Netherlands: Giant Doors
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The doors in the Netherlands are excellent! It is a design trend I'd like to see imported to America.
Three things make their doors great
1. Giant doors
Many doors are huge compared to North American standards. They frequently go right to the ceiling, and often quite wide. This creates a great opening for air and light.
In the first image (top left), you see a 'standard size' (6 feet 8 inch) door on the far right edge of the photo.
2. Openings instead of walls
There were many openings in the Netherlands that I suspect American architects would have covered with a wall, and a standard set of double doors. We see this in North American hospitals all the time. In America it often feels like one is walking through series multiple sets of double doors.
Instead, in the Netherlands it appears common to have a large wall opening. These can be closed with either a set of two giant doors hung on a hinge, or a large slider door. There certainly seems to be more slider doors in the Netherlands than in America.
The photos below are from Radbound University Medical Center in Nijmegen.
3. Automated sliders
Many large doors are on electric sliders which are very well calibrated. The doors swings open very quickly with the right deceleration trend.
I suspect this trend is not isolated to the Netherlands but other European countries as well. I tried to research this, and all I cam across was the "Dutch Door" - which is in fact the term for the 'Half Door' where the top half opens for air and the bottom half stays closed to keep animals out.
