Introducing industrial heritage
Guy Hubble, joint managing director at RegaLead talks about the newest addition to the Decorative Door products range, Urban Bar, and the ‘rise of the industrial heritage look’.
The latest report from Tommy Trinder showed that from the last 4,500 aluminium doors that had been quoted through their Framepoint software, 19% had steel-look profiles.
That’s an astonishing figure and proves the industry is starting to benefit from the heritage interior trend that has dominated glossy consumer mags and our social media feeds over the past few years.
In our glazing world, steel-look external window and doorsets are helping to create a New York loft style, complemented by internal glazed partitions that separate living spaces without losing natural light.
The black framed, glazed styling we associate with the roaring 1920s is making a serious impact on our home design choices across the Atlantic and a century later.
An aluminium astragal solution
RegaLead has always been at the forefront of glazing design and technology. The latest addition to our range is the Urban bar, an aluminium astragal bar designed for both aluminium and PVC-U bi-fold doors.
Simply put, we can upgrade a standard bi-fold to create the stunning industrial heritage look, to create awe-inspiring spaces that seamlessly blend nostalgia and contemporary appeal.
Aluminium astragal bars are permanently attached to the glass using a patented, sprung steel clip system to enable easy bar positioning which counteracts the effects of thermal expansion and contraction, ensuring the bars stay put for the lifetime of the door.
The new Urban Bar is available in a range of 10 colours and initially two widths – 25mm and 40mm. In addition to the industry standard, powder-coat finishes, Urban Bar is also available colour matched to RAL and in a selection of Renolit foil finishes with smooth anthracite, golden oak and Irish oak proving the most popular.
Highline kits for composite doors
Within the industrial heritage look we also have a range of new composite doors. Our industry is always looking for unique solutions, and that’s where the idea for our new HighLine Urban glazing frames originated from.
By imitating classic design features and utilising our already successful Urban glazing cassette, we have created the new HighLine Urban frame range. Urban is a three-part, de-glazeable cassette system, that’s thermally broken, fully weather tested to BS:EN 6375 and PAS 24 compliant.
HighLine is available as a fully assembled kit, including glass, frame, and cut-size astragal bars for speedy glazing or in component form for creating our designs in the factory.
Distinct heritage styling
There are four distinct styles currently in the HighLine frame range. SisLite offers an offset style utilising six glass sections, whilst SixGrid has more traditional, square gridlite styling.
TriLite features three glass panes, with a slim mid-section and Fivelite creates heritage grid styling in the type of long-glazed panel synonymous with modern composite doors.
Each style is available with a range of glass options – our favourites for a true heritage finish are satin, fluted and Kensington etch – and we have chosen the most classic of colours for the initial launch of HighLine Urban glazing frames: RAL 9005 black, RAL 7016 anthracite and standard white.
Though the frames offer perfect styling for front doors, they are also ideal for back and French doors, for seamless heritage styling throughout a property. It’s a perfect way to offer homeowners even more choices for truly personalised entrances.
If the Tommy Trinder report shows us anything, it’s that if you’re not offering steel-look products, you’re going to miss out. Using our products and solutions, the industrial heritage look finds its true advocate in the world of design and architecture, inspiring a new era of creative excellence.