A Room with More than a View

The modern architect Le Corbusier (born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret in Switzerland in 1887) wrote that the history of architecture can be understood in terms of the changing attitude toward the window. Le Corbusier was referring to the window’s evolution from a small hole punched into thick masonry to today’s windows, created with expansive areas of glass. The “astonishing adventure of the window,” as he called it, continues today when windows form part of green buildings. In a green building, the window illustrates a tension between the building’s measurable factors and its subtler, more qualitative, design aspects. The question is this: will the real beauty and purpose of the window be lost when its design is guided by a checklist of quantitative criteria?

A mechanical engineer colleague once told me about his mother’s near obsession with adjusting the windows in their New England home to obtain just the right configuration for the weather, time of day, and year. We all learn to “tune” our environments in this way. A window can be repositioned, making it a site of frequent interaction between inhabitant and building, providing a tangible connection to the larger environment. Recognizing the importance of this interaction is key to building truly sustainable buildings.

The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED system does in some ways acknowledge the importance of windows. In LEED for New Construction’s rules, there are two credits for windows—one for daylight and one for views. But earning these points depends on calculating the percentage of space with access to light or a direct view to the outside, reducing window position and design to a matter of formulas. By its quantitative nature, there are no adequate judgments about a window’s architectural appropriateness or true sustainability.

Other aspects of LEED encourage a degree of control over windows that frustrates their role as a connector between inside and out. In Penn State’s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, a LEED Gold rated structure, the windows rarely open because they are controlled by a computer that keeps them shut to comply with strict environmental rules. No one in the building (especially on the first floor) can truly connect to the outside environment.

A well designed window is not arbitrary. It is the result of careful architectural, environmental, and cultural considerations. Elements akin to bay windows, which project into the space of the street, are found in Asian and Middle Eastern vernacular architecture, connecting people to the public realm but preserving a degree of privacy. Traditional Japanese houses utilize windows and screens to modulate light, heat, and air. In a recent reinterpretation, Japanese architect Shigeru Ban’s “Curtain Wall House” in Tokyo literally uses a curtain to form two walls of a home, which gives owners enormous control over their engagement with the surrounding city. In examples like this one, the windows do more than simply provide a certain level of daylight or a view. They provide a connection to the environment that is more complex and interesting than two LEED credits might suggest.