Classic redefined: Metropole from Silent Gliss

We can all name things that seem to us to have always existed in their current form. Some time ago, we told you how Swiss brand Silent Gliss first came up with the original product of its kind, and later to develop into a range of diversity and perfection. Here, again, is the short version: As is so often the case, a supposedly banal – though for the company's founder Alexander Weber not insignificant – everyday problem provided the spark of inspiration for this business idea. At the time, the engineer became concerned about his young daughter's sleep owing to his neighbours' curtains which, night after night, made disturbing noises when they were drawn. He did not stay idle for long. Without further delay, he proceeded to invent the aluminium curtain track with plastic gliders, which from then on allowed for the quiet closing and opening of curtains, and would one day – as you know already – become an interior-design standard.

It has been 70 years since Silent Gliss was launched. Seven decades during which there have been numerous technical developments, as well as further design innovations, often derived from very specific room requirements. This was the case, for example, with Metropole, the idea for which was born in Great Britain because of the apartment buildings famous for their bay windows.

Silent Gliss set itself the task of finding a form that was as compact as possible, yet appropriate to the Victorian architectural style. Metropole combines the look of the classic curtain pole with the functionality and space efficiency of a track. The need for loops, rings or eyelets became a thing of the past, as the curtain is suspended directly from gliders in the internal sliding channel of the track.

Silent Gliss has just completely revised the product again and optimised it in such a way that – with the help of specially developed and patented two-component gliders – guarantees particularly smooth handling. Since the profiles are made of the relatively soft material aluminium, the poles can be individually bent to fit into bay windows or other special window situations. Metropole, however, also proves to be well-suited in front of wide window fronts, namely, by allowing the curtain to move smoothly along its entire length. The brackets, which are available in various shapes and can be mounted on the wall or ceiling, are never in the way – unlike when using eyelets – but are discreetly concealed behind in a colour that matches the profile. Magnetic covers camouflage the mounting details.

To harmonise with a wide range of interiors, Silent Gliss offers the systems in various colour tones: from white and white matt to silver, bronze and black. Metropole is also available in three round profiles with diameters of 23, 30 and 50 mm as well as a rectangular version (36 mm high). The end caps and finials, each adapted to the size, are available for the round version in the contemporary, unobtrusively designed versions Flush, Stud, Design, Ellipse, Taper, Ball or Spear, and for the rectangular profile in Flush or Stud.

Two projects in Great Britain, in which Metropole has already been used, prove how far apart the areas of application can be in terms of style. On the one hand, a renovated private house in London, whose Victorian heritage had to be harmonised with a modern style of living. In several rooms, Metropole with conical or elliptical end pieces meets stucco-decorated ceilings, and the aforementioned bay window is also skilfully staged. As a one-stop shop for interior privacy and sun protection, Silent Gliss also supplied the curtain fabrics and a dim-out roller blind in the bedroom. The other project is a luxurious residence on the beach at Carlyon Bay in Cornwall, where the sea view is captured by room-wide and floor-to-ceiling window openings. Here, too, the Metropole curtain track was utilised, extending across the entire width of the window in a restrained white.

Whether in an apartment building, a chalet, a holiday hotel in the mountains or a townhouse, no one need any more be woken up at night as a result of noisy curtain tracks. And still today, the team at Silent Gliss, headquartered in Bern, continues to perfect the finer points of this everyday piece of domestic technology. How else to develop the humble curtain track into the smartest and quietest one of its kind?

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