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As I struggled to encircle all the twists and turns of just the subject of Windows… Christopher Alexander had a glorious essay on how he approaches WINDOWS…which mollified my anxiety about my own inability to encircle such a huge topic. It was like he was right there… and I appreciate that.
Great decisions on windows, are mandatory to achieve a good design. This includes understanding:
Light on 2 sides
Hight of ceiling, height of windows
Thickness of walls
Camouflage exterior design
Crank vs Rise up windows
Price, shortcuts
Color of windows
Clear vs black
Windowpanes
Process of ordering
Window trim
Painted vs clear
Width
MENU
CONTRACTOR
& subs
light on 2 sides
Somethings not right….
You walk in a beautifully decorated room, but it feels cold. You can’t put a finger on it…. This happens most painfully in condos and apartments… 
Light from the front or back, but not from the sides.
Same with a room that blows you away…. It is not furniture, or space… but LIGHT!
NATURAL LIGHT reveals all the colors of a room at their best.
Gray shadows are not uplifting…and these are decreased.
Light from one direction, one wall is looking like having horse blinders on
….2 directions of light, help you focus, get oriented, correct shadows, which corrects colors….
It doesn’t cost more….it just takes thought….
It is important to design as many rooms as you can with at least 2 walls with windows…
I first learned of this nugget, from the book by Alexander…
Now I know why I love the 2nd floor, of our house…it has massive windows everywhere… whole walls of windows.
Since the space is small, most of the rooms have light on 3 sides…this is magic!
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and unsettled by main floor livingroom….
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Maybe this accounts for people today, wanting an open floor plan…it is not the open that is wanted….but light from 2 or 3 sides!!!
Now, how to have the light… but not be so open! ??
In some countries, environments…. The ATRIUM fulfills this need.
MeClean building at WHOI did this,
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A treasured garden in the center of a lab space…you were forced to walk on 2 sides of it, to get from here to there… it softened your mind between trips…
Apple too did this, with their colossal ring building
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Adding the light to the offices, and the garden between trips….so great to let the mind release and relax, to unknot the puzzles, and come up with an idea….
What is the worst possible design? A perfect rectangular house…this has the least possible rooms wiht light on 2 sides.
Sure, if the rectanglar house is small, it has a small effect.
But spec homes being built now, are over 4000sf, perfectly square, with NO attention to the LO2S rule.
The middle rooms between corners will all be rooms with light on one side (LO1S)
The larger the house, the higher percent of rooms will have one wall of windows…
Old Boston worked on this problem with huge bay windows.. bump outs, that created great light in the front of the building.
Someone else fixed this with the pin wheel design.
Here is another fix for this problem….add bump outs to the corners of a hosue… ..suddenly intereesitn light happens!
Now, do this in extreme, and you have the cruciform design… like a cross, or a pinwheel….and light blows out everywhere.
See this in Richard Neutra houses…one made so well, it was never “renovated or sold for 40 years.
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A subset of pin wheel design is having small bump outs on corners.
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Conclusion…
5 million dollar houses CAN be junk…. Just because someone got the builder, AIA, buyer ignored the light on 2 sides rule..
You as homeowner, must refuse bad design, for yourself, and the next 2 or 3 generations that will have to live there….THIS HOUSE WILL EFFICET THE MENTAL AND PHYSICALS LIVES OF THESE PEOPLE….
window or wall
Fast food ironically is bright and all windows….
and the atmosphere is just deplorable….
What is the only place, where a large dark room is, OK?
A very expensive restaurant….
Ironic huh…?
Low lights, a fireplace… a candle at your table…and the room is warm and loving.
Great!, But you do not want this dark, and windowless room in your home, anywhere!
Most basement rooms are like this, and they are cold and soulless, no matter how many “home theaters” and wine rooms and exercise rooms there are down there…. No matter how many LED’s and lamps you have….they still have the aura of a bomb shelter.
THEY ARE DEPRESSING, USELESS SPACES….except in case of a tornado…. then, perfectly OK…Right Auntie Em?
Right.
What is the BEST room you can have? One with light on 3 sides!
A great example of this is the pin wheel layout of xxxxxxxxXXXXXXXXX
BY this layout, each wing, terminated in a room with light on 3 sides,
Where else do you see this? The very top floors of skyscrapers.. see how they become narrower near the top… the smaller the footprint, the easier it is to design rooms with light on 2 or 3 sides…
HEIGHT, 10 FOOT CEILINGS
I asked the window guy, why these windows in a magazine look so great?….. Only then did I learned about 10 foot ceilings…
The extra 2 feet \ feels better. more air, less claustrophobic.but most of all, windows at the 9 foot level let light in the room an extra couple feet… THAT matters!
Walls give privacy,
Windows gives fresh air and light.
What goes where?
FLOOR TO CEILING?
When you start drawing your own house, you outline a room, pull up the wall, and add windows…. Here it gets tricky…
How about floor to ceiling windows?
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You think you are the most creative person in the world…..
Many great architects got huge prizes for this novelty kind of thing….
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Well, this is great, till the odd drunk walks into the wall, or something tips over, and crashes into the glass? Who knows?
But mostly, you have to balance this FREE feeling of openness, with the counter feeling of SPILLING OUT…
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See how the furniture feels like it will fall right out the room? Kinda unsettling, instead of being protective.
This goes against the rule of Prospect and Refuge.
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Think of how inflexible this ONE idea is,
This will dominate the design forever after.
Where do you plug in the lamp?
Do have to always put the couch in the middle of the room?
And do you ever lose your fear of body slamming the wall, and crashing?
Sure, it is tempered… but really…stuff happens.
WALLS BELOW WINDOWS
Now, how LOW do the windows go? Usually 36” is comfortable. This is also about the height of your kitchen counters etc.
A window sill is nice at the 36” height. A place to drop your keys, a vase, coffee etc…
Think of what furniture will be along this wall.
Couch ? Chair?… you don’t want the armrest or back of couch to be ABOVE the window… so adjust the lower height to nest the furniture in.
Side Table? adjust the height to be above this table.
But…there is no rule…(except tops of windows are aligned along one wall) use your imagination and common sense of what is likely to happen along this wall.
This is supposed to be fun, creative.
Just don’t default to someone else’s idea of YOUR house. Your logic. What’s right for them might not be right for you. No fault or blame…these are opinions… have one!
size
Windows are the soul of a house. Don’t make them cheap and small. This is the place to be extravagant…
I don’t mean fancy, odd shaped, weird… but, generous, well made, insulated.
They don’t have to be extra high grade, hand painted, but just a bump or two above what you can get away with. Just ADD MORE windows to your list. You can never have enough. RULE! Wherever possible make sure you have windows on two sides of your room.
Here is a $2M house, just built, with NO windows on one side… WTF?
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To get more light in, add bump outs and peninsulas so windows can surround a room. Be clever… then the inside of the house will create itself into nice places.
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See? it all starts with glorious windows, light that changes thru the days, view of trees that change with the seasons… you will never get tired of this.
The effect is most noticed when you make sure you have 10-foot ceilings, so each window has a transom, letting you see UP into the skies, trees, clouds and weather. An indoor person, just wants to see up and out, and not have this denied by ceilings.
And for gods sake, don’t get the crank windows… They SCREAM COST CUTTING, because they can be smaller to obey EGRESS rules. So you save a buck, but the crank eventually gets stripped of its threads and it becomes locked and shut forever. really? is that where you are going?
A SASH window that has to be larger for Egress rules, it only opens 50%, so the minimum size for bedrooms is larger (thus $$) than the minimum size of a crank window (thus cheaper!) So, contractors choose cheaper, smaller, more fragile, and tacky crank windows
If you are trying to collect the wind from the prevailing breeze of an ocean wind, along the beach, well, maybe a crank window makes sense, a small 1 inch opening would let the breeze in…but in an urban setting it just looks shabby. Randomly opened crank windows are eye magnets to passerby, who must wonder…. what is going on in there…
You do not want eye magnets to ONE aspect of your house, you want your house to be an eye magnet in toto…as a piece, as a whole..
Just as you don’t want someone to say you have a beautiful dress. You want them to say YOU look beautiful (because the dress is the right color, style fit…) It is a subtle difference, but… this is the difference between good design, and magic! You do NOT want eye magnets, but whole house style.
Eventually you have to decide, windowpane, or no panes. Clear glass or black glass. It goes on and on.
depth, window sills
DEPTH…
Windows are NOT 2D… but have a depth issue too.
In 2×4 construction your window will be flat… not windowsill.
With 2×6 construction, you now have a couple inches of depth to have a windowsill.
In old New England, a window could be 1 foot deep. This gives you a way to NEST shutters against the side walls, AND have deep 1-foot window sills.
sash vs crank
When you see a window with a crank on it…see CHEAP.
The crank has a lot of tension/pressure, leverage on it… and it breaks, gets stripped.
It becomes so awkward to lock shut, you just stop using it, and the window becomes a non-opening window.
While a sash window opens & closes with finger pressure.
Why are there so many crank windows seen in so many houses? Egress laws let them be smaller (aka cheaper). A sash window have only 50% egress since it can open only halfway up to get out…. so, sash windows are larger. Small windows are cheaper than large windows, so crank windows win out when cutting corners, or saving $.
If you can save $100 to $200 per window….you are tempted to go cheap….DON’T.
But, for the nest 20 years… you have to put up with cranking them open, and lever sealing them up.
Finally, visually… windows that open OUT like this, look shabby from the outside.
Your eye goes right to the cockeyed open windows, and you say, “what’s up” with that. A sash window can be opened, or even cracked open a few inches, and it is not “seen” from the street.
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ORDERING WINDOWS BID
The Marvin window guy…taught me the vocabulary & rules for windows…Since I had my 3D drawings, the communication was fast…buying me more of his patience.
I had to learn the vocabulary, codes, and egress & temper vs not-tempered rules of windows and doors.
I could flunk an inspection if I picked a non-tempered window.
I could flunk inspection if my egress size was wrong.
I also had to learn the swing direction of each door…and make sure I could open doors the full 180 degrees.
This was a very precise, expensive world…each mistake would cost about $1000 each…so I double checked constantly.
When my total came up to $60K for the house… I had to ask if this was “normal”….and learned window budgets vary by region, from 3% to 10% of renovation costs…. (I was in the 10% range for my renovation.)
I enjoyed hearing stories from the Marvin man…He said there are actual regional differences between how much people allocate for windows… the worst is 3% of cost. The best is about 10%.
In my case, my reno was about $650-$700K… so my $60K was about right…especially the entire 45foot long back wall, filled with as many windows as I could, on 2 floors.
DRAWING WINDOWS
TRIM
Window trim is one of these small decisions that REALY matters!!!.
Too narrow, it’ll look cheap and silly.
Too wide, and it will be weird and goofy… and cost a fortune.
There is somewhere in the middle that works. And once the trim is on,….it is FOREEVER!!!!!!!!!
Here is an example of exquisite trim detail…that did not happen by chance. The trim AND the crown molding AND the positions of the windows are mathematically perfect.
This is not an accident.
There is no ½ inch gap between the window trim and crown molding.
This creates a finished, calming look to the room.
Your mind does not have to take in each component part and add them up separately…a window, the trim, the wall, the crown molding….
Then becasue there are no gaps between trim and crown molding, you don’t see stray shadows, angles, edges… the design is CLEAN!
No. You look at the room as ONE SINGULAR unit.
See? Calming.
That is magic.
It is invisible.
Great design IS invisible. That is you goal!
Sidenote!
If you do NOT paint your trim, … leave it a natural grain wood… you have to make sure, there is NO FINGER JOINTED WOOD USED…
This is a way to recycle scraps of wood….that when painted, it perfectly OK….but when it is stained clear…you do NOT WANT TO SEE THE FINGER JOINTS!
Again, once the finishers put it up…..and I was tired of having them around … I gave up and let it be… but still… it was wrong.
CAMOUFLAGE DESIGN
But good design of windows is beyond size and style, and location…Take it a step further… camouflaging.
Don’t reveal from the outside what the room IS on the inside…
The most common, successful application of this, is the formal front windows, disguising the garage, entered from the side…. hiding the garage…
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Rarely hidden, is the massive blank side walls of a house, defining where the shower is inside…
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It is fun to pick house pics that show rhythmical rows of windows…..
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with no idea how large the rooms are inside…why does this matter?
it is more calming to see JUST the exterior,
and appreciate the lines and patterns, without the distraction of interior busy-ness…. It adds mystery to a house…
Another tell, is the arrangement of windows going up the stairs.
It is just calmer to look at a house,
like a stone, or an object of art,
with its landscaping…simpler…
We bought a small dark house.
The back of the house had more walls than windows, and what windows we had, were original from 1950, and painted shut long, long ago.
But it was the window and light deprivation, that goaded me into putting in walls of windows that open up, along the southern face of the house….. like this.
Sure it looks like Holiday Inn, but, Oh, the light, the air, the windows, the decks and space.
It faces the woods, so no one sees how unconventional it is, but to us, it is glorious.
The front is more conventional, just nesting 3 dormers into the old attic, in a perfectly symmetrical, predictable fashion.
The amount of money people put into their windows is very regional. In some houses it would only be about 3% of the project, in my case I was over 10%… in the $50 to 60K range. Most windows coast about $800-$1200 each, so there were 50 to 60 windows to be detailed out..
My contractor put me in touch with her window salesman, since I knew the blueprints and plans better than anyone.
We took the 3D drawings to his office and one by one, started making the inventory list…it took a couple hours, and in the end was 40 pages long.
The 3D drawings made it easier than working with blueprints…we could both see everything clearly.
I could twirl the house around on my screen, and we picked off each window, tempered or not tempered. (near doors, near stairs etc.), and if they were resting n 2×6 walls or 2×4 walls, and picking the window pane design of each.
I had many tall windows with transoms in the rooms with 10-foot ceilings… Marvin windows had these as one package… making it one window, with one measurement instead of two.
The window guy was also responsible for buying doors… another thing I was unprepared for. I had to learn Right side opening from Left side…then pick the door surface pattern and know firmly the size of the doors… 32” 34” 36” wide.
The catch with all this, is if there were any mistakes, there was no returning custom sized/tempered windows and doors…I paid. So I was dealing with 1 error = $1000.
So, I double checked this over and over again.
When it was time to frame the house, I gave the specs of each window to the framer each day he showed up. He could frame out about 5 or 10 windows at a time, so I just had to keep a day ahead of him as he progressed.
He just wanted the facts, unambiguous, cold facts….so I made clear labels on the blueprints…showing inventory line number, Rough Opening (RO).
In a normal situation the contractor would be involved, or be in charge of the window order…but the contractor I picked rarely came to the work site…so I was solely responsible for everything that happened every day….. for 1.5 years…. That’s a long long time.
nally… you do want a WINDOWSILL… but this only happens in 2×6 construction…You need thicker walls, to insert a window, and leave the extra couple inches for a windowsill.
These are some of the “invisible” things that make a house homier… flowers or keys on a window sill, sash windows that glide open discretely, thicker walls, that feel generous. Crank windows on thin walls just screams hotel cheap.