To make a radical break with the architectural limitations of outdated room layouts and unfashionable construction styles, the owners from Särö in Sweden decided on a Bauhaus-style renovation for their house. The Schüco FW 50⁺.HI façade system and Schüco ASS 50 sliding and lift-and-slide system proved to be the ideal functional units for maximising the amount of daylight and the views of the surrounding landscape without compromising on energy efficiency.

The three-storey renovation project is in the Swedish town of Särö, around 25 km south of Gothenburg. The building was largely in its original 1969 condition. They decided to thoroughly renovate and extend it in three phases of construction, keeping only the basic concrete structures. They started with the less structurally and technically demanding parts of the building. The 65 m2 ground floor with an entrance area, garage, laundry room and storage area was therefore renovated first, followed by the 35 m2 top floor. But the biggest challenge was ultimately the renovation of the 170 m2 middle floor. This area of the building needed to integrate all the main living and functional areas of daily life – inducing generous open-plan living, eating and cooking areas as well as access to the terrace. In addition, this level of the building also had to be architecturally characteristic of its modern, Bauhaus-inspired outside appearance and living environment.

Aside from formal simplicity, cubic building structure design with flat roofs and a minimalist, reduced use of building materials, the Bauhaus style is associated with large-scale glazing in the façade. Here, the panoramic view of the surrounding landscape from all functional areas needed to be as generous as possible. The owners also wanted to employ sliding systems so that they could be used in a flexible and open way depending on the season and weather. Technical and visual fine-tuning of the systems was an important prerequisite for this.

The experienced Schüco system partner developed a project-specific solution whereby the bottom frame profiles were lowered so far down into the floor that only the frameless glass surfaces are visible at the bottom.

The combination of the Schüco FW 50+.HI façade system and Schüco ASS 50 sliding and lift-and-slide system turned out to be a uniform solution both functionally and visually, creating a consistent façade appearance and generous and narrow face widths of the glazed units inside. The special design of the aluminium system constructions with narrow profile face widths allows them to absorb the increased loads of large functional glass units – in this case insulated glazing with integrated laminated safety glass. The aim of maximum light penetration was thereby achieved with minimum visible frame areas and the smallest possible installation space for the attachment of building components.