cheaper. The only problem we’ve had is that it is slightly too warm in the summer, but we just keep the skylights open.
‘The good news is that the house is undoubtedly worth more because of it. We’ve only received positive comments about it.’
housebuilders are also using glass in interesting ways.
‘Many new-build homes are essentially just boxes,’ says Jonathan stephens, managing director of surrenden Invest of the Ancoats Gardens development in Manchester.
‘however, using floor-to-ceiling windows and higher ceilings means that our property benefits from far more natural light than the average new- build home.’ Apartments at Ancoats Gardens start from £229,714, surrendeninvest.com.
Meanwhile, the developer Village Makers uses glass as a passive solar collector in ‘sun spaces’ which trap and store heat from the sun.
‘on hot days, they act like a chimney, drawing air through the house, cooling it down. They also serve as an extra space, just like a conservatory, but with the internal balconies,’ says Bob Tomlinson, of Village Makers. ‘ Residents at our development The Wintles in shropshire — where a three-bedroom home costs from £ 300,000 — have grown all sorts of exotic plants in their sun spaces, including a banana tree.’ Richard McLane, design director at Bisca, which creates bespoke glass staircases and balustrades, says glass staircases are popular again: ‘A staircase takes up a lot of space but, constructed in glass, even a large staircase can appear unobtrusive due to its transparency.’
Roof lights and glass floors are another fantastic way of adding light. Glass can be finished with blasted sand or grit, a clear tint or etched with a design
Architectural glazing company IQ Glass specialises in striking triple-glazed cubes, frameless roof lights, curved glass and glass extensions.
Its commissions include ‘his and hers’ art studios for one couple and a glass floor to add light to a basement extension. Prices from £1,000 sq m include design and build (