shutters
bureau^proberts Save Email When the same bi-fold shutters are viewed from below, you can see how they’re capable of completely isolating the private spaces from the urban surroundings. When hinged like this, they can also reflect sunlight back into the spaces while in the open position. They also offer a private, framed view to the city for each bedroom space. This entire project is a study in the use of movable shutters to screen openings in different ways. The exterior walls are so permeable, it’s hard to tell where the inside ends and the outside begins.
bureau^proberts Save Email Noise control Although it’s not a primary function of shutters, many of the older structures in European cities still rely on operable shutters’ noise-reducing capabilities. While solid shutters work best for this, louvered shutters can help to deflect sound too. The louvers can be angled for maximum privacy and still admit light.
Light control Layering sliding shutters can produce added protection from wind, light and weather to select exposures. Sliding shutters are particularly useful, moving into or out of the way as necessary. Although the shutter blades are fixed in this example, when overlapped and stacked they combine to produce a stronger filtering effect on the interior than a single shutter alone would have, which can be helpful in an entirely glazed structure such as this.
Heat-gain control When the exterior shell of a building is being designed, one of the primary concerns is controlling the amount of heat gain the structure absorbs from the sun. By locating the shutters on the exterior, one is able to affect just how much solar heat reaches the interior. Keeping solar radiation out in the cooling season and in during the heating season makes for an overall more efficient home that costs less to live in. The horizontal blades of the shutters can be custom designed to block the higher angle summer sun and permit the lower angle winter sun by simply changing the width, spacing or angle of the slats.
Wind protection In climates where storms are an ever-present concern, storm shutters serve a vital function. They protect openings from breakage, helping to ensure that the roof remains intact. This home proves that shutters don’t need to be an eyesore when incorporated fully into the design from the beginning. Many storm shutters appear to be afterthoughts, but here the floor-to-ceiling sliding panels have a permanent place in which to stack when not in use and are designed to be a part of the architecture with a stile and rail pattern and a bevelled siding-panel infill.
YLAB Arquitectos Save Email They’re fabricated from perforated aluminium, making them light and airy from the inside, but preserving their solidity from the outside. They help to modulate the light and screen views, and their perforated skin admits air even when the shutters are fully closed. Because our needs and desires change over time, even daily, designing flexibility into our homes preserves both short- and long-term value as well as comfort.
YLAB Arquitectos Save Email Adaptation to surroundings One of the primary benefits of functional shutters, whatever their form, is their ability to completely alter the interior and exterior living environment for the inhabitants of a building. The sculptural exterior shell of this home has a pattern of carefully considered openings, each located by the architects to capture (and avoid) specific views to the surrounding site. Spaces that require light during the day require privacy at night in an urban environment, and these shutters adjust to meet these changing needs.
Moussafir Architectes Save Email Metal shutters can be elaborately filigreed to deliver patterned, dappled light to the interior.
Q