Five Key Reasons Why Steel Windows are the Architect’s Choice
Steel Windows are the architect’s choice for just about every kind of building. Steel windows are incredibly versatile, in that they can evoke both a modern and bold look, or conversely give the feel of classic style. In this article, we will discuss the five key benefits of choosing steel windows for your building — whether it be a home, commercial structure, hospital, school, or public building. These benefits are narrow sightlines, strength, versatility, lifecycle, and fire rating. When you are finished reading, you will have all the information you need in order to decide if steel windows are the solution for your building.
The first reason to choose steel windows is their narrow sightlines. When people think of steel windows, the quality most often associated with them is their narrow sightlines. As a consequence, over centuries, this attribute has been incorporated into just about every kind of building. Architects have taken advantage of this great quality inherent to steel windows and used their narrow sightlines to construct different architectural styles. The material’s massive and incredible strength allows for this minimalism in regards to sightlines. Other materials, such as aluminum, vinyl, or wood simply do not have the integrity to allow for maintaining their structure while having narrow sightlines. This gives steel windows a unique and distinctive appearance.
The second major benefit of choosing steel windows is their strength. Head to head, aluminum is three times weaker than steel. The advantage offered by steel’s inherent strength also allows for steel windows to hold glass lights of immense size and offer astonishing openings, even as the material maintains narrow sightlines. This also allows for the use of ventilators, which in a steel window do not rack with age or distort. In addition other hardware, when attached to steel windows, is easily maintained.
The third reason to choose steel windows is the versatility of the material. Whether the building has a Gothic theme, is a more traditional structure, or highly modern, steel windows complement the look of the building’s exterior and interior. Municipal buildings, churches, universities, private homes, commercial buildings, manufacturing facilities, transit terminals, hospitals and retail establishments have all benefited from using steel windows.
The fourth benefit of choosing steel windows is their lifecycle. Far above and beyond other construction materials, steel windows offer unsurpassed durability. For example, in Europe, the original steel windows are still maintaining themselves in silent elegance even in buildings that are more than a century old.
In the United States, steel windows are still fully functional in the buildings that they were installed in, after three generations of installation time. If steel windows are replaced in these buildings, it is normally because of other things besides the functionality such as defective glazing, ventilator technology, or finishing. Steel windows are able to stand up to decades of environmental factors, as well as structural load, virtually unscathed.
Steel windows offer an excellent fire rating, which is the fifth reason that many architects choose them. There are a variety of designs which are fire rated by independent laboratory testing for the manufacturers of steel windows. This fire rating applies to fixed pane windows, as well as custom designed and operable steel window designs by different manufacturers.
Steel windows are an excellent choice, no matter what type of structure you are considering. Because of their narrow sightlines, strength, versatility, lifecycle, and fire rating, many architects prefer them over other types of windows for any type of buildings. If you are looking for a unique and attractive look for a building, you must consider the advantages of steel windows.