With help from volunteers, we took pictures of dozens of buildings and found that on average, blinds or shades covered about 59 percent of the window area. And over 75 percent of buildings had more than half of their window area covered. As the study puts it, “Tenants are moving into these rooms with a view, but more often than not, can’t see out the window.” — blog.urbangreencouncil.org
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I think a lot of people worry about privacy. As a friend who lived in a penthouse in Chicago once said: "If they spend their time looking in my windows then *they're* the pervert, not me."
What weird, depressing, AND exciting information. Weird, because it seems so inhuman, even pathetic, to me that people are not changing their blinds in response to the sun. Depressing, because it indicates the extreme poverty of our designed physical environment at the moment: we couldn't make affordable shades easy or attractive enough for people to use routinely. Exciting, because I see this kind of 'analysis' so rarely, and it clearly has so much potential for improving our work as architects/designers.
I definitely wish the study were not packaged within a preachy bit against all-glass buildings (much as I sympathize with urbangreencouncil's agenda). Would anybody recommend research in a similar vein (statistical observation of the built environment) that is perhaps more rigorous and complete?
I guess what we really need is a long-term, multi-building, all-facade video timelapse for this analysis to go to the next level: how do people interact with all-glass walls? Is privacy really an issue? Do people notice heat differences from sun position, or is the AC in the building already (over-) compensating? How could glare NOT be a huge issue? Does anybody appreciate the view. Etc. etc.
I live in a community of all glass apartment buildings and townhouses and have observed this phenomenon many time. A couple thoughts:
1. In the single and two story townhouses, I think safety or the perception of safety is the biggest reason people draw the blinds. Especially at night, when a fully lit unit is a beacon, there is a fear that someone may be looking in that you can't see looking out.
2. In the apartment towers, west facing heat gain is absolutely miserable in the summer. AC can't adequately overcome it.
3. Cold weather I believe has less impact. We tend to keep our shades open in the winter despite the cold.
4. Finally, many, many people, in fact I would say the majority of people, just do not like to see out. Call them moles. At work, I am constantly battling co-workers over whether the blinds are open or shut. I don't think it has anything to do with glare, so much as they just don't want to see out. We also have friends who live with their blinds permanently closed for no good or apparent reason.
Personally, I never want to live in a house with a punched opening again, but I would say that I am in the minority with that opinion.
Privacy concerns, my ass. People put their whole lives on-line now know full well that they are being snooped on yet the close their blinds out of privacy?
Probably lazyness has more to do with it. who has time to open & close blinds when the facebook feed is constatly updating. There's alos a lot of cheap blinds that are easy to break & difficult to deal with. Also, heat gain can definitly be an issue.
Sounds like a research project to me!
Now, get to work on that grant application, once you've clearly stated why this is not merely interesting, but important for the profession to understand.
Someone once said, "sometimes I want to live in a cave and sometimes I want to live in a tent." I think this phenomenon is really not much of a surprise if you understand the relationship between people and their dwellings. The home is a refuge from the outside world not a display case. Traditionally, homes were introverted. Courtyards provided a connection to nature without compromising the feeling of refuge. After dealing with the world all day long most people want refuge. They want a sanctuary. There is a time and place for extroverted architecture and a time and place for introverted architecture. Home is a time to be introverted IMO. I got a lot of shit in school for this when designing a house in studio. One of the crits said the house was anti-social. I said that the house is not a social object but rather a place of personal refuge. If you want company you invite them over. Anyway, this crit designed a glass box apartment nearby. Every window was covered. He still argued for this connection to the street. Oh by the way, he lived in a completely introverted house. Why do we try to force this onto people. Why not just accept the nature of the home and make it better. You can't change the nature of things like this. Just seems like modernist ideology over anthropological reason.
I guess what we really need is a long-term, multi-building, all-facade video timelapse for this analysis to go to the next level: how do people interact with all-glass walls? Really?
Why do we try to force this onto people. Why not just accept the nature of the home and make it better. You can't change the nature of things like this. Just seems like modernist ideology over anthropological reason.
Couldn't agree more. This dosen't refute the charm or even necessity for glass walls at times, but it seems pretty obvious why this kind of thing is a problem. One reason you see all glass is developers who want to maximize the rentable volume so that everything to the inside of the glass envelope is rentable. Another reason is the simplicity of detailing and constructing these banal structures. As long as we continue to perpetuate this look as being "of our time" , some developers will be happy to make their money and have someone else pay the energy bills.
Actually, its more of a modernist default mode than an ideology. At some point we need to accept that this problem is not in the mindset of the inhabitants but rather the failure of the habitat. This is not about "why won't you design what we the public want." It's more about why won't you design around the nature of the human animal.
As long as we continue to perpetuate this look as being "of our time" , some developers will be happy to make their money and have someone else pay the energy bills.
I find it laughable how architects/environmentalists continue to frame this in terms of energy consumption and heating bills. I live in a 1,300sf glass townhouse with a heating and cooling bill of about a 1/4 of what I know people who own a 1920s brick detached single family house pay. Density and building type have far more to do with addressing energy consumption than building materials do.
This is not about "why won't you design what we the public want." It's more about why won't you design around the nature of the human animal.
I tend to look at them as the same thing. Working with people as they are rather than some utopian fantasy of what they should be. People tend not to know exactly what they want, but they know how they feel about things, which is somewhat based on their animal instincts. But it isn't an across the board thing. I've also noticed peoples penchant for living with the blinds down. I don't know why that is, but I have noticed that sometimes, when you raise the blinds, they'll say, WOW, look at all this light! Must be a sub-concious thing for some related to how the world is not the place to let your hair down.
I tend to agree with jlax on the point that homes tend to be for refuge & inversion. Big glass walls and stunning views are great fro pictures (especially architects portfolio) and making sales in real estate.
But once most people have spent a few weeks in a house they tend to revert back to their habits and in stead of looking out window or enjoying the view, opt fro television, facebook, cooking or wheatever other shit they do when at home.
I suppose that it works for the high end luxe condo because most those peple don't spend more than a few weeks in those places anyhow. It's more of a financial asset to them & they got housecleaners to keep them crystal clear. But for most of the middle & working classes, folks are too tired & distracted to spend much time enjoying views. Opening the blinds might just higlight how dirty the windows are and who wants to spend the time cleaning those damn things?
I have a huge window in my living room that we almost never put the blinds on. But then, it looks onto the hills of Griffith Park...
Sometimes I feel its not about more and more digital analysis or new tectonic facade integration to solve one issue which again raised new different issues.. Instead why not focus as human's basic needs.. if that's not fulfilling its not going to work anyway..privacy is something very important and facade is like firewall in our computer.. its not only protecting the building from different weather conditions but also provide privacy in general.. Just my thoughts..
its good article!! thank you for sharing!!
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