windows for architects are not a catalogue page you drop onto a GFC and hope the contractor respects. The opening is part of the wall, the energy model, the monsoon detail, and the elevation you will still be associated with in photographs five years later.
This is a working note on window specification for architects who are choosing between aluminium and uPVC on houses and apartment buildings — not a manufacturer’s hymn sheet.
Start with the elevation, then the room
Slim sightlines, large modules, a dark powder coat — that is aluminium windows for architects in most contemporary residential work. It photographs well. It also conducts heat unless you write “thermal break” into the spec and refuse the VE that deletes it.
uPVC is the comfort material. Thicker frame, better default insulation, less money, fewer client calls about a hot mullion. It is the right call on many mid-rise apartments and on rooms where the occupant cares more about the AC than about a 25 mm sightline.
Do not pick one material for the whole project because it simplified the tender. A west living room and a toilet ventilation panel are different windows.
What belongs on the specification
Write the frame system, not “aluminium windows, approved make.” Series, depth, whether there is a break, colour process (powder / anodised), and the opening type per schedule.
Glass: clear / toughened / laminated / DGU, thicknesses, Low-E if you mean it. “Quality glass” is how you get 5 mm float on a full-height pane.
Performance: U-value or at least a glass make-up; SHGC on the harsh faces; air and water tightness class; wind load to IS 875 for the height and terrain. Ask for test reports, not a WhatsApp PDF of a European brochure.
Hardware: brand or equivalent, multi-point where you have promised security, restrictors on high sills, stays rated for the exposure.
Compliance: ECBC if the project is chasing it, fire strategy on escape routes and certain high-rise conditions, acoustic numbers if you sold a “quiet bedroom” on a road.
Then the unglamorous line: who measures, who interfaces with stone / ACP / plaster, and who owns the seal when the facade contractor and the window contractor each think the other is doing it.
Coordination, or how projects slip
Send the opening schedule before the RCC lintels are poured if you can. Confirm as-built sizes before fabrication. A 15 mm surprise in an AAC opening is a factory problem and a site delay.
Installation has to sit in the programme with waterproofing and painting. A window shoved into a wet opening “because the gondola is booked” is how you get a stain on the false ceiling in August.
Cost, said plainly
Aluminium residential systems we see in 2026 often sit Rs 850–2,500+ per sq ft once glass and break are honest. uPVC Rs 450–1,600. The VE that swaps DGU for single glass will show up in the first summer client email.
Mumbai and the other metros
Wind and rain on towers. Salt on the western waterfront. Heat in Delhi and Ahmedabad. Bengaluru is kinder and still has west glass that needs thinking. Specify the climate you are in, not the climate in the imported system’s home brochure.
Frequently asked questions
What do we actually decide first so VE cannot play games later?
Look, performance, budget — written down, in that order. If it is only in a meeting, it is not a decision.
Why is everyone drawing aluminium on contemporary houses?
Thin frames, stiffness, colour. Write the thermal break if you still want the client to sit by the glass in May.
The client asked if uPVC is “unarchitectural.” What do I say?
Only if you drew 35 mm sightlines. Plenty of good housing uses it without apology. I say that to architects every month.
What has to be on the spec so the contractor cannot invent it?
System, glass make-up, ratings, hardware, finish, tests, who installs. window specification for architects that says “approved make” is how you get 5 mm float.
Which ratings do you actually chase?
Wind, water, air, and the solar numbers on the elevations that face the sun. WhatsApp PDFs of a European brochure do not count.
What are we paying, ballpark?
Aluminium residential, often Rs 850–2,500+ a sq ft when glass and break are honest. uPVC Rs 450–1,600. Survey beats a blog.
Luxury villa — is aluminium automatic?
If the design needs the span and the line, yes. If it is a box with small openings, uPVC may be the adult choice.
They sold a quiet bedroom on a road. Frame or glass?
Laminated or DGU. Frame material is secondary. Do not promise quiet and then VE the glass.
Coastal plot?
Finish, hardware, drainage. Material is the second conversation.
How is a house window different from a commercial one in your head?
Houses forgive a little. They do not forgive a leak over teak. Commercial adds duty cycle and codes.
Maintenance line in the handover — what do you give them?
One page. Weep holes, washing, no wire-wool on powder coat. They will not read a manual.
uPVC on a tall residential tower?
Check the load. Do not assume. I have seen that assumption in a tender.
Why sit with Star Windows on a residential package?
We mark where the spec is wishful and fabricate to the openings you actually built — not the ones on the first GFC. Same if you are mixing aluminium and uPVC on one building.
If you need windows for architects that survive contact with a contractor, or a second pair of eyes on aluminium windows for architects versus uPVC on the same building, call Star Windows. We work with the drawing, not only the mood board.