A shift in perspective…… windows in a modular building

Our clients are often surprised to discover that their modular building windows are made to order, handcrafted by a local joinery firm who excel at detailed bespoke joinery and create a stunning curved sill which mirrors the external curve of the building.

Each and every garden modular building which leaves our workshop has had the windows designed to be suit a particular view or purpose, sited at the appropriate distances from each other and a specific size to suit our clients vision for a building they’ll be spending a great deal of time in.

The importance of having this option cannot be underestimated.  Building in the round brings the unique advantage of being able to ‘rotate’ your Rotunda and play with the position of the doors and the windows which is quite impossible with a rectilinear counterpart.

Most contemporary square or rectangular garden rooms boast a fully glazed frontage, either bi-fold, sliding doors; or UPVC casements.   This is wonderful if your garden-building is sitting squarely in the rear of the garden with no view of particular interest anywhere other than the front but what if one were siting their garden room adjacent to a field, meadow or sea-view to the rear/side or even a full panoramic setting – must they exclude certain views because these happen to be at the ‘back’ of the building? Does the door always have to be at the front? How creative can one be with a rectangle? Let’s face it, a box will always be a box.

Fortunately, for us, this never presents a problem; you see, the round is like a clock-dial.  A wonderful opportunity presents itself when we can move the hands to any direction we might choose, or even better have as many hands as we like, pointing in every direction.  One of our clients aligned her Rotunda with the directions of the magnetic compass points to meet her feng shui objectives.  We commissioned some beautiful little ‘north, south, east & west’ carvings and positioned these little plaques along the internal roof-line to represent compass points and indicate which direction one may be facing as they move around within the building.  Another client has asked us to design a Rotunda with double glazed windows positioned all the way around the whole perimeter of the building.  Most of our clients have a hedge or a fence they’d like to keep out of view so we position the windows to align with the view.

Not the view aligning with the windows!

“The Burrow” a 4.5m Rotunda modular building which you can see below (currently being constructed) has just three floor to ceiling windows positioned as a bay configuration next to the door. This is just a small example of how windows can make a massive impact. Your view, your building and ultimately it should be your ideals and your vision which can be interpreted, designed, created and installed to suit your needs…… perfectly.

Below is a list of standard UK window sizes… these are a great starting point when considering what size might suit your Rotunda modular building.

• Window heights are 450mm, 600mm, 750mm, 900mm, 1050mm, 1200mm, 1350mm and 1500mm (17¾in, 24in, 29½in, 35½in, 41¼in, 47¼in, 53⅛in and 59in).

• Window widths are 488mm, 630mm, 915mm, 1200mm and 1770mm (19¼in, 24¾in, 36in, 47¼in and 69¾in).

Essentially, our ‘standard’ windows which form part of the package for a Rotunda are 900mm high and 630mm wide with the option to upgrade to full height (1500mm high)  but with the right amount of imagination, you can disregard these sizes and make your own size, to suit you, to suit your garden and to suit your activities within the building.

Call us now if you have any questions relating to your preferred modular building window configuration and we’ll be happy to chat through your designs!

ps.  fear not,  a UPVC window, will never (ever) find its way into a natural, timber-framed Rotunda modular building.

Until then, enjoy the sun & enjoy your garden!

Blogpost written by Gemma