Orama Minimal Frames

Heavyweight Champ: Orama Minimal Frames

Minimal in profile, ORAMA MINIMAL FRAMES’ high-tech aluminium frames mean an architectural lightness of touch. But don’t be fooled. Their high load-bearing capacity brings the engineering smarts.

photo: *Orama provided the frames for the glass walls of this Arplus-designed pool house in Wortegem in Belgium which was completed in 2020*

The art of making windows doesn’t always get the attention it perhaps deserves. But large-scale windows and glass doors are playing a significant role in modern architecture, and it is only set to grow with our need to connect our interiors more fully with the great outdoors and nature.

‘Climate change and the call for environmental sensibility makes windows the most important and demanding parts of a building,’ says George Tsimpikos, founder of the greek company Orama Minimal Frames. ‘Concurrently, contemporary architecture requires more and more open, large and luminous spaces, bringing humans and nature closer to each other than ever.’

*photo: Orama’s designers, engineers and researchers work closely with architects and can adapt and customise their frames to the needs of specific projects. This shows frames being painted*

Tsimpikos launched Orama Minimal Frames in 2014 to meet this demand by making glass window and door panels with all the architectural integrity required by the world’s most exacting architects, developers and private grand designers. It was formed from the merger of a window dealership and a major aluminium extrusion business, Exalco, and amalgamated some of the finest designers, engineers, researchers, manufacturers and architectural expertise in the field.

Orama is now an industry leader, designing, manufacturing and installing high-tech, minimal, aluminium frames globally. Not only do its systems satisfy a building designer’s call for minimal intrusion aesthetically, they also perform exceptionally for the engineers, with strong weight-bearing properties, and for the end-user, with easy-opening functionality and energy efficiency in-built.

*photo: Formed by the merger of a window exporter and an aluminium extrusion business, Orama manufactures frames that enable minimal visual interruptions in walls of glass*

Orama bends its know-how around challenges set by top-ranking architects, finding solutions to unprecedented plans and layouts. They have collaborated with Frank Gehry, Alvaro Siza, and KPF and a global network of distributors and technicians has allowed the portfolio of buildings that they grace to number residences and resorts in Malibu, the Seychelles, the Hamptons, Knokke in Belgium, Dubai, Bali and Greece’s Peloponnesus, and many other sought-after locations where the outside earns its place inside.

The ins and outs: Orama Minimal Frames

ORAMA MINIMAL FRAMES’ window- and door-frame series ZERO shows how inside and out can be seamlessly merged – even when it comes to more-complex floor plans.

*photo: Zero is the latest system to be developed by Orama and also it’s most discreet. Minimal frame profiles help to conceal the boundaries between indoor and out*

No one product in the portfolio of Orama Minimal Frames blends the outside and inside so seamlessly as the latest window and door frame series called Zero. As the name suggests, the aluminium fixture is barely there. The frame’s presence is made all but imperceptible by the inclusion of the room’s flooring (ceiling and wall) material in the (1cm) space between the tracks so that there is a suggestion of continuous space. Dubbed the ‘invisible frame’ it appears as a wall of glass.

Climate change and the call for environmental sensibility makes windows the most important and demanding parts of a building…
George Tsimpikos, founder of the greek company Orama Minimal Frames

*photo: Zero’s discreet, minimal track system can be integrated into the walls, floors and ceilings, whatever the material, and can also be adapted to work with unconventional layouts*

Suited to rigorously minimal architecture where surfaces are devoid of interruption or ornamentation, Zero is the modern architect’s dream, but in its desire to please aesthetically, it offers no compromise to the end-user’s convenience. Its technical assets include good water drainage, easy cleaning of the bottom tracks, security features and high energy efficiency (that makes it suitable for both hot and colder climates). Add to this high wind and moisture resistance and the ability (of each panel) to bear loads up to 1000kg, and you have a performance that outstrips most conventional window frames.

Supremely flexible, Zero’s scant framework can be painted in any colour or given an anodised treatment. Any type of glazing (double or triple) can be installed in the system which can be adapted to fit a variety of layouts, whether it involves multiple panels, corner constructions or pockets. For a near-invisible product, it ticks a lot of boxes.

The all-clear: Orama Minimal Frames

In order to meet the ambitious design goals and exacting standards of its prestige project in Dubai, architectural firm KPF turned to ORAMA MINIMAL FRAMES, with its extraordinary, innovative aluminium-frame solutions.

photo: The Royal Atlantis Resort and Residences, situated on the Palm in Dubai, is the largest project to be taken on by Orama Minimal Frames, for which it engineered customised frames for the 43-storey building

The services of Orama Minimal Frames were called upon in 2018 to invisibly frame the windows and doors of one of Dubai’s most visible building projects, The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences. The development was completed in 2020, and in terms of architectural prominence and prestige, it lines up locally behind the Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab. Looking for all the world like the precariously stacked bricks of a game of jenga in its final throes, the 43-story building, comprising six-star hotel accommodation and 231 residential homes, is the work of New York-based architectural firm KPF.

*photo: The rooms of the Royal Atlantis Resort have floor to ceiling glazing, with frames from Orama Minimal Frames. The frames allow for spectacular, uninterrupted views of the shoreline*

The waterfront structure is made largely from steel, marble and reinforced concrete, but there is nevertheless 90,000sqm of glass in its facade. Despite the challenging environment and uniqueness of the aesthetic and performance demands, the scale of the glazing project attracted pitches from aluminium frame specialists world-wide.

Innovation in design and implementation was essential to meet the architectural ambition of the blueprint’s so-called ‘moving walls’, and Orama Minimal Frames succeeded in best meeting the brief. ‘Our system development is based on the exploration of challenging window layouts assigned to us by architects and contractors. Our efforts are focused on standardising these – often extraordinary – solutions into products that combine modern aesthetics with certified performance.’ says founder George Tsimpikos.

*photo: With 90,000sqm of glazing, the tender to provide frames for the building’s doors and windows was hard fought,*
*but won by Orama thanks to the adaptability of the Greek frame specialists*

Orama developed a customised system to meet the needs of the project and devised a new approach to production, sharing their know-how with local partners.‘It offers new perspectives on the future of the industry showing the way to partners and competitors that there is room for improvement in the delivery of high-performance aluminium systems, without sacrificing aesthetics,’ concludes Tsimpikos.

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Brand stories by Emma Moore

Address: Germanikos Dromos, 20300
City: Loutraki
Tel: +30 2744 065817
website: www.oramaminimalframes.com