The stylish Las Golondrinas on Spain’s Costa del Sol creates privacy for its occupants with the offset arrangement of its loggias and offers the best lighting conditions throughout the day. Permanent energy efficiency of the custom-tailored Nova-line window sashes from FINSTRAL is ensured by insulating glass units constructed using the warm edge spacer bar SWISSPACER Ultimate.

The La Carihuela district in Torremolinos, Spain, is known for its active beach life in summer. Just 50 metres from the beach promenade, the young architecture office Eido constructed an impressive building with an imposing façade of aluminium, glass and ceramic. On three levels, they created eleven individually designed holiday apartments and a penthouse apartment on the roof. In doing so, they achieved the balancing act of opening up the interiors to natural light and the view of the sea while simultaneously protecting them from the blistering Mediterranean sun and unwanted intrusions of privacy.

Expressive architecture

Getting the best out of the narrow plot was the architects’ maxim. They opened up the building to the south-east, the road and the beach with an expressive gesture: the structure with its terraced loggias and large glazed areas faces the morning sun. Mighty bulkhead walls separate the apartments to create a sense of intimacy and privacy. They act as sunscreens to provide shade and coolness when the sun is at its most intense. The varied design of the glazed balconies hints at individual layouts, which in fact account for the unmistakeable architecture of the holiday apartments. At the rear of the building, a straight façade creates balance and has large windows for cross-ventilation and continuous illumination.

Glass façades create rhythm

Inside their apartments, the occupants should have the feeling of being right by the sea. The inside is intended to blend with the outside, which is why the south-east façade is fully glazed to meet the investor’s requirements. Floor-to-ceiling windows measuring 2.65 metres in height create light-drenched rooms, while the view outside is unobstructed thanks to the virtually frameless windows. As diverse as the layouts, as varied are the dimensions of the window openings: each apartment in Las Golondrinas has window of different sizes. A custom-tailored solution was therefore sought that fulfilled both the requirement for thermal and acoustic properties as well as the aesthetic requirements of the architects.

Thermally and aesthetically perfect

The architects decided on the externally concealed Nova-line window sash from FINSTRAL, which makes it impossible to detect whether it is an opener or fixed glazing. Another advantage of the frame-covering, all-glass look of the fixed and opening windows is that the concealed sash frames look narrower overall, measuring only about 7 centimetres in width. This approach not only creates an elegant aesthetic, but also lets much more daylight into the building. The double insulating glazing made from almost colour-neutral Mediterranean glass combines effective sun protection with high light permeability and also meets the stringent noise protection specifications for Las Golondrinas with panes of different thickness. The architects opted for the white, satin-finished, plastic profiles because of their excellent weather resistance, which effectively withstands the salty sea air and promises minimal maintenance costs. Last but not least, the satin white surface of the Nova-line windows harmonised well with the wooden floors in the bright interiors.

Energy efficient thanks to spacer bars

The panes of the insulating glass units were equipped with the high-performance spacer bar SWISSPACER Ultimate. This has very low thermal conductivity (lambda value) at the edge of the insulating glass unit, while its excellent psi values ensure a correspondingly low heat transfer coefficient (U value) for windows and façades. According to ift guidelines WA-17 1 & WA-08/3, this makes SWISSPACER Ultimate one of the world’s best warm edge spacer bars. The warm edge impresses both technically and visually: the high stability of the hollow profile ensures constant parallelism of the frame, while the film provides many years of functionality and a long service life. This avoids the formation of condensation and thus reduces the danger of mould, thereby contributing to much improved living comfort. The spacer bars are available in various widths up to 36 mm. They also impress with a large colour pallet in 17 different colours. The matt surfaces also give the spacer bars an elegant and discreet appearance.