Panoramic glazing in a private house and apartment

A beautiful and unusual house is a dream for which many aspire. One of the options to make your home different from others is to use panoramic glazing. A house with panoramic windows looks different. Even simple in architecture, it is unusual, and if there are also unusual details, it is clearly driven from the general row.

What is panoramic glazing

Panoramic windows are those that occupy a large area and, as a rule, take up the entire space from floor to ceiling in height. This type of glazing requires accurate calculation and a well-thought-out design solution. Large windows are a large window flight, which means that a powerful beam is needed, which will serve as a support for the roof and walls of the second or third floor (if any).

House with panoramic windows: inside view

Standard solutions when designing houses with large windows are practically inapplicable, since each case is unique and requires its own solution. Each house with panoramic glazing is an individual project, and it costs a lot of money.

Even an otherwise ordinary house with panoramic windows looks more interesting.

If there is no opportunity to order an individual project, you may be able to find a ready-made one that basically suits you. It is better to use it entirely, without major changes. You can only make adjustments that do not affect the supporting structure. Only the position of the non-bearing partitions can be changed. Even the position of doors and windows in load-bearing structures without recalculation is undesirable to touch - aftereffects can be unpredictable.

Features, advantages and disadvantages

The house with panoramic windows looks unusual and stylish. And this is exactly what attracts in such buildings. So a memorable look is the first of the advantages.

There are very unusual projects

Where can you see

In private houses, panoramic glazing is made in living rooms, less often in bedrooms. Sometimes, in this way, an open veranda is turned into a covered one, sometimes a winter garden is made from a room. Another possible application is to make one of the walls of the pool glass. In general, there are many applications and they are non-standard and interesting.

Balcony with panoramic glazing - residents of high-rise buildings have an excellent view

In apartment buildings, balconies or loggias are decorated with panoramic windows. Much less often in high-rise buildings there are large windows in residential premises, but there are also such houses. True, in our country it is extremely rare.

Advantages and disadvantages

If you are thinking that it would be nice to have panoramic glazing in your house, consider the following features:

• The presence of large glass means a lot of light in the room and a beautiful view that opens at any time of the day. This is a plus. But transparency works both ways: there is also a wonderful view from street to room. Especially in the dark, with the lights on. And this is a minus. But it is being corrected. The standard solution is curtains or blinds, and the non-standard solution is the use of mirrored or tinted glass. But such glasses are not cheap, and these are additional costs and, given the considerable area, they are also rather big.
  

  Being in the public eye - not everyone likes this perspective

• One glass in terms of thermal conductivity is much lower than the adjacent wall. Therefore, the windows are made of double-glazed windows, and for central Russia they must be two-chamber (three glasses, two chambers between them).In terms of thermal conductivity, they are not inferior to a brick wall of 2 bricks with a layer of insulation (the thermal conductivity coefficient is about 0.9 and it can be increased using special glasses). So fears that heating bills will be too high are in vain.
• There are concerns that large windows are easy to break. No easier than punching through the wall of the frame. A house with panoramic windows is quite safe, since the glass, even in the standard version, is glued with a reinforcing film. If "completely" does not suit you, put reinforced or armored glass.
• The glasses will have to be constantly looked after. Dirty splashes on the glass look awful. This is worth considering.
  

  Glasses require constant care

• In the hot summer period, you will have to use blackout curtains, blinds or at least light curtains that will limit the penetration of sunlight. And still, be prepared for the fact that furniture, walls, all furnishings will quickly fade.
• There is also such a phenomenon as icing of glass in winter. Even if the glass is heated, there will be frost on the glass in frost. It must be cleaned regularly. You will also have to throw back the snow in winter - it limits the view, although it looks great.

In general, there are both advantages and disadvantages of panoramic glazing in the house. When planning to build a house with panoramic windows, take into account such an important factor as the picturesque landscape that you can see. If this is a neighbor's fence, the costs of panoramic glazing will hardly be justified ...

House with panoramic windows: features

There are also some features that cannot be attributed to advantages or disadvantages. Firstly, glass in panoramic windows can be with imposts (crossbars) or without. Solid glass from floor to ceiling looks stylish, but it is expensive because of the increased requirements.

Split windows look different, but no worse. The cost of such panoramic glazing is lower, but the division into parts by imposts must be supported by the rest of the windows (of normal size). This is worth remembering.

Panoramic windows can be of solid glass, or of pieces separated by imposts

When planning a site, a house with panoramic windows in our latitudes is recommended to be positioned so that a large glazing area faces south with an accuracy of ± 30 °. In this case, the adjacent room will be light and warm. But there is another drawback - walls, floors, furniture will fade. One way out is to pick up colors where the color loss is not so noticeable. The second way out is to turn the house so that the panoramic windows face east or west. This is a permissible position, in which there is enough light, and it does not pour into the windows all day. In general, it's up to you.

For heating panoramic windows, these are mainly used heating devices

In order to prevent the cold from the windows in winter, heating devices are placed under them, which create a thermal curtain. You can't put traditional radiators here, but you can install built-in (floor) radiators or convectors. They can be electric or part of a water heating system, but their installation is a difficult thing, and the price for them is considerable.

Types of panoramic windows

Panoramic windows are of two types: cold and warm. Cold glazing is used on unheated balconies, loggias, terraces. They are framed or frameless. Frameless ones are simply thick glasses of a certain size that fit snugly against one another. Panoramic glazing with frames is what we are used to. Wooden or plastic frame with glass inserted. But cold glazing is rarely installed, much more often they still use windows that can protect from cold and heat.

Example of cold frameless glazing

Most often, plastic or metal-plastic windows are installed today.Depending on the climate, you can choose the required number of cameras, the type of glass (tinted, mirror-coated, energy-saving, reinforced and even armored). As a result, with proper installation, you can get windows that, in terms of their heat engineering characteristics, are no worse than adjacent walls.

A house with panoramic windows can have windows with different types of opening:

• Deaf. These are the ones that don't open at all.
• With ventilation and micro-ventilation. Open windows are essential to provide fresh air. Such modes are not needed if there is supply and exhaust ventilation.
• Swing. The usual form of opening. Such windows can be used to exit to a balcony or terrace, veranda, just outside.
  

  Swing windows are the ones we are used to

• Sliding. They differ in that the flaps move to the sides. More convenient, since they do not require free space in front of them to open. In the modern version, they have no worse heat and sound insulation characteristics than traditional swing ones.
  

  Sliding systems are convenient in that they do not require space in front of the door

• Folding. Panoramic windows can be folded like a book. 5-6 leaves can be involved. When installing such windows / doors, the room can be turned into an open terrace.
  

  The doors were folded and the room became part of the terrace

Using doors with different opening methods, you can achieve the functionality that you need. Wooden houses with panoramic windows are rare. The fact is that the wood is constantly changing its dimensions and ordinary windows are placed in special casing boxes that compensate for this movement. If the window area is very large, this can be problematic. If you find a solution, you can put wooden or plastic windows. And so that the white plastic does not look alien, they put frames laminated with a film that imitates wood.

Projects of houses with panoramic glazing

It should be said right away that the cost of building such a house, at least, will not be cheaper. This impression is due to the large area occupied by the windows. But the windows must be of good quality, which is not cheap.

Panoramic windows in houses are often made in a bay window. This decorative extension itself gives the house an unusual look, and in combination with large windows, the building acquires individual features.

A house with panoramic windows can have a flat roof. Such buildings are being built in a modern style, high-tech, minimalism and others with laconic architecture. They have a memorable look. They are distinguished by the presence of broken lines, the absence of smooth and rounded ones. And floor-to-ceiling windows only emphasize this feature.

Large windows fit into any architecture house. If the house has some unusual details - roof, porch, etc. - they inexplicably emphasize this detail and photos of projects confirm this. If you put regular windows instead of large windows, much of the charm of these buildings will be lost.

In combination with broken roofs of complex shapes, panoramic windows look even more unusual. Such projects are the most spectacular in appearance.