ARCHITECTURAL FEATURE OF THE MOMENT... INTERNAL PIVOT DOORS

THEY’RE THE WOW FACTOR IN DOOR DESIGN RIGHT NOW – HERE’S WHY

- REBECCA FOSTER

Streamlined design, super-slim profiles and modern framing materials are just a few of the features that give pivot doors the edge over more conventional options. ‘They allow for higher and wider doors than traditional set-ups, offer something different to sliders or folding doors, and they give more flexibility in terms of where the door opens and closes too,’ says Daniel Woolfson, architect and director at The DHaus Company.

Rather than being hinged to an adjacent frame at the side, pivot doors rotate around a mechanism that’s positioned at the top and bottom of the door panel. It’s possible to choose how far along the width of the door panel the pivot hinges are placed. ‘As the door rotates open, depending on the position of the pivots, this can create one opening or two if the pivot is closer to the centre of the pane,’ says Shannon Normoyle, digital marketing executive at IQ Glass.

Pivot doors systems with their unusual opening mechanism make a distinctive design statement, particularly when positioned in larger openings. ‘The door is always installed in the fully finished opening without any built-in parts,’ says Koen Dries, managing director at Portapivot. ‘It’s simply mounted on top of the finished floor and ceiling surface.’