The fifth Best Pivot Door Contest arrives quietly, yet it holds the weight of five years. Five turns of a key that opens doors—real doors, tangible doors—but also doors to ideas, to the spaces between walls where dreams are housed. This year marks our jubilee, and we pause for a moment in the relentless march of progress to look back and consider what has been built, what has been imagined, what has, in its own way, become permanent.
Because for some reason, we don’t think of a door as something permanent. It moves; it opens, it closes; it pivots. And yet, in that movement, something eternal moves us along. In that movement, something lingers forever.
Over the past five years, the doors we selected and supported have become more than objects, more than pieces of wood or metal or glass—they have become monuments to the quiet revolution of space. Of creativity.
And within this space and creativity we are proud to say that we have played a pivotal part.
Best Pivot Door Contest 2020
A return to the beginning
The first contest—how long ago it feels, how new and uncertain the venture seemed back then—was a modest affair. It was about recognising design, celebrating form. But, even in its nascent stages, it was clear that this was not just about doors. It was about thresholds, about passageways between worlds. Each year since has brought us further into that world—one of innovation, craftsmanship, and, above all, creativity.
There have been interior doors so seamless, so perfectly balanced between function and art, that the door is almost invisible. And yet, it is there, guiding you from one space to another, from the known to the unknown.
There have been exterior doors so monumental that they reshape the very notion of what a door can be. They became a towering presence, a statement, a challenge to the elements themselves.
And there have been speciality doors, singular and strange, as though each were a window into a different dimension of architecture. Doors that bend light and space to the whims of those who conceive them.
Each pivot door that has opened itself up to us, became a world unto itself. And each world was proudly supported by the silent, hidden strength of our hinges.
Best Pivot Door Contest Compilation 2021
The weight of change
When we think of a simple pivot hinge, it is hard to imagine it can hold as much as it does. And yet, the FritsJurgens system lies at the heart of everything we do. It is a small thing, easy to overlook, but as with all small things, it carries a disproportionate weight. Our hinges do not simply connect a door to a frame. They provide freedom. Freedom to design, freedom to create, freedom to push boundaries. Our hinges are really not hinges at all, but a definition of who, and even more astutely, why we are.
Over the years, we have set a standard. Not just for quality, but for what can be imagined. There is something quietly rebellious in that. Something brave. The world demands structure, rigidity, rules. A door should swing on a hinge. A door should stay within the lines drawn for it. And yet, we have allowed those lines to blur, to fade, simply to create a world of limitless possibilities.
We are the makers of systems—yes, that much is true. But we are also the makers of creative freedom.
\Nominated projects 2023 compilation
Time, and what we leave behind
As this contest celebrates its fifth year, we can’t help but think of the countless doors that have been built. That goes for those that have won but also for the ones that didn’t. Those that remained uncelebrated, but proud and worthy nonetheless. Within their quiet presence, a permanence remains. A permanence of decorum, and of movement.
For FritsJurgens pivot hinges are designed to move a lifetime—even longer. We say that, not as hyperbole, but as a promise. After a hundred years and counting, they will still perform as they did on the first day.
That simply means, we build our systems for the long term. Each pivot hinge is tested, each one refined, until it meets our benchmark standards. And not just of performance, but of longevity.
It is as if each door that moves on a FritsJurgens system is defying time itself. It will not wear down. It will not break. It simply moves, year after year, decade after decade, without pause.
And in that movement, there is grace, a fluidity that belies the effort it took to make something so simple, so quiet, so eternal.
Best Exterior Pivot Door 2023 by Hardwood Projects - Australia
The art of freedom
But what is all this strength, all this durability, without design? That is the question that led us here. To the Best Pivot Door Contest. And that is the question that keeps us moving forward, toward more innovation, more creativity. Because a door is more than a barrier. It is more than a way in or out. It is an expression, an extension of the architecture that surrounds it. It is art. And we have made it our mission to ensure that this art is free from limitation.
Our hinges can support any material, almost any size and weight. Wood, metal, glass—none of it matters to us. What matters is that the door moves, that it moves with grace, with precision, with a kind of quiet authority that goes unnoticed until it’s gone. Our systems, invisible as they are, enable this freedom. They allow our clients to create without constraint, to build doors that are both functional and extraordinary. Doors that stop people in their tracks. Leave them pining of more.
Best Interior Pivot Door 2023 by Preferro - Netherlands
The future, and the doors that await us
As we mark this fifth year, this moment of celebration, we also look forward. The contest will come again next year, and the year after that. New doors will be built, new designs will keep pushing boundaries. As they should. And through it all, we will be here, quietly supporting the visions of those who dream of spaces that move, spaces that breathe, spaces that speak to something deeper than mere function.
Because that is what a door is, in the end. It is not just an object; it is an idea. It is movement. It is the line between what is and what could be. And as we at FritsJurgens look back at these five years, we are reminded that we are not just makers of hinges. We are creators of FritsJurgens and everything that comes with that experience.
The doors we make may swing open and closed, but the possibilities they represent are endless. This is our jubilee, and this is just the beginning.
Best Specialty Application 2023 by Dan McKerrow and Hayden Kidd
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