ECO HOUSE

With space at a premium in his RIBA award-wining for his two eco houses’project Bill Bradley, master craftman at Talisman Manufacturing, needed internal doors that were unobtrusive and slick.

He chose Eclisse sliding doors as “they seemlessly disappear into the wall cavities – he says - and the glazed panels allow light to flood through his 40%-glass home”.

The houses, which were featured on the cult CH4 Grand Designs TV programme, have won numerous plaudits for their overall aesthetics and clever architecture. Bill is a real stickler for detail and his passion for quality products was something that particularly impressed Kevin McCloud.

Bill built two identical timber houses in south London, selling one to finance the building of the other. These are two sustainable and green buildings in the heart of the metropolis, made of wood and grass to cover the roof. Downstairs there is a large living room connected by a glass walkway to a kitchen-dining room. In between sits a double height private courtyard, almost entirely enclosed and walled in by glass. Upstairs there are four bedrooms and two bathrooms, with each room benefiting from some angled roof windows. It’s here, in this detailed internal space, that Bill installed the Eclisse sliding door systems. In every doorway upstairs and down about seven doors in each house were installed. As in the kitchen, where even worktops have been made by recycled glass, the Eclisse Italian sliding doors become part of the room design. The sleek sliding doors were a huge success and a critical part of the internal scheme; traditional doors simply would not have worked due to the confined space restrictions of the upstairs gallery.

On one hand the sliding pocket door framework forms part of the stud wall and allows doors to slide effortlessly inside the walls. Compared to the conventional hinged doors, the sliding ones take up no living space whether designing new-build or refurbishing an old one. The frame is made from top quality metal materials and components to give a long, trouble free life and the patented extractable track system can be removed at any time in the future without breaking into the wall.

On the other hand the sliding door systems do not undermine the final internal design.

The Eclisse system uses an ingenious frame mounted, self-centering guide so there is no threshold to interrup floor surfaces. Moreover along the metal frame is supplied with the finishing joinery kit which makes the finished product into beautiful and professionally finished sliding door. The kit includes the vertical wooden jambs that cover the leading edges of the pocket and the top horizontal jambs that cover the top of the door/brackets for a beautiful finish. Both of these are supplied with brushes that attach to the jambs and project towards the door to give a good finish towards the internal pocket. Apart from double door installations where it is not needed, the single sliding door pannel is supplied wiht a recessed wooden doorpost and full-length rubber bumpers for the internal angles of the recessed doorpost. The jambs are made from either mdf or finger jointed pine with a real wood tanganika walnut (sometimes called cherry walnut) veneer that is unfinished and ready to accept a stain, paint or varnish.

The David Barley Company are UK official distributors for some of the Eclisse sliding door systems. Since they have started their trade activity, five years ago in Lincolnshire, they have been pioneers in introducing an almost new product in the English door market. It’s also thank to their effort that Eclisse factory in Italy reached 300 undreds frames manufactured in 2007, 20% more than the previous year with an over 30 milion euros in sales.