Our connection with outside seems to be entrenched in our experience of the world. The great outdoors has a natural hold on us. We are compelled to seek out natural light, fresh air and green from within our internal environments.
Whilst we enjoy the comfort, security and shelter of indoors it is often at odds with our nature. Just as we are disorientated when we don’t recognise our setting, it seems we do not want to forget our roots. When internalising a space, there is a need to create opportunities to remind ourselves of this connection.
There is more to an opening to a wall than meets the eye. Whether a window, a gate, or a door, their treatment and definition vary widely in colour, frame, finish and use. Where a door provides a threshold, a transition to the outside, a gate provides a defence. A window seems to offer the visual connection to the natural world we seek.
The desire to create sight lines in modern design emphasises this need. So as not to take away from this link, we find that the simpler the opening treatment, the more successful the effect. A more modest approach to finish leads one to look beyond, back to where we came from.
The only question left then is: what we are looking at? The subject of the view is fundamental to good architecture. Whether a window’s function is simply letting in the light or having a clear shot at the church tower, both connect us to context, orientation and place and, accompanied by the body of our shelter collectively contribute to our subconscious understanding of place.
Comment – FRAME A VIEW