Zoom In: windows and doors

We believe that windows and doors are not just functional elements of a building. They are critical design features that impact the experience of interacting within a space. In this article we’ll share some of the windows and doors that we’ve designed.

Often overlooked, the design of windows and doors requires attention to detail, creativity, and a deep understanding of the environment. This article, part of our new Zoom In/Zoom Out series, shows how thoughtful design choices for windows and doors can enhance comfort, sustainability, and aesthetic appeal.

Designing for a tropical climate

How can you ensure a cool and comfortable home in a tropical climate? We often use cross-ventilation as a low-tech and highly effective solution. Natural ventilation plays a central role in our designs, such as in Den Kura and Villa Emmastad. Even when the doors are closed, our use of shutters allows air to flow freely, maintaining a pleasant indoor temperature. Which is becoming more crucial since the Dutch Caribbean Islands are experiencing an increasingly hotter climate.

At Villa Catalina, the shutters were also designed to optimize natural airflow. By strategically placing the windows and aligning two doors—the front door and the terrace door—opposite to each other, we create a pleasant breeze that cools the entire house. Additionally, the elevated roof promotes ventilation even when all doors are closed, ensuring a cool and welcoming atmosphere from the moment you step inside.

In some of our designs windows and doors not only ventilate but also are used to regulate sunlight. For the Curacao Medical Center, an essential requirement was minimizing direct sunlight exposure. To achieve this, we conducted extensive research to ensure that shutters blocked all in excess of two hours of direct sunlight daily. By using movable glass shutters, we allow wind regulation while maintaining an indoor temperature 3 degrees lower than the shaded outdoor temperature. These carefully calculated solutions demonstrate how thoughtful design can harness the natural environment for sustainable cooling.

Honoring heritage

If possible, we will always try to preserve the heritage, even the smallest details such as windows. As you can see at the monumental home on the Kortijnweg in Curacao. This house is a building from the Art Deco era. The windows with green glass windowpanes are outstanding and are still one of the highlights of this renovated house.

Similarly, in Willemstad we restored the shutters on two monumental buildings on Smithplein that are also part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site. These buildings, once fully dilapidated, were repurposed into an office and an apartment. Glass windows were added to be able to have the shutters open for daylight and keep the cooled office air inside.. We painted these glass windows anthracite to retain the illusion of an opening in the façade when the shutters are open, like it was in the old days.

Our work also involves preserving cultural heritage through window and door restoration, like at Captains Quarters on Saba. This 19th-century whaling captain’s house was being destroyed by Hurricane George in 1998. The client wanted to do a reconstruction to honor the site’s layered history and significance. To maintain authenticity, we relied on archival photographs and old schematic drawings from Monuments of Saba (2005).

For the windows we’ve chosen for double hung windows with colored glass. Often double hung windows are made of two simple planes of glass. Older variants are divided in smaller panes of glass since in the old days they could not make big planes of glass. We believe that reconstruction based on thorough research of historical drawings and pictures can still meet authenticity standards especially for wooden structures. By restoring the building you not only bring back the physical but you also bring back the opportunity to tell the stories these historic buildings carry.

Doors that extend spaces

Living in the Caribbean is living outdoors. That is why we try to make indoor spaces as outdoors as possible. Doors serve not as barriers but as extensions, seamlessly connecting interior and exterior spaces. At the Blue Bay Hills Residences, we designed luxurious sliding doors that enhance the flow between indoor living areas and the outdoors. These sliding doors, with very thin frames, dissolve boundaries, allowing the natural beauty of the surroundings to merge with the home’s interior, creating a harmonious and extended living experience.

In all three of the variants we designed for Hòfi Vidanova we also used sliding doors to extend the indoor space towards the outside. And Villa van de Sande is another great example of how we used sliding doors to extend the living space to the terrace. Actually when the doors are open the pool, terrace, kitchen and living room become one space.

Zoom-In/Zoom-Out

This article is part of our Zoom In/Zoom Out series, which delves deeper into the details of our projects or expands on a broad topic relevant to our designs. Each month, a new topic takes the spotlight, offering insights into our approach and expertise.

Door |2025-02-12T13:41:08+00:005 februari 2025|Zoom-in/Zoom-out|0 Reacties
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