Solarlux Cero Corner Sliding Doors in a Contemporary New Build

When you build a new home on elevated ground with long views across open countryside, the glazing has to do two things at once. It has to frame those views with as little visual interruption as possible. And it has to withstand everything the weather throws at an exposed hilltop site, year after year, without compromise.

Our recently completec project of Solarlux cero corner sliding doors achieves both. A new build stone-clad property in a contemporary chalet style, with Solarlux Cero sliding doors forming the centrepiece of the rear elevation. We’ve designed a three panel set of sliding doors with a fixed glass corner and brings light into the new kitchen dining area from two elevations.

Inside, the ground floor is arranged as an open-plan kitchen, dining and living space. A large island kitchen sits to one side, a walnut dining table in the centre, and a seating area with a stone-clad fireplace wall to the other. The room is orientated to take full advantage of the elevated position, with views extending across farmland and countryside in multiple directions.

The open corner is the key design move. Where the two glazed elevations meet, there is no mullion, no post, no frame. We’ve expertly created a glass-to-glass corner, meeting at ninety degrees. When the doors are open, the corner of the building effectively disappears and the living space extends directly onto the stone terrace and garden beyond. When closed, the view wraps around the room without interruption.

The defining characteristic of the Cero system is its consistent 34mm sightline throughout the entire door set. Unlike many sliding doors where the central interlock between panels is noticeably wider than the outer frame, Cero maintains the same slim profile at every junction. The result is a symmetrical, balanced appearance with 98% glass coverage. Which is precisely what you want when the whole point of the glazing is to maximise the view.

The doors are finished in RAL 7042, a warm stone grey that sits quietly against the Bath stone cladding without competing with it. We helped our customer choose an alternative colour, so it works close enough to the masonry to feel part of the original house, but distinct enough to read as a deliberate contrast in the brand new extension. 

Why location matters with sliding doors

This is where we need to address something that is not discussed often enough in the sliding door market. The slim sightlines and impressive glass areas that make doors like Cero so appealing in a brochure are not automatically achievable on every project. Where your doors are located, the altitude, exposure, wind loading and surrounding landscape, directly affects the structural specification required.

A sheltered suburban extension and an elevated hilltop property place very different demands on a sliding door. The wind loads at height, the exposure to driving rain, the thermal cycling between seasons.  All of these factors influence the glass thickness, the structural depth of the profiles and the engineering required to ensure the doors perform properly over their lifetime.

With some brands, the slim sightline figures quoted in marketing materials are based on ideal conditions that may not reflect the reality of your site. The interlock that looks so appealing in a showroom may simply not be structurally adequate for an exposed location. This is not a minor technical point. It affects whether the doors will seal properly in bad weather, whether they will meet Building Regulations for your specific project, and whether you will have problems with building control sign-off at the end of the build.

At CBP, every sliding door product is individually assessed for its specific location and configuration. Structural calculations are carried out as standard, not as an afterthought. This ensures not only that the doors are fit for purpose, but that the performance figures we quote are genuine and documented. 

This project is a good example. The elevated position with panoramic views means the site is exposed to wind from multiple directions. The Cero system was specified with the structural depth and glass build-up appropriate for this location, ensuring the doors perform as well in a winter storm as they do on a calm spring afternoon. The low threshold track provides the clean flush transition between the polished concrete floor inside and the stone terrace outside, while the weather sealing and drainage engineering within the track handles the water management that an exposed site demands.

The open corner in practice

An open corner sliding door is not simply two sets of doors meeting at a right angle. The corner detail requires precise engineering.  Here, the glass panels must align, the track geometry must accommodate the change in direction, and the weather sealing at the junction must perform to the same standard as the rest of the door set.

When the doors are closed, the corner reads as a continuous glass wall. The view from the kitchen island, looking across the dining area and out through both elevations simultaneously, is panoramic in the truest sense. There is no post to divide the landscape into separate frames. The countryside wraps around the room.

When the doors are open, the effect changes entirely. The corner of the building opens up and the terrace becomes a direct extension of the living space. The flush threshold means there is no step to negotiate, just a great connection between the inside and outside with full weather protection at the track. It is a transformation that fundamentally changes how the room feels and how it connects to the garden and the landscape beyond.

The complete installation of corner sliding doors.

The casement windows on the upper storey are finished in the same RAL 7042 as the sliding doors, maintaining a consistent appearance across the full elevation. The window proportions are deliberately modest, with small, well-placed openings in the stonework that provide light and ventilation to the first floor without competing with the glazed ground floor below.

The overall effect is a building that feels grounded and solid from the outside.  The stone, the pitched roof, the traditional proportions,  while the interior is light, open and connected to the landscape in a way that only this quality of glazing can achieve. It is a balance that many new builds attempt but few get right, because it depends entirely on the specification and installation of the glazing.

Solarlux Corner Sliding Doors from CBP

Solarlux Cero is one of several premium sliding door systems we supply and install at CBP, alongside Schüco, Internorm, Sunflex and others. Each system has its strengths, and the right choice depends on the project, the opening size, the site exposure, the design intent and the budget.

What matters is that the doors are specified correctly for where they are going, not just how they look. If you are planning a project that involves large-format sliding doors, whether a new build, an extension or a renovation, we can advise on the right system and ensure it is engineered for your specific location, house type and design requirements. 

Solarlux sliding doors are available to view at the CBP showroom in Corsham, Contact us to arrange an appointment of call our team to discuss your project.