Full Circle

Installation Steps to Stay Ahead of the Curve

The circular window at House 111A was a minor intervention to a home we passionately designed a decade ago.

Our strategy was to create a ‘concise’ opening in a gracefully weathered concrete wall, with no patching of concrete after the fact, at a scale sympathetic to the proportions of the existing façade.

For the concrete coring and cutting specialist we dimensioned the minimum and maximum diameters of the core-drills to scale the opening. When three quarters of the circumference was drilled, the inside was cut into manageable quarters, each carefully supported and lowered to the ground. The last core-drill completed the circumference and freed the final concrete quarter to be lowered to the ground where it was jackhammered into rubble and carted away.

The window frame was conceived as a circular steel tube which could be pushed through the concrete opening. It was fitted with laser cut flanges on the outside to locate the frame into position, seal between the concrete, and hide the untidy jagged profile left by the core-drilling. A rebate flange was added to fit the glazing and a hidden weather step to mitigate the ingress of moisture.

The glazing contractor sealed the gap between the new steel frame and the concrete, making sure to leave an opening at the bottom for the egress of moisture forced out by the weather step. He installed the circular pane of glass into the rebate provided using double-sided tape and structural silicone.

We matched the colour of the window frame to the concrete, reducing the visual impact of the circular geometry to a gentle intervention in sympathy with the patina of the weathered façade. A hooded overhang designed into the profile of the rolled tube adds visual interest beyond just a circular window and functionally regulates exposure to the summer sun. The real prize, however, is a stunning framed view from within of the ever-changing seasons reflected in the indigenous garden beyond.