Denis Wright, the company’s managing director, believes
that steel glazing systems, once confined only to
commercial applications, are beginning to transform
how architects see the connectivity between outer
and inner space in residential contexts.

“It is without doubt our greatest resource and, without it, life on earth could not exist. It is more than one of life’s building blocks: it is the foundation stone on which all life depends. Yet, strangely, even architects can take it for granted.”

But light is fundamental to our existence, possessing absolute form and total function. It has the power to grow our crops, give us vision and influence how we feel.

However, even in residential applications, the primary importance of light is often undervalued. Put simply, good buildings need light to function and, in particular, natural light to function properly.

In a residential context, light should be seen as a building product of similar importance to bricks and mortar. It’s not just about functionality or the ambience that light can generate; it’s about providing connectivity between the outside and the inside.

We are all adversely affected by bad buildings that make poor use of light. Indeed, recent studies suggest that a major cause of work-related absenteeism is caused, directly or indirectly, by poor lighting. At best, it is demotivating; at worst, debilitating.

In residential buildings, the effects can be just as pronounced because lack of light alters our circadian rhythm – the fundamental sleep/wake pattern controlled by the brain chemical melatonin. In extreme cases, this is a direct cause of depression and conditions such as seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

In comparison, good building design that lets light flood in, bringing the outside world into our homes, can have the opposite effect. With modern glazing technology, it also blurs the dividing line between the outside and inside, giving our homes a fundamental sense of space and place within their surroundings.

Only light has the power to offer that transformation, and only glass and glazing can make it happen. However, advanced glazing technologies are relatively new to the New Zealand market and architects have yet to universally recognise the potential that new glazing systems can achieve, using light as the bridge between our homes and what lies beyond.

Until recently, glazing technology could only offer limited spans of glass because the framing systems used in residential applications were made from either timber or aluminium and therefore lacked tensile strength. That’s not to disparage timber or aluminium glazing systems; merely to emphasise that, when it comes to size, both have practical framing and wind-load limitations.

The lesson is that, if size matters, it has to be steel – a framing system that has quietly moved from the commercial sector to make visually exciting inroads into residential housing.

In New Zealand we are seeing a quiet revolution in residential glazing, with creative designers making use of internal and external space and designing a new dynamic between the two. In some cases, where large glass spans have been utilised, the dividing line between inner and outer space has effectively been removed.

In a room without walls, the effect can be aesthetically stunning. For the architect, it represents a new freedom to design homes in radically new styles, making use of new technologies to offer their clients a unique and better living experience.

Only steel can achieve this because of the medium’s superior strength. Once confined to large span curtain walling on commercial buildings, a high-performing steel system can cost-effectively make possible what was hitherto impossible in a residential context.

For example, we recently supplied our systems for sixteen steel glazed and openable door leaves for a home in Queenstown. The house itself looks out on the Remarkable ski field to one side and, on another, to the Coronet Peak ski slopes – both vistas of immense natural beauty.

Rather than create a barrier between the home’s inner space and the beautiful views outside, the design solution was to create a glass wall nearly sixteen metres long and four metres high – utilising the largest double glazed unit size available in New Zealand .

The enormous expanse of glass, within a building itself designed to resemble a ship, entirely removes the boundary lines between internal and external spaces, placing the home and its occupants at the centre of the countryside outside.

The unrivalled strength of steel glazing not only gives architects greater freedom to design uniquely wonderful buildings, but to integrate any colour scheme into the framing system – an outdated concern of some architects who believe, wrongly, that steel cannot perform to the highest aesthetic standards.

Invercargill-based Southern Steel Windows, our partner in New Zealand , is one of the country’s leading suppliers of architectural and fire resistant glass and glazing systems. They use our systems and finish them with a acrythane wet spray mix that can be matched to any colour. This ensures that our systems are as visually appealing as powder coated aluminium.

It all comes down to light and how today’s designers can utilise that greatest of all natural resources. With a steel glazing system, size is no longer a constraint; rather, utilising light itself as a building medium, size can liberate the design process and produce homes that are a unique and integral part of their natural surroundings.