Concrete and ceramic
For the eagle eyed out there, you may have spotted a company on Twitter called Deuren. They are a company based in Flockton in West Yorkshire and they specialise in some VERY high end doors for your home. I have been keeping an eye on what they do for quite a while because they do some stunning doors. But it is a range of doors in particular that have caught my attention, called Topic front doors.
According to Deuren’s website, Topic is an Austrian based company that produce these high end doors. There are four varieties in the Topic range, including one specifically for family new build properties, two mid-range levels and one particularly high level, which is the one I’m most interested in, the T3 model. This is how the describe it on their website:
The top of the range series, utilising only the finest materials and design, producing unbeatable technical performance. All T3 models stand out with an individual design language: The range excels and includes special materials like real concrete, ceramic, particularly lavishly built TOPICcore and glass combinations or even 3-dimensional design elements. All show TOPIC and its craftsmanship at its very best! With the enormous door leaf thickness of 100mm all kinds of special designs are possible. Premium quality is apparent from design to energy effi ciency. All T3 models are suitable for passive houses and can be enhanced with RC3 instead of the standard RC2.
To put this into context, their mid-range topic doors come with 92mm and 100mm door leafs. And here we are getting impressed with double rebated composite doors! I won’t list the full spec of these doors as I could be here forever. Click here to go to the Topic page on Deuren’s website to see the products for yourself.
But seriously, this door is a beast, made from concrete and ceramic. Two materials you wouldn’t immediately think of when it came to door manufacture. However, a beast of a door comes with a beast of a price. The one thing Deuren make a point of is they show their prices on their website. Take the door you are looking at right now for example, this impressive combo of concrete and ceramic is advertised from £8591. Incredibly, you can even buy this online! You want high-end designer, you better be prepared to pay for it. Of course, a ceramic, concrete, quadrouple glazed door is going to set you back a few grand. What we’re looking at here is a perfect demonstration of how far ahead European companies are with door technology compared to our own. It’s not going to be a massive seller. You won’t expect to see a near £9k door fitted on most of the UK’s properties. Only on the more luxurious properties can you expect these doors to be fitted to.
But why am I talking about Deuren so much? No, they’re not a sponsor, and no, they haven’t paid me to write about them. I am writing about them and their products because I believe they are an example of how products like Topic will have a wider effect on the whole door industry.
The car effect
A similar effect happens in the car industry. The higher end car manufacturers like Mercedes, Jaguar and Range Rover develop new technologies for their cars that are limited only to their models. However, the more that technology is produced and put in more and more models, the same technology filters down to all other parts of the car industry, eventually becoming a standard feature on some models from some manufacturers. They’re the trend setters if you will. What I see in products like Topic from Deuren is the same.
We won’t be seeing tens of thousands of ceramic and concrete doors being fitted, at those prices that’s never going to happen. But certain features of their doors, such as the biometric locking, in-built LED lights, wireless keys, hidden hinges, personalised coded keys etc we could see being used in more types of doors in the future. One thing is for sure, Europe is still racing away in the engineering stakes. Whilst it’s great we’re advancing in existing technologies here, such as wider door slabs for composite doors, Austrian companies like Topic continue to progress leaps and bounds further than we are. If I was to put a figure on how far ahead they probably are in certain parts of Europe, I’d have to say we’re about 30 years behind.
There are many reasons why the UK won’t quickly adopt new technology and engineering like this, but I won’t go into them on this post as we’ll be here all day! A quick thanks to Deuren for letting me cover some of their products for this one, much appreciated!
