Your building window design has a profound impact on day-to-day occupant experience, curb appeal, and brand identity. Among other things, thoughtful use of glass elements in commercial architecture will:
Proper window placement matters, as does effective size and shape. However, the biggest step you can take to accomplish these goals is to evaluate the traits of the window glass itself. World-class architectural window designs will need the right finish and treatments — functional, decorative, subtle, bold, and everything in between.
Here’s what you need to know to design stunning windows for your next commercial architecture project.
Table of Contents:
A lot goes into the design of a commercial structure — it would be easy to relegate windows to an afterthought. However, research has shown that window design can impact cognitive function, health, sleep, and productivity of those in the building. To make sure these impacts are positive, you’ll want windows that:
Strategic window placement is a big part of these goals. Facility Executive advocates for a commercial window design that provides “continuous access to views (ideally of nature) and regulates light levels to ensure employees enjoy thermal comfort throughout the day.” You’ll want windows to allow as much sunlight as possible into the structure, but you can’t neglect the impact of heat, glare, or what’s visible through the window on occupant comfort.
Windows are actually the most significant influence on how a building is seen and interacted with by the inside and outside world.
Large structures frequently feature walls nearly made of windows in today’s glass-centric commercial architecture. However, the materials, treatments, and positioning of exterior and interior glass features will be critical decision points even in a glass-facade structure.
An effortless transition between inside and outside space takes commercial architecture design to the next level. Your windows play an important role in the seamless transition from one location to another. Decorative metal panels around or over your windows, for instance, can carry textures and material identities from the inside to the outside of the building while remaining visible from both sides.
The open office has dominated commercial architecture for years, but the price in terms of privacy and comfort are now well documented. You can reduce distracting ambient noise, the “fishbowl effect” and a warehouse feel with decorative interior windows and glass partitions. Use these elements to supportconceptual boundaries in a “broken-plan” space — a concept that has trended in residential architecture in recent years.
One of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to customize your commercial window design is with decorative window film. Use these tinted, frosted, or optically clear treatments to combine form and function with:
Finishing touches take a two-dimensional blueprint and transform it into a fully realized, aesthetically pleasing three-dimensional space. Commercial window design might start with placement and glass selection, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Decorative window graphics can elevate a traditional design into something dynamic, exciting, and also full of practical benefits.
Here are a few ideas to inspire your creativity with a unique application of commercial window graphics.
The best commercial windows help your building to tell a story and establish a visual identity for your brand. This can be accomplished with frosted, tinted, or textured window graphics — or even with high-definition laser-printed images. Use these decorative films to promote your brand with logos, on-brand messaging, and branded colors. Plain glass can take on an etched, sandblasted, or patterned look that communicates an aspect of your brand (Upscale? Creative? Welcoming? Trustworthy?) with subtle visual cues.
Lifestyle imagery is another great approach for combining visual interest, a brand-supporting ambiance, and a resonant company culture. Decorate windows with vivid images of people or places that you’d like passersby and employees to associate with your brand.
Sheet windows and glass walls give you extra opportunities compared to traditional walls or partitions in your commercial architecture design. Windows naturally give the impression that a room has more square footage than it really does.
Decorative window graphics can take this phenomenon one step further. Consider the illusion of vast space a window would create when it looks like a breathtaking mountain landscape, waterfall, exotic garden, or a cerulean sky dotted with clouds. When you invite the outdoors into your interior design, you expand the space in imaginative and dynamic ways.
Natural light is a primary motivator for your commercial window design. However, distracting glare, heat buildup, and UV rays can compromise the benefits of sunlight. Commercial window graphics offer several ways to mitigate these issues without eliminating the benefits of natural light.
Strike a balance between light and comfort with attractive and sweeping graphics, frosted or blurred films, light-reducing tints, and other film treatments. It’s possible to create a “dappled” sunlight effect by interrupting the sun with die-cut shapes and designs in frosted or colored film or with cutout graphics and logos. Use negative space to create cutout images in a frosted window for even more gentle light.
A glass-heavy design can help a commercial structure feel larger and more open, but it may also cause people to feel overexposed and watched, which “[threatens] people’s engagement and their cognitive, emotional and even physical wellbeing” — something we call the fishbowl effect. Frosted, tinted, or printed films and graphics can keep a space illuminated from the outside without sacrificing valuable privacy.
Use printed decorative graphics to break up the space with imagery, signage, or abstract designs and improve the sense of privacy — even when they do not fully block vision through the window glass. In areas where more privacy is advantageous, a frosted or patterned film can act as a buffer layer between areas that expresses creativity and style while still allowing natural light to pass through.
Windows are an ideal medium for blending the interior and exterior of your commercial architecture project. As a layer that attracts the eye from both sides, you can use decorative window graphics to harmonize interior and exterior colors and styles, carrying the surrounding landscape or your brand identity into either realm.
Window graphics and films are versatile and cost-effective, making them ideal for completing your architectural vision and finishing a space with a spark of creativity and visual appeal. They can even be used to create clever or artistic optical illusions with cutout space or dynamic commercial window films. The possibilities are limited only to the imagination of the architect or designer.
The appearance of your decorative window graphics and films matters, but so do the qualities of the finish. You’ll have a lot of choices, depending on your needs:
There are also satin finishes available for times when a glossy graphic may create unwanted shine or reflection. Satin finished graphics retain their vibrancy at all times of day and in nearly any lighting conditions, keeping blacks as close to their original forms as possible for stark contrast and vibrancy.
Sometimes, when displaying a window graphic on a wall, window, or other architectural objects, the shininess of glossy graphics may not be wanted. This is where Protect Satin graphics come into play. They not only have a high coat weight adhesive that wraps around the relief height of UV Ink Jet prints, but they also have an aesthetically appealing non-glossy, satin finish.
At LINTEC of America, our digital window graphics are designed to create an environment that’s uniquely yours. Windows will connect your building occupants to the outside world. We provide options that will not only wow onlookers, but offer you:
AIA members love digital window graphics for the powerful impact they have on a design’s environmental profile and aesthetics. Browse our portfolio to get more new and exciting ideas on how you can improve your commercial architecture with dynamic, practical, and vivid custom graphics. Feel free to connect with our team for more information on the possibilities!