Accounting for growing popularity
Issues of space are central in explaining the advantages of sliding doors. These openings will always function with greater space efficiency than hinged doors. When contemporary construction so often places a heavy premium on the value of every square inch of floor area, the parallel construction that makes sliding doors so efficient becomes attractive. Sliding units can maximize the available space in a design of fixed size; in other situations, they may actually enable designers to ‘work smaller,’ since less area is taken up in door swings.
A swinging door with a 1-m (3-ft) leaf consumes 3 m (9 ft) of floor space—the square of its linear size. In the fully open position, whether at 90 or 180 degrees, it will also require at least 1 m of dedicated wall length. The contrasting space efficiency of a sliding alternative—typically providing the same service in a space slightly more than twice the door thickness—is a decisive advantage in many structures. This benefit is multiplied by the number of sliding doors installed.
Another fundamental advantage sliding doors can provide is esthetic appeal. Of course, this is conditional to an extent—not all sliding doors are very attractive, but the general structure offers a head start in many designs. The spare, clean-lined look of sliding doors is a fine fit with modern styles in design and architecture. Where the overall movement has been to eliminate the fussiness and extra detail of older styles, sliding doors’ very nature have made them an ideal element for designers to incorporate.
Related to this advantage is the potential for daylighting. Many designers in recent years have emphasized use of natural light wherever possible, seeking to create spaces that are open while providing illumination in ways making for greater comfort and visibility. Current daylighting standards also promote energy conservation, seeking to limit the amount of artificial illumination a space demands.
Glass sliding doors are only one of many useful ‘tools’ available to designers who seek to make the most of daylighting. Open or closed, they transmit light in ways other door types (including, of course, sliders manufactured of opaque materials) cannot. They have been widely used in those buildings designed to maximize the appealing esthetic and environmental effects of natural light. To get partial benefits of daylighting and limit privacy issues, installations may include full window leafs, partial leafs, or side lites of frosted glass rather than clear glazing.
Related to privacy issues, there is a flip side to the concerns occasionally surfacing with sliding doors. Offices with glass sliding doors may be an especially good choice in places like banks, where it may be helpful to see what is going on. Similarly, for other businesses, they can help managers keep an eye on employees in separate offices—promoting productivity and limiting losses to pilferage and waste.
Technological advancements
The best current glass sliding doors incorporate numerous technical improvements that have tended to accentuate and maximize the advantages they already deliver. As these improvements do not appear in every door now under manufacture, it is important for design professionals to recognize them, and to look carefully at the individual make and model to learn whether a particular spec item actually includes them.
Advanced sliding door systems no longer require bottom channels and tracks to guide door panels on an even plane. High-end engineered rollers and clamps are manufactured stronger, lighter, and smaller, and are more reliable while being quieter and easier to operate than their predecessors. These benefits create opportunities for progressive manufacturers to develop sliding systems with greater flexibility in form, function, and installation while enhancing the choices available. These changes have made specifying more advantageous to designers with so many choices.
