What is the garage door for?

Is the garage door largely a functional product that simply fills an opening in the building envelope to provide access to the internal garage space? Or could it/should it be something more?

In many cases the garage door is more of an afterthought in terms of how it is integrated into the rest of the building. Unless it is demanded by a client or a particularly unusual building design, rarely is the garage door even considered at an early stage or regarded as a design feature.

Convention may be that ‘a garage door is a garage door’ — as long as it opens and closes then the only creative options lie with its outward appearance (be it the colour and either a traditional or contemporary style).

However, this does not have to be the case given the creative possibilities which are unlocked by specifying or choosing a bespoke garage door. These are possibilities to not only give the door itself a different visual appearance and operating style, but actually facilitate a completely different design to the garage and/or the building.

In many developments, the garage door is neglected in respect of the materials and size. But given how a large proportion of a building frontage is taken up by a garage door, paying attention to its appearance and the role it can play in creating versatile garage spaces can pay dividends.

Choose bespoke to maximise aesthetics

Outstanding and beautiful building design sometimes demand a garage door that complements or even enhances the envelope or adjacent garage building. Choosing the wrong door because it is too small, for example, or the materials do not reflect the rest of the property, could compromise the design overall and disappoint.

This is why considering a bespoke, made to measure garage door has enormous benefits. From the ability to open sideways and the scope to use more unusual materials and finishes, bespoke garage doors offer much more creative potential than standard doors.

Key garage door design considerations

To understand the benefits of a bespoke garage door in the context of real-life designs and arrive at the best solution, consider these four questions:

• Will the proposed garage door allow you to span the opening width that you have in mind?

Bespoke doors such as the Rundum Original side sliding door will enable you to span much wider openings, especially when twin doors are used to slide left and right.

• Will it offer the aesthetic and creative potential in terms of materials, finishes and opening/closing style?

With a bespoke door, you have the freedom to choose numerous different timbers, high strength insulated extruded aluminium and even materials such as steel, glass and façade panels. No two finishes have to be the same.

• Will the garage door enable compliance with planning requirements on listed buildings and in conservation areas?

Bespoke doors are ideally suited to sensitive locations as the building design is not limited by a fairly tight range of styles and colours from standard ranges — and they can be made to closely replicate traditional doors.

• Will it enable the garage space to be used as intended, for example where it features a car lift?

Car lifts and turntables are extremely useful in developments where the site space is limited, such as in central London, and using them in conjunction with a bespoke garage door like a side sliding or side sectional style further maximises accessibility to garages.

Defining a building’s style

It is also important to note that a bespoke garage door does not have to be linear. With a side sliding Rundum Original or a side sectional garage door, curves of all descriptions can be accommodated including convex, concave and S-shapes.

This versatility enables the building’s design to be defined by the garage door and for garages to be created in buildings that would normally be regarded as unsuitable. Twin side sliding garage doors each curving round 180 degrees can even be combined to create a round free-standing garage with dual access.

So in response to the question “could or should the garage door be something more?”, yes on both fronts — it can be both functional and an important aesthetic element when considered carefully at an early stage. This is particularly so for a bespoke garage door given the scope they offer to enable a completely different approach to a building’s design.

Originally published on Specifier Review