Sliding Elevator Doors Are the Worst – 3 Architects Explain

When people thing of elevators, they think of sliding elevator doors. But as many architects quickly discover, Sliding Doors are the worst when it comes to home elevators.

In the below, we outline the three reasons why architects hate sliding doors for home elevators.

“Space Destructive Doors”

One architect in Phnom Penh called these “Space Destructive Doors”. Simply put, sliding doors (also known as telescopic doors) require much more additional space than other doors because they need extra room to slide into while open.

In red, look at all the wasted space created by the door openings. For a similar door opening, the shaft needs to almost be twice as wide as a saloon door lift.

Even one-side telescopic doors suffer from this issue (albeit to a lesser degree). Of all the door types, sliding doors tend to be the most “space destructive”.

“Sliding Elevator Doors Break Down All The Time”

One architect from Bangkok pointed out that the problem with sliding doors is how complex they are.

“A sliding door has too many parts. That increases the risk of failure exponentially. Think about it, why do people hate automatic sliding doors on cars? Because they break all the time. When you see an elevator not working, why is it usually broken? The sliding door. It’s always the door.”

Sliding doors are quite complex pieces of machinery. They need to be automatic, which means they have a whole system to open and close the door automatically, and their telescopic nature adds yet another level of moving parts.

As any engineer will tell you, the more moving parts, the more potential points of failure. Compare it to a simple swing door with two hinges and a lock, and the risk for breakage is exponentially higher.

“Sliding Elevator Doors Are Dangerous”

An architect who designed a Hard Rock Café once revealed to us a surprising detail.

“They get sued every week because of the elevator doors. The elevator doors will close on some old man’s arm, leave a bruise, and boom! Lawsuit.”

The reality though is that sliding doors can leave nasty bruises, especially on wheelchair users and the elderly, as they tend to close directly on vulnerable parts of the body. Compare the drawing below showing the difference between sliding doors and swing doors on closing.

In short, while sliding doors are extremely common in the industry, they are far from fan favorites among the architect community. They destroy space, break down more frequently than alternatives, and come with a heightened risk of injury.

When in doubt, opt for swing doors or saloon doors instead!