One Million Square Feet Of Glass

Joseph Paxton's original, 1851 Crystal Palace had nearly one million square feet of glass.

Our long love affair with light, and windows: The 1851 Crystal Palace sparked a desire for glass that continues to evolve. It was a brilliant spectacle and light years ahead of its time. “To anyone arriving at Hyde Park, the first sight of the Crystal Palace, floating above the trees, sparkling in sunshine, would have been a moment of knee-weakening splendor,” writes Bill Bryson in At Home,  a history of the world told through accounts of private life.  “… the idea of strolling through cubic acres of airy light inside a building was dazzling — indeed, giddying,” he says of the massive structure built in 1851 in London, England.

The Crystal Palace, designed by Sir Joseph Paxton and assembled in just five months, boasted almost one million square feet of glass and covered 7.7 hectares. It was the world’s largest building, erected for the first world’s fair, and marked a major milestone in the evolution of architectural glass. But darkness eventually descended on the Palace as it fell into financial ruin and burned to the ground in 1936.

Still, the door had opened on our love affair with light. Crystal Palaces sprang up around the world, including Picton, Ont., where a glass-and-wood structure built at the fairgrounds in 1887 is the only North American survivor. With windows on all sides of its cruciform plan, it proved a tempting target for vandals and spent 40 years boarded up until plastic sheeting replaced glass during restoration in the 1990s.

Though less splendiferous than London’s Crystal Palace, copy-cat versions all aimed to let maximum sun shine in. Construction of these glass-walled wonders was helped by two developments in the mid-1800s: cutting-edge technology that boosted the cheap production of sheet glass, and Britain’s abolishment of crippling window and glass taxes. Before that, people often bricked up their windows rather than put in expensive glass.

The story of windows through the ages is an illuminating one. Imagine moving day in the 16th century, for example, when you packed them up to take with you. Or consider the dilemma of trial witnesses testifying pre-1890s when judges deemed window glass too wavy to allow an accurate view of events.

Architectural historian Shannon Kyles praises the "irregularities" in her 1830s sash windows. At one time, courts rejected testimony of witnesses describing events seen through a window because the glass was too wavy.

But one man’s distortion is another woman’s delight, as Shannon Kyles gazes through the “irregularities” of her 1830s sash windows at the trees beyond. “I just love windows!” declares the architectural historian. Her Regency-style cottage, in Prince Edward County, has at least 20 that she took pains to preserve when she moved and rebuilt the house four years ago. “Loads of glass is wonderful,” says Kyles. “You can stand in a room in the middle of winter and still be comfortable — and you can see in four directions.”

She’s so enamoured of “lovely old windows” that she’s building an entire room out of them. And she’s even willing to pick up other people’s discards if the glass has imperfections or is crown or leaded.

Early window panes were made from crown glass that was blown and spun, causing a circular pattern in the centre. “People are just tossing them,” Kyles complains about old windows. “I have seen some fabulous original Arts and Crafts windows head to the landfills. It’s unbelievable.”

She takes on the notion that new vinyl-framed double- or triple-glazing is more energy-efficient. Properly restored old windows fitted with a storm are actually more energy-efficient than new ones, maintains Kyles, who’s made a video offering proof. She and other heritage conservationists would like to see the government offer tax incentives to restore, rather than replace, historic windows.

As an architectural feature, they shed light on society’s collective psyche, according to Kyles, who teaches architecture at Hamilton’s Mohawk College and explains building styles on her website, ontarioarchitecture.com. Back in the 14th and 15th centuries, house windows were placed high up for security reasons, she says. But now, “there’s glass on every side and floor because people aren’t afraid of someone just barging in and killing them.”

Architect Philip Johnson's innovative Glass house, built in New Canaan, Conn., in 1949.

That message is crystal clear in late American architect Philip Johnson’s famous Glass House, built in 1949 in New Canaan, Conn. With its fishbowl-like façade and open plan, the rectangular residence hides nothing from the outside world. In recent decades, glass walls have taken an upward turn as condo towers continue to sprout across the GTA skyline. But what goes up on those vertical crystal palaces has occasionally come down, in the form of glass showers.

Several times in recent years, downtown pedestrians have dodged pieces of balcony panels or outer windows that spontaneously shattered. Last fall, three class action lawsuits by hundreds of condo residents who lost the use of their balconies were given the green light to proceed after a dozen glass panes from their highrises plummeted to the street. Other incidents involved residential floors above the Shangri-La Hotel on University Ave. and the Four Seasons Hotel in Yorkville.

While these cases made headlines because of their location, falling glass isn’t new, says an engineer who’s studied the phenomenon for 30 years. Spontaneous breakage can occur in the first few years of a building’s life and only in fully tempered glass affected by a combination of factors such as temperature cycles and the presence of tiny imperfections, says Mark Brook, a partner at BVDA Façade Engineering.

Annealed glass, used in house windows, and heat-strengthened glass, used for large panes in commercial buildings, aren’t affected, he says. The strongest type, fully tempered glass that breaks into tiny cubes, is used in places that are susceptible to impact. Brook forecasts more — though not widespread — glass showers as young buildings settle in. “It’s highly unlikely it will be raining down for the next 10 years,” says Brook, who investigated some of the publicized incidents.

Most of the new towers going up now use laminated glass, made of two bonded layers that hold together when broken, he adds.  A window of opportunity, perhaps, for the crystal palaces of tomorrow?

Window Cleaners Smile - Glass Walls Trending In New & Old Homes

Growing Panes: Homeowners Go Big on Glass Walls - Anita and Bob Dethlefs wanted the new Portland, Ore. home they were building to really let the sunshine in. So, the couple installed 2,700 square feet of Marvin windows—about $300,000 worth—on nearly every wall of the property. And then they put up 12 security cameras. "We're getting about as much light as you can in the Northwest but with so many windows, safety was the No. 1 concern for me as a mommy with kids running around the house," says 43-year-old Ms. Dethlefs, who has five children. Her husband started a leadership conference business, Evanta Inc., in 2003 and later sold it. Their 13,000-square-foot, $5 million Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired home even has a glass front door, letting visitors on the front stoop see through the family's living room out to Mount Hood.

Forget about a room with a view. Today, homeowners want views from every room. As large expanses of glass have become architecturally acceptable for modern and traditional homes, new technology is making living in a fishbowl more practical—albeit sometimes challenging. Homeowners' desire for more open floor plans with combined kitchen and living-room spaces has paved the way structurally for bigger spreads of glass. A growing appetite for more energy-efficient windows and associated tax incentives and rebates have also supported the trend.  "The open floor plan is predominant in almost everyone's design now," says builder Tim Wilkinson of Great Falls, Mont. "They want more light and bigger windows to take advantage of views."

Today, thanks to technological advances, nearly all windows installed in new homes have special, invisible coatings that block heat and keep ultraviolet rays from fading furniture. Many also use double or triple-panes with argon or krypton gas sandwiched in between, which helps insulate in cold climates. Now standard on Andersen Windows glass: a titanium dioxide coating the company says sheds dirt and virtually eliminates water spots. Some glass makers are even marketing windows for residences that can tint and untint with the push of a button.

And for those put off by the prospect of raising and lowering so many blinds, companies such as Lutron Electronics sell window shades that can be controlled with an iPhone app. "Across the board, people want more light," says Mike Rogers, senior vice president of GreenHomes America Inc., a company specializing in energy-efficient home renovations, which has been incorporating more glass in its projects. Beyond privacy and safety—Ms. Dethlefs's chief worries—there are maintenance issues, such as how to keep so much glass spotless. (The couple pay $850 to $950 for professional cleaning at least three times a year.) And despite technological improvements, glass still doesn't typically insulate as well as a wall packed with insulation.

Then there is the bird problem: Anywhere from 100 million to 1 billion are killed in window collisions every year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. While manufacturers such as Andersen Corp. and Marvin Windows and Doors say overall window sales have slowed amid a sluggish new-house market, the companies say they are seeing more and larger windows going into new homes. In modern homes, "they are filling space between floor and ceiling with as much glass as they can," says Jay Sandgren, an architectural representative for Andersen. He says builders are being "a lot smarter" about positioning a home and the roof overhang to capture the most sunlight in winter and to block much of the heat from the sun in summer.

Building with glass isn't cheap. Mr. Wilkinson the Montana builder estimates the price is about double the cost of installing regular walls packed with insulation. His own 4,800-square-foot home that he completed last year has $85,000 worth of Andersen glass, giving him a 240-degree view of three mountain ranges and the Missouri River. Even the deck railings are glass panels.

Tempered safety glass is installed according to local building codes in areas of homes where breakage might be of particular concern, such as windows and doors close to the floor or near a stairway or landing. Glass can sometimes attract vandals in the construction phase, a headache for builders, Mr. Wilkinson says. But breakage for homeowners "is rarely a problem," he says, although he cautions that people mowing the lawn should look out for rocks that the mower can kick out to crack a pane.

Architect Thomas Roszak took the fishbowl aesthetic to the extreme in his own Northfield, Ill. home, which features commercial curtain-wall glass around the entire building.The walls are constructed from two argon-filled glass panes covered with what's called low-emissivity, or "low-e," metallic coating to block heat flow through the window, keeping the home cooler in the summer and warmer in winter.

With little traditional wall space, art is suspended in front of windows from a floor-to-ceiling, museum-type wire hanging system, Mr. Roszak says. For privacy, he planted trees around his one-acre property and installed $60,000 worth of electronically operated blinds. One low point of glass-house design: The day his 8-year-old son spied a dead bird that had hit home's glass siding, likely mistaking the trees' reflection for safe habitat. "He said, 'Daddy, I don't think that bird is sleeping, I think it's broken,'" Mr. Roszak says.

Glass homeowners must be mindful of clutter, since the view goes both ways. When Beata and Brad Peters built their 3,900-square-foot brick home in Hawthorn Woods, Ill., they incorporated large panels of glass symmetrically throughout. While most windows have wood blinds, the family tends to leave them open for aesthetics. "I don't put a lot of stuff in front of the windows," Ms. Peters says. In the kitchen, appliances like toasters get packed along a wall with no glass.

Window-treatment companies are pushing to make shade operation less of a chore. Rotterdam-based Hunter Douglas this spring added a "Solar Energy Sensor" that raises and lowers blinds based on the amount of sun detected. Despite the slump in the housing market, the company's North American sales rose almost 5% last year. An electronically controlled Lutron shade sells for about $900 more than manual ones and can be controlled via remote control or an app for Apple Inc. or Android devices.

Some glass companies now make windows that reduce the need for blinds altogether. One is Sage Electrochromics Inc. of Faribault, Minn., whose product consists of clear panes that morph to a grayish-blue tint when a user flips a switch to send a low-voltage current across the window. The tint reduces glare and heat but not visibility. Sage began selling the glass for residential applications around 2005, though they are typically found in high-end homes due to cost. An installed window costs between one-and-a-half to two times as much as one with typical low-e glass. "If you're on the West Coast facing the ocean when the sun is beating on the glass, what people do is pull their blinds and shades to block the glare," says Helen Sanders, Sage's vice president of technical business development. "What that means is you've just lost your view you paid a huge amount of money for."

Modern architect’s glass is half full: In 1921, German architect Mies van der Rohe designed an all-glass skyscraper which, while never built, foreshadowed the countless glass-clad skyscrapers that would rise in cities around the world during the 20th century. As demonstrated by KGP’s Bikestation, iconic architecture in glass doesn’t have to be high or huge in scale. One of architect Philip Johnson’s most notable works is his one-story, modestly-sized but very elegant all-glass house built in 1949 in New Canaan, Conn. A simple rectangle in plan and elevation, Johnson’s transparent, minimalist house is enclosed entirely with large glass panels. Only the interior bathroom is opaquely clad. On a large landscaped parcel with no close neighbors, Johnson’s house needed no curtains or shades.

Of course, Johnson was not averse to grandiosity. Perhaps inspired by Paxton’s Crystal Palace, Johnson designed the daylight-filled Crystal Cathedral in Orange County, Calif., completed in 1980. An enormous religious sanctuary seating more than 2,700 worshipers, the Crystal Cathedral’s skin was constructed using 10,000 rectangular panes of glass. Today the building is for sale. A few years ago, the city of Seattle built a new library with a faceted skin composed only of diamond-shaped glass panels, some clear and some opaque. Designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, the 11-story library is an abstractly shaped, dramatically angular form covering an entire downtown block. Equally dramatic interior spaces are brightly suffused with daylight, even when it rains, a benefit much appreciated in Seattle.

State-of-the-art curtain wall technology allows architects to wrap buildings with increasingly large sheets of glass, to support glass with ever-thinner framing elements and hardware and to construct ever more complex glass skins. Glass can be manufactured using permanent coatings, surface etching and laminations to create artistic patterns, modulate light transmission, block solar radiation or sustain high impact forces. Energy-efficient glass, resisting conduction and radiation of heat, has made all-glass facades increasingly feasible. And by optimizing the amount of daylight reaching building interiors, a glass skin significantly reduces electric lighting needs and energy consumption. Now viewed as a relatively “green” building material, today’s glass is indeed not your father’s glass.

Roger K. Lewis is a practicing architect and a professor emeritus of architecture at the University of Maryland.

The Luxury Glass Market

Walls of Glass

'Bigger is Still Better' in Luxury Market: Manufacturers see continued growth opportunities for high-end products. Spectacular homes often feature spectacular views. It’s no surprise that architects and owners want to maximize these views with walls of glass. Over the last few decades, door and window makers catering to this market have gone a step further, enabling owners to not only fully enjoy their views but bridge interior and exterior spaces with wide-opening door systems that can almost disappear.  

   

The luxury home market has demanded more glass to take advantage of beautiful views, with wide-opening doors systems, including these Weiland lift/slide doors.

The increased awareness and popularity of these lift/slide and bi-fold door products is still one of the biggest trends in the luxury home market, where “bigger is still better,” according to Chris Schamer, director of sales/principal at Quantum Windows & Doors Inc. in Everett, Wash. While the landscape has changed with an economic downturn that took its toll even on the healthy providers of these systems, more companies are now competing in the ultra-high end segment.

And despite the scale-back, luxury window and door business certainly didn’t disappear, reports Roy Zeluck, president of Zeluck Inc., a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based manufacturer that has long provided windows and doors for high-end homes. “Our potential market in the U.S. is probably 200 to 300 homes a year,” he states. “It doesn’t take a lot of jobs to make us happy.” This market is generally insulated from some of the ups and downs in the rest of the window and door business, but the last two years, the market have been more of a struggle, Zeluck continues. “We’ve been working hard to keep our factory busy and our people employed,” he states, attributing the challenge to a combination of market weakness and an influx of new competitors.

Weiland Sliding Doors & Windows in Oceanside, Calif., has been producing large-opening doors since 1986, primarily supplying luxury homes. For a long time, it was a very specialized business, reports Sue Weiland, CFO and owner. In 2002, the products started to gain momentum, with displays at the International Builders Show causing increased awareness. “That attention attracted more companies into the large door market,” she continues. “Then as the construction market dwindled, companies scrambled to find products and niches where they could still grow. That brought even more companies into this business.”

Popular in luxury homes, bi-fold doors such as these LaCantina Doors are moving into the broader housing market as the popularity of indoor/outdoor spaces increases.

Growth in Doors: The trend in wide-opening doors has been evident for about eight years, says Matt Power, president of LaCantina Doors, a manufacturer of folding doors with U.S.-based operations in Vista, Calif. He sees much of the company’s growth in recent years coming from the luxury home segment, and agrees this product segment is growing due to “the desire to create open spaces and enjoy the indoor/outdoor lifestyle." Doors that create large openings are fast becoming a standard feature in any luxury home, Power states. “The main demand we see about style is to maximize the amount of glass.” Noting the appeal of folding doors as a “wow” feature, he see significant growth potential both in the high end and ultimately also for the average homeowner, as the folding door is generally seen as the alternate to a standard patio slider.

Folding doors are well suited for more applications, agrees Steve Donner, GM at Weiland, pointing to remodeling. He sees continued growth for both types of wide-opening systems beyond the ultra-high-end, noting that “the pie is definitely getting bigger.” Beyond the luxury home segment, he points out that wide-opening doors provide a cost-effective approach to increasing living area. “You can take a 1,500-square-foot home and with a wide-opening door, you can add 700 square feet of living space.”

Donner also states, however, that despite the broadening of the market, lift/slide systems are likely to maintain their popularity in luxury homes. “They can better accommodate the larger and larger glass panels with minimal framing that these homeowners want.”

Walls of glass, like these produced by Quantum Windows, are standard in the luxury market, but these manufacturers emphasize the added level of service demanded as well.

High-End Opportunities: Large-opening door systems will increase in popularity among various price points, and luxury window and door producers continue to be encouraged about growth prospects in the luxury home market specifically. “We’re starting to see more signs of life,” reports Zeluck. “We’re encouraged because there are more projects to bid on.” The clientele in the luxury market has not been as negatively impacted by the economic downturn, but there was definitely some hesitation moving forward on projects over the past two or three years, Quantum's Schamer says. “We see it as a positive sign that some projects that were bid on already are coming to life.”

And despite the influx of competition, the companies that are focusing on the luxury home market are confident they will continue to thrive. “Most projects we get involved in want large expanses of glass,” notes Schamer, but the market demands more than wide opening lift/slide and folding systems, he adds. “The level of service required, the range of products delivered for these project—those are hard for the larger manufacturers to deliver.”

The larger manufacturers with R & D and other resources have been able to do a lot of things with products, but the level of customer service required in the luxury segment is still a challenge for them, agrees Weiland. “There’s a devotion to detail necessary." It’s a market that continues to grow more demanding, notes Zeluck. “People know what they want,” he explains. “They are spending more time with their plans, more time with their architects. You don’t see the constant stream of changes as the project progresses.”

Another trend these manufacturers agree on is the demand for more testing in high-end products. More jurisdictions require it before a door or window can be installed, and with custom products, it can become a challenge, Zeluck notes. Schamer agrees. “It is a real challenge for smaller companies—compared to the bigger guys—to get all the necessary testing done and make sure products meet all the changing code requirements. We have to put a lot of our recources into that.”

Donner also points to the increased emphasis on testing, but also suggests that some companies entering the market are not always equipped to meet all the code requirements. He points in particular to the flush mounted bottom track offered on his company’s doors which have been successfully tested. In the luxury market, homeowners don’t want to step over a bottom track, he explains, and meeting the test requirements with a flush track remains a key challenge for many door makers.

While wood and aluminum products dominate the wide-opening door business, Zeluck sees an increased demand for steel windows and doors in luxury homes. As a result, his company is introducing what he describes as a "revolutionary" new thermally-broken stainless steel product line. Steel is popular in both traditional and contemporary design, he reports. “Its thinner profiles—and more glass area—appeals to architects and their customers.”

Customers in this segment will continue to look for a whole array of options. “It’s not just the large-opening doors; it’s retracting screens, it’s solar panels,” Zeluck continues. His company has even supplied a door that sinks into an opening in the floor when not in use. “People like to have a special feature in the home that really stands out.”

Schamer agrees. He sees demand for switchable glasses and many other unique options in his company’s projects. Looking at the increased competition in this segment, he adds, “that’s not always a bad thing. It’s made us a better company. We’ve had to work much harder to become a more efficient organization. We now feel positioned to take advantage of a vast wealth of knowledge and experience to bring our clients greater value.”

Zeluck predicts that competition will continue to come into the upper-end segment, but says his company will focus on the ultra-high end. “You can’t get a Rolls Royce at a Buick price,” he says. Larger manufacturers can put a lot of resources into a product, but they will not be able to deliver the level of service and customization required in the top homes being built, he says.

Those companies focused on large opening doors, meanwhile, are looking at the broader market. “We see an increasing number of home designs incorporate at least one large door opening living areas as part of an indoor/outdoor lifestyle,” says LaCantina’s Power. “Our product is exciting for homeowners and often a focal feature of the home.”

In fact, homeowners will sometimes save money elsewhere on a window package just to have the large opening door, he notes. “Our product is just as appealing to create space in a home with a small courtyard as a large home with wide ocean or mountain views.”

Architectural Glass: Beauty or Eco-Beast?

Architectural glass: beauty or eco-beast? From an aesthetic point of view, architects and clients specify the interior and external glass for a new building. When it comes to structural integrity, performance and application, engineers rule. If the project requires an inordinate amount of glass, perhaps contractors or value engineers will weigh in with cost-effective alternatives. This is the reality of building in the Middle East, but at the end of the day, who trumps whom?

In the Middle East, does the architect’s opinion reign supreme? Or, are the value engineers the behind-the-scenes budgetary saviours when it comes to making decision on glass? Do building owners or developers really even care what goes where, as long as the building sells? All of these questions beg one last, fundamental question: Is architectural glass a decision of functionality or aesthetics? This much we know: architecture is about creating space. Architects design structures to be experienced. To remove the experiential element from a structure is to render it a sculpture rather than a piece of architecture.

Few materials are as directly responsible for influencing the way in which users experience a structure than glass. Whether its intent is form or function, the versatility of glass is unparalleled. Middle East Architect caught up with building professionals around the world to talk about the importance of using the ‘right’ glass for the right project.

Who’s making the decision? Richard Wagner, architect at dxb lab describes an ideal scenario. “In an ideal nutshell, the architect specifies the type of glass, the engineer verifies that choice, the contractor builds it, and the developer sells a quality project as desired by the clients.” It doesn’t take an astrophysicist to know that in Gulf architecture, things don’t often work that way. In a region where quality can quickly be supplanted by quantity, architects often struggle with contractors and value engineers convincing clients that using a less advanced product will have little influence on how the building looks or performs. Thom Bohlen, chief technical officer at the Middle East Centre for Sustainable Development, understands the importance of consulting with qualified professionals when considering glass.

“Architects normally specify glazing for their buildings, but typically they get input from structural engineers, glazing contractors, glazing suppliers and, of course, from the green building consultant,” says Bohlen. “The appropriateness of the U-values of the system, transmittance factors and shading coefficients can all greatly affect energy consumption in buildings.” All too often, however, developers or contractors in the Gulf decide on a type of glass or facade system depending on budget or preference of origin. Specialty engineers are consulted only in the most complex scenarios and architects are left voiceless in the great debate about money.

Is the ‘right’ glass important? Matching the glass system with the style of the building and the context in which it sits is extremely important. The quality of the glass, in terms of structural, physical and thermal properties, is paramount to achieving a building that looks and functions properly. “Especially in hot regions like the Gulf, the energy performance and comfort levels of a building clothed in glass are totally dominated by the choice of glass,” explains James Law, chairman and founder of Hong Kong-based James Law Cybertecture International (JLCI). Having designed several projects for the Middle East and India using glass that does what it promises is crucial for JLCI.

Because glass can range from fully transparent to fully opaque or reflective, and can be specified in virtually any tint or colour, aesthetics is less of an initial concern than function. As Kareem Negm, LEED AP and architect at Dar Al-Handasah (Shair and Partners), points out, ‘function’ in the Middle East means more than just energy-efficiency. Of course, double glazed, low-U glass should be specified externally to reduce solar gain but because of cultural privacy issues, residential projects will almost always opt for fully reflective or dark tints, regardless of efficiency levels of the glass. Internally, however, aesthetics take priority.

Architects - Making Work for Window Cleaners

Looking through the glass: Location may be real estate's best friend, but the view is the home's soul-mate. Windows frame our vision of the outside world. As more people are looking for the best possible perspective, they are also hunting for smart ways to increase the value of their homes. Windows are a good starting point. Newer, bigger, wider, taller, more efficient windows are a hot upgrade and there are options galore.

Christopher Simmonds, one of Ottawa's leading architects, works on the premise that, aside from providing shelter, a house is primarily a place to experience nature from within. "For me, windows are all important. So when we are designing a house, we are always thinking, what are the views trying to capture? Is it a tall tree? Is it a horizon? And how wide should we take the window to capture the view but screen out what we don't want to see, like the side of a neighbour's house or the road." In the past, windows were the absolute weakest link in the home, says Mr. Simmonds, who has crafted a reputation for connecting inside and outside spaces by using a lot of glass. In the early years, when log cabins were the house of choice, people kept windows small for structural reasons and because they let in the cold.

Technologies have vastly improved, even if winters are still raw, and many Canadians are attracted to a Mediterranean concept of living with lots of light. "There is such a desire to open up to the outside, to create integration," says Mr. Simmonds. "Fortunately, we have the technology to go along with it. It's common to see triple-glazed windows with low-e coatings and argon gas, says the architect. "The thermal performance of these windows is significantly better, three or four times better, than windows used to be 25 or 30 years ago."

Manotick Windows and Doors owner Bob Milne has seen a lot of changes in the past 20 years, with owners of older homes and those building new homes looking for the best windows to stop drafts, resist mould and rot and provide security. Typically, they choose from four types of frames that carry their own strengths and weaknesses. These include PVC, fibreglass, wood and aluminum.

• PVC windows

PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, are well suited for buyers looking for low maintenance. These windows require no painting inside or outside; and are popular for starter homes right up to million-dollar properties. "You don't have to paint against weather stripping," says Mr. Milne, adding the frames come in trendy colours, including shades of brown, grey, and green. "You don't have to paint against handles or cranks. You just clean your windows." But one of the downsides to PVC is its tendency to expand. So why would you want it? "PVC is the most economical product on the market," says Mr. Milne. "So say windows are $10,000 in PVC, they may be $14,000 in fibreglass." Given that PVC is cost efficient, they are the current industry standard - which is why most companies that make the cranks and the hardware for window companies are designing them mostly for vinyl windows. The price A 60x60-inch picture window costs $900 to $1,100, installed.

• Fibreglass

Fibreglass has been around for years, but it's still a relatively small player in the world of windows. Its big advantage is that it expands very little, allowing the caulking that holds the seal to outlast other installations. "Fibreglass does not expand any differently than glass," says Mr. Milne. "It's made of glass. It's glass fibres." People concerned about having the highest energy efficiency will search out fibreglass products. But they are more expensive, and there are limitations, such as it's hard to get them made into curves. The price A 60x60-inch picture window costs $1,300 to $1,500, installed.

• Wood

Wood is the original window frame material, but these days it's used for high-end jobs and comes with regular maintenance. "It's usually someone who appreciates a wood finish on the inside," says Mr. Milne. Given Ottawa's weather extremes, it's hard to keep paint on a wood window. Wooden windows usually have aluminum cladding on the outside and wood on the inside. "Some people forget the wood and let it go. Then it peels inside and it's not as good a look as the vinyl window." The price Wood windows have a bigger price range, just like wood furniture, because there will be different qualities of wood. Prices range between $900 and $2,000 for a 60x60-inch picture window, installed.

• Aluminum

Aluminum has been widely used in high-rises for its strength and longevity, which is of utmost importance when dealing with high winds several floors up. They are light, strong, low-maintenance and easily formed into complex shapes. However, they conduct the cold, so it will tend to be a chillier window. "You go on the balcony of a 17th-floor apartment building and feel the wind blowing. You want a window that's stronger to hold that glass," says Mr. Milne. He says aluminum expands a certain amount too. "It's less than vinyl, but more than wood or fibreglass." The price Similar to vinyl for a 60x60-inch window, ranging from $900 to $1,200, installed.

Life behind a wall of glass: As a nation we Brits like our privacy and generally prefer to play out our home lives with blinds closed and curtains tightly drawn. Not Henry Squire, pictured, who lives in a house in which the entire façade is clad in huge sheets of glass. This floods his rooms with light — but also gives anyone walking through Paradise Park in Holloway, North London, an eyeful of his supersleek kitchen and taste in soft furnishings (white). Contemporary architects have embraced expanses of glass because of the way it maximises natural illumination. Agents say that enthusiasm for this kind of design is growing and prices regularly exceed comparable properties with regular windows.

Squire, 37, is a director of Squire and Partners, the architectural practice working on the controversial Chelsea Barracks redevelopment. Having helped to design the Holloway glass home, he put his money where his mouth was and moved in some six years ago. Living behind a glass wall sounds frightening to the bashful, but Squire has embraced it. “Fear of overlooking is a very English phenomenon,” he says. “You can walk through very nice parts of Chelsea and Belgravia and you are looking straight into people’s houses. It is terribly easy to deal with: you just shut a blind.”

Trevor Abrahmsohn, the managing director of Glentree International, is about to put the glass-heavy Hillside House in Highgate up for sale for about £5 million. “Walls of windows do wonderful things to a room,” he says. “It is almost shocking when you go into a house like that on a dull day and see how bright it is.” Living in a glass house is not without complications, however. “The big issue I have found is maintenance, because unlike brickwork, you do have to clean it,” Squire says. “To keep it looking really good, you ideally need to clean it once every six months, or even every quarter.”

Some environmentalists take issue with glass. But Chris Wilford, head of sustainable design at PRP Architects, says it does not necessarily produce an environmental calamity — boiling in summer and requiring air-conditioning, and expensive and difficult to heat in winter. “There are some fantastic glass products on the market with good insulating value, so you can build houses that are flooded with light but are very efficient too,” he says. “And a lot of glass means you don’t have to have the lights on all the time.” When it comes to investment potential, Paul Jarman, a director of Savills estate agents, says that glass houses do a little better than their brick-built peers. “The young City money would much rather have a glass house than something traditional,” he says. “The sub-forties want a house that has all the latest technology built in and a glass house will have that. “Buyers also like to have nice, open, airy rooms, and by having glass the feel is much more spacious and open and connected to the outside.”

One concern that comes up again and again, though, when it comes to glass houses, is security.
No official data exists about whether you are more likely to be burgled if all your worldly goods are permanently on show. But Abrahmsohn believes that glass houses could actually be a turn-off for burglars. “If you get a bit of glass that is 8ft high and 6ft across, it’s very difficult to try to cut out a portion of it,” he said. “You could cut your leg off. It is also usually toughened and very hard to break and you can’t jemmy it open like you can a rotten window frame. In the trade it is a known fact that they [glass houses] are very hard to get into and therefore burglars hate them.”

The pros:

• Expanses of glass flood a house with light, making rooms feel bigger and taking advantage of any views.
• Natural light eliminates the need to have so many lights on.
• Glass properties are relatively rare and popular with young house-hunters. This can push prices higher than for equivalent, conventionally constructed properties.
• Glass houses are low maintenance — aside from the window cleaning.
• There is no need for painting or repointing.
• Glass houses are usually contemporary and so tend to come with the latest technology, from ambient heating systems to computer-controlled lighting.
  

The cons:

• Some people may find being so exposed a problem, although this can be mitigated with opaque or tinted glass or blinds.
• The glass will need to be cleaned every four to six months, possibly by specialist window-cleaners.
• If whole walls are glass, there is less space for shelves and cupboards, or to hang pictures, than in a conventional property.
• A badly designed glass house can be too hot in summer and very costly to heat in winter. Check the energy performance certificate in the Home Information Pack. Look for a rating of D or better.

Window Cleaners Adapt to Architecture

The most recent edition of the European Cleaning Journal (ECJ) contained an article of the challenges of window cleaning today. Michelle Marshall, Editor of the European Cleaning Journal was kind enough to provide the full print copy to read below.

Cleanable windows - What are the most difficult cleaning challenges that a professional window cleaner has to face? And what equipment has been developed to cope with such tough challenges? Ann Laffeaty looks at aspects of the industry such as high-rise cleaning, large areas of glass and difficult-to-reach areas and discovers how window cleaning is being adapted to make all windows cleanable.

Photo courtesy of Unger

Window cleaning used to be a relatively simple process. One window was much the same as another, after all, and window cleaners required very few tools to carry out their trade successfully. In most cases a ladder, a bucket, a squeegee and a chamois would be sufficient. Where the building was particularly tall, a rail-like structure would be fitted around the top of the building and a cradle would operate from this. But various factors have conspired to complicate the window-cleaning task. On the one side, stringent new health and safety laws have outlawed the practice of cleaning from a ladder above a certain height. Cradles are no longer always a viable alternative either, mainly due to the escalating cost of insurance but also because the shape of modern buildings sometimes makes a rail impossible to fit.

Meanwhile, the fact that architects are becoming increasingly ambitious in their quest for that unique, award-winning design means they are building highly creative structures whose windows are often difficult to clean. Vice-president of Ettore Products Europe Niels Ysbrandy confirms this. “We find that about 10-20 per cent of buildings these days have freaky architecture that looks fantastic and the architects are applauded for it – then six months later the building manager finds it is impossible to clean, or the cleaning cost is 10 times what it should be,” he said. “For example there are buildings that are very difficult to access because they are in a car park or surrounded by hedges or trees. Sometimes it is practically impossible to get to the glass area because it is curved or set at an angle. This can occur in any type of building whether it is an office block, a school or an airport.”

Leaded light windows in historic buildings, pubs and churches also present a problem since these have to be cleaned by hand with a sponge and then a chamois, he said. “Large areas of glass are also a challenge,” added Ysbrandy. “If you have a smooth surface you can clean it very fast and efficiently, but any obstacle will slow down the process.”
According to Ysbrandy water-fed poles have greatly improved the situation. “These can be used from the ground and will clean the windows using pure water, which means there are no mineral deposits on the glass,” he said. “It is not rocket science, but water-fed poles have been the biggest breakthrough in the industry for some years.”

Ettore also offers various tools for hard-to-access cleaning. These include Reach poles that have an angle adaptor claimed to be particularly effective for use on solarium glass. The company also offers telescopic squeegees that combine an absorbent sponge head with a metal handle that extends up to seven feet.
According to Unger’s marketing co-ordinator Alex Droste, one of the major challenges facing today’s window cleaners are the large, high buildings whose entire roof is made of glass. These are often encountered in new train stations and big industrial buildings, for example. “It means you have to walk over the glass in order to access and clean the central areas, which is very hard to do.”

Unger’s answer to high-level cleaning is the HiFlo CarbonTec water-fed pole. This uses aluminium and lightweight carbon tubing to allow the user to customise the length up to 50 feet. “But in terms of height it is limited,” said Droste. “If you have a very complicated job you may need a crane, but then it becomes expensive. Sometimes buildings are cleaned by teams of abseilers but this is not very common in Europe. There is always a high cost and safety factor when dealing with high-rise, complicated buildings.”
He said the growing problem was a by-product of modern building design. “Architects are creating buildings that look very nice, but they don’t ask the window cleaners for their suggestions on how to clean them. Sometimes they are consulted but often they are not – and many window cleaning companies would like to be involved.”

This is exactly what a UK organisation is trying to achieve through the Building Cleanability Awards (BCA). This annual event encourages architects to consider how new buildings are to be cleaned by presenting an award to those designers who create the most 'cleanable' buildings.
The importance of building cleanability is greater now than ever according to BCA chairman Paul Taylor, who is also director of cleaning and facilities management contractor Incentive QAS.
“About 25-30 years ago everything was cleaned by ladder or cradle, but today’s designers have gone mad with their pencils and between them and EU legislation it is very rare that a building these days can be cleaned by ladder,” he said. “Cradles are not always viable because insurance is so expensive and if you look at modern buildings such as the Gherkin in London, where do you fit a cradle?

Another British building that must be a challenge for window cleaners is the Spinnaker Tower that overlooks Portsmouth harbour. It is a 170 metre high structure but the glass doesn’t start until 20 floors up - and then it is in the shape of a sail. You wonder how they clean buildings such as this - as well as other modern structures such as the newest hotel buildings in Dubai. It must be a nightmare.” He says the problem arises from the fact that building owners are increasingly demanding that their buildings should stand out, and architects are keen to deliver on this. “In the US and Australia, building designers consult with the cleaning bodies when designing a building. But in Europe we tend to build to be pretty rather than functional.”

However, this year the BCA has achieved a breakthrough in terms of dialogue with building designers. “For the first time in 16 years, the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists have come on board and are helping to promote the Building Cleanability Awards to their architect and design members,” said Taylor. “This will hopefully lead to a new period of co-operation between designers and cleaners.” Director of the Building Cleanability Awards Richard Chisnell added: “We don’t want to cramp the designers’ creativity and make every building a square box, but we would like to encourage them to think how their creations are going to be maintained after the construction team has moved off the site. “Sometimes it is only once that has happened that the penny drops and they think: 'How are we going to clean this?’”
He said factors that should be considered in the design stage were that no trees, hedges or grass were planted too close to the building and that space for parking cherry-pickers was provided. Sometimes windows should be capable of being cleaned from the inside to make life easier for the window cleaners.

According to Chisnell, incorporating cleanable design features into new buildings would go a long way to facilitating the cleaning task while also ensuring the safety of the workforce. “In recent years a whole generation of abseilers have come on to the scene whose task is to clean the highest-rise windows,” he said. “That is fine as long as they comply with health and safety regulations – in fact, it shows that the cleaning industry has done its bit to move with the times.
“But we want to raise the profile of cleaning within the building industry and we are very encouraged by the fact that the designers have said yes, you have a point, we would like to support it.
“In the meantime the window cleaning industry has been sufficiently flexible and adaptable to rise to any challenge. In fact, that’s why we are the thriving industry we are today.”

Photo courtesy of Mr Longarm