Performance considerations
The performance strategy for the corner opening sliding doors and clerestory windows in London combines large-scale ventilation with thermally broken framing and controlled high-level openings.
The sliding doors provide the largest opening to the garden, while the clerestory windows allow smaller amounts of ventilation when opening the full rear elevation is unnecessary. This is particularly useful within the kitchen, where high-level ventilation can help circulate warm and humid air.
Thermally broken aluminium framing reduces conductive heat transfer through the highly glazed envelope. The oversized fixed window uses the same principle to maintain year-round performance at the window-seat location. IQ Glass guidance on thermal breaks in aluminium glazing explains how the internal and external aluminium sections are separated within the frame.
The coordinated light grey finish across doors, windows and surrounding cladding also allows several different glazing types to operate as one consistent architectural package.
Technical details
- Slim framed sliding glass doors: 21mm vertical sightline; project configuration combines two-pane and three-pane sliding systems at an open corner; standard tested panes up to 8.5m², 4m high and 500kg
- Sliding door performance: typical Uw greater than 1.1 W/m²K; Air Class 4 / Driving rain Class 7A / Wind Class C4/B5; PAS 24 security
- Sliding clerestory windows: high-level opening glazing positioned around the extension to provide natural light and controlled kitchen ventilation
- Gable end glazing: fixed aluminium glazing integrated within pale grey metal cladding above the sliding door elevation
- Fixed aluminium window: oversized thermally broken window incorporated into an internal garden-facing window seat
- Finish: slim aluminium glazing systems powder coated in a consistent light grey to coordinate with the metal roof cladding and contrast with the existing yellow brickwork.
Hartington Road demonstrates how corner opening sliding doors and clerestory windows in London can solve different requirements within the same contemporary rear extension. The open corner provides the principal garden connection, while high-level sliding windows, gable glazing and the fixed window seat introduce daylight, ventilation and framed views elsewhere in the plan.
The result is a coordinated glazing strategy rather than one oversized rear opening, with each system responding to a specific architectural requirement.
Architects and specifiers working on comparable extensions can contact IQ Glass for technical advice on open corner sliding doors, clerestory glazing, gable end windows and thermally broken aluminium glazing.
