The frameless sliding doors in the kitchen and dining space weighed over 400kg. No compromise on the chosen design of the couple’s high-tech and accessible home would be made. Frameless glass with sightlines no wider than 21mm allowed uninterrupted views of the outside – an important aspect of the brief.
The open corner sliding doors arrangement offers flexible and accessible living spaces that really opens up the kitchen living area engaging with the immediate green and calm gardens.
Casement windows and clerestory glazing add to the charm of this light filled nature-inspired accessible new build. The owners wanted to create their ‘forever home’ embracing independent living functionality and beautiful natural statement accents that further connect its owners to nature enhancing feelings of wellbeing and comfort.
The construction of this new ‘home for the future’ with wheelchair accessible doors came with its own challenges as the owners had to sell their 17th-century farmhouse to fund a new inclusive modernist home with large elevations of structural glazing such as the Casement windows and clerestory glass.
An old bungalow on a nearby plot was knocked down and the new build began to emerge incrementally throughout the pandemic with increased costs of materials as well as shortages in supply and logistical delays.
Grand Designs Live began to follow this project which began construction in autumn of 2020 and was later filmed and screened on Channel 4 proclaimed by Kevin McCloud as a one-of-kind accessible and sustainable design.
Detailed elements complete this grand design such as the open corner sliding doors with stepless flush threshold tracking. This allows the wheelchair accessible doors to open effortlessly, and the wheels to smoothly and silently transition from the indoor space to the outdoors.
