Sunshine has been an integral part of life ever since the sun and the earth began their merry dance. The feel-good ambiance provided by natural light is a recurring theme in human culture, from popular music, fashion, and photography, to our most luxurious environments.
But our bodies’ craving for sunlight is more than just a feeling. Scientific research has proven it helps our bodies to produce more melatonin which aids sleep and reduces stress, vitamin D which improves immunity and strengthens bones, and serotonin which fights depression. As well as helping us to live healthier and happier lives, research suggests the sun also helps us to live longer, too.
Even if you don’t go in for all that science, the evidence is all around us. Homebuyers are willing to pay as much as 20% more for a sun-facing garden over on the darker side of the same street, SAD (seasonal affective disorder) is an accepted and well-referenced condition, and there’s always a rush to claim the train’s window seat. Put simply, sunlight makes us feel good – whether we know why, or not.
Doors and Windows: Sunlight’s Traditional Route Into the Home
Despite their connection to the outside, many entrance doors don’t allow much light to pass through, but those featuring glazed elements that do can transform gloomy hallways and porches with changing, colorful light, temporarily making them the most beautiful rooms in the house. With the insulation and security improvements of glass as a material, meanwhile, entrance doors like this one at A House, Coach House, & Garden, can be fully glazed, turning the entranceway interior into a light and joyful space to come home to.
At the other end of the floorplan, strong innovations in sliding glass doors mean they can spread out across the entire width of a room, like at the House of Toninhas in Brazil, changing the layout from two divided indoor and outdoor zones to become one single area, transforming from interior to exterior at the pull of a handle. While frameless sliding glass doors like at the Achioté Villas in Costa Rica make the rear landscape of a property appear open, even when it’s not.
Glazed Surfaces: Replacing Walls, Ceilings, and Even Floors With Glass
The cost/benefit ratio of glass is now so favorable, in fact, that architects and their clients are more consistently choosing to replace traditional static surfaces, such as walls and ceilings, with glazing too, rather than just those that open. Available in huge sizes and with improved strength, skylights are relatively simple ways to illuminate the areas of the home and the parts of the day that need brightening up. Meaning beds can rest in the morning sun, central kitchen islands get natural task light, and bathrooms can get star-lit showers.
The Pavilion Brekstad, in Norway, for example, uses reinforced window frames for support, allowing its glazed facade to wrap all the way around visitors. And these two homes in Sweden and UK take advantage of the warming sun with wall-to-wall glass at the rear, cornering up and over into a ceiling. Completing the cube, meanwhile, the strength of strengthened glass even allows architects to install glass floors, where there’s the stomach for it.
Smart Windows: Controlled Privacy
The problem with expanding glazed surfaces, however, is that although those inside can see out, and light can see in, so can other people. So while the extra views and natural light seem idyllic in the Costa Rican jungle or the Norwegian planes, in residential London, homeowners may balk at their neighbors’ improved view.
Blinds and curtains are the standard method of closing off the outside world, but also tend to involve an annoyingly restrictive element of human effort. It may not seem much work to simply draw the curtains, but the act often goes forgotten, meaning forgetful residents miss out on the best of the day’s sun until it’s too late. Blinds that connect with a home’s smart technology system, however, can automatically allow light into a space at the right time of day.
Electrochromic technology is growing in popularity (and trust) since its breakout role in bathroom doors. By putting an electric charge through the center of the glass it changes from transparent to opaque and back, replacing the need for blinds of any kind. While in the future, thermochromic glass could see glazing that automatically reacts to changes in sunlight, producing a sun-blocking tint.
Thermal Insulation Glass: Stopping Heat and Heat-Loss
This report marks heat-insulated glazing as the fifth fastest-growing innovation in the construction industry, and you don’t need a clear window to see why with a worldwide focus on environmentalism and sky-rocketing energy costs. Thermal insulation glazing works by coating the glass with transparent metal, reflecting heat generated inside the home back inside, and simultaneously reducing solar gain, while still allowing light through. Provider of ‘high-performing glass solutions’ Saint Gobain, for instance, claims thermal insulation glazing will reduce energy losses by up to 80%.
Elsewhere in the pipeline, meanwhile, water-filled glass (WFG) is a more obvious solution to a very technical problem. Simply by filling the space between double glazing with water, WFG can absorb most of the heat from solar gain, while also saving up to 72% of energy.
Solar Windows: More Light, More Power
Replacing surfaces with glazing is a great way to bring in more light, and thermal insulation technology now allows glass to retain the warmth of a home, too. But with the average home’s energy needs far outstripping the average roof size and therefore solar PV Panel energy production, we need all the space we can get.
Currently in development, photovoltaic solar glass attaches an entirely transparent thin photovoltaic film to glass panels, meaning any surface from transparent windows and skylights to opaque facades and canopies can generate as much power as possible.
A House, Coach House & Garden / Culligan Architects
House of Toninhas / 24 7 Arquitetura
Achioté Villas / Formafatal
CLT House / Unknown Works
Guest House / HEIMA architects
La Escocesa House / DUB Arquitectura
Pavilion Brekstad / ASAS arkitektur
Library House / Fria Folket + Hanna Michelson
Haringey Glazed Extension / Satish Jassal Architects
Etam Paris Store / MVRDV
Glass Cabin / Mjölk architekti
Looking Glass Lodge / Michael Kendrick Architects
Oblique Figures Apartment / J.Roc Design
Find these selected projects with Glazed Facades in this My ArchDaily folder created by the author.
This article is part of the ArchDaily Topics: Light in Architecture, proudly presented by Vitrocsa the original minimalist windows since 1992.
Vitrocsa designed the original minimalist window systems, a unique range of solutions, dedicated to the frameless window boasting the narrowest sightline barriers in the world: Manufactured in line with the renowned Swiss Made tradition for 30 years, Vitrocsa’s systems “are the product of unrivaled expertise and a constant quest for innovation, enabling us to meet the most ambitious architectural visions.”
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