Windows are more than functional holes through walls, they are windows into creativity, culture, and history. From around the globe, architects and builders have bent with their buildings, window makers twisting the boundaries of convention in unexpected ways. It’s time to take a ride and check out some of the strangest and most beautiful windows from around the world.
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Hexagonal Windows: Architecture in Nature’s Geometry
Designed with a hexagonal window, also known as a “honeycomb window,” these two pointers pay homage to nature with a precious example of the beehives’ intricate patterns. These visually striking, six-sided openings are not merely decorative but perform useful functions such as bringing natural light to attics or highlighting built form. For example, Russian constructivist architect Konstantin Melnikov’s Melnikov House in Moscow features 124 hexagonal windows that bring brightness in much the same manner to interior spaces.
Witch Windows: A Quirky Vermont Tradition
You can find the ‘witch window’ in Vermont’s rolling hills. The double-hung sash window is a 45-degree rotated window so its long edge is parallel to the roof slope. In doing so, it leaves a full-sized window in the tight slot between roof planes. Some folklore maintains that witches couldn’t fly their broomsticks through these tilted windows, but the real story about that name has yet to be told.
Rose Windows: Stained Glass Masterpieces
Gothic cathedrals and churches have large stained windows known as rose windows. These windows are often divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery, with continual stories and scenes within them that are historically significant depicting religious motifs with subtlety of form, vibrant colors, and skillfully finished embellishment. Amongst the greatest of medieval architecture are the rose windows of Notre Dame de Paris and Chartres Cathedral.
Porthole Windows: Nautical Inspiration on Land
Porthole windows, reminiscent of those found on ships, have been incorporated into various buildings, adding a touch of maritime charm. These round, metal-framed windows make you feel like you are at sea, starting with modern architecture, and thus determining a different aesthetic.
Hidden Windows: Architectural Secrets
There are some buildings with windows that are wickedly hidden (hidden, but seeing) that disappear into the structure’s outside. Instead, these hidden windows are frequently used to keep a building’s look or to generate light in unusual places. For example, modernist homes are ones where the windows are built into the design nearly making them look invisible from the outside.
Oversized Windows: The Blurring of Indoors and Outdoors
However, oversized windows are becoming increasingly common in the architecture of today, notably in luxury apartments. Walls are spaced so wide that when the building moves, only glass separates the interior from the exterior, giving a seamless indoor-outdoor transition. For example, there is a growing trend towards modern architecture and craft in Tehran especially in luxury glass-fronted apartments.
Stained Glass Windows: Colorful Narratives in Glass
Stained glass windows not only make for great wall art, but also function as a telling medium for story in the windows with scenes from religious texts, historical events, and/or abstract designs. Centuries old these windows have been a staple of churches and cathedrals and some of the most elaborate are in Paris, at the Sainte-Chapelle.
Floor-to-Ceiling Glass Windows: Modern Elegance
A hallmark of modern architecture, floor-to-ceiling glass windows let in the landscape’s beauty while giving a feeling of open space. Another popular usage of these windows is at high-rise buildings as well as in luxury homes which take advantage of natural light as well as give you a great view. Glass windows are not new, also they have been used by department stores like the ones in New York for putting up their elaborate holiday displays, making us realize how versatile and appealing glass windows can be.
Skylights and Roof Windows: Bringing Light from Above
Skylights and roof windows have only one purpose, to provide natural light into places that would otherwise be dark: attics, and interior rooms that lack an exterior wall. Fixed as well as operable windows are available in different shapes and sizes such as traditional rectangular forms and more nonconventional ones such as circular or triangular windows.
Art Nouveau Windows: Decorative Elegance
The window style of Art Nouveau architecture, if you can call it that, is often elongated, flowing, organic shapes and intricate patterns. They are usually stained glass windows that are built in such a way to not stare out of place into the main body of the building, and so that the visual arrangement is beautiful and artistic.
Glass Blocks: Textured Transparency
In architecture, glass blocks are used to provide privacy and light passes through. These blocks can be arranged in any number of ways and they are often used in bathrooms, basements, or areas that would otherwise just want some privacy but need the light.
Sliding Glass Walls: Indoor-Outdoor Living
Large panels of glass that slide to join indoor and outdoor living spaces are called sliding glass walls. Modern homes often have these walls to create a smooth join between the internal and external, both to add to the living experience.
Clerestory Windows: Elevating Light and Air
Clerestory windows are high horizontal windows on the roof of a building. Usually, these types of lights are installed to bring natural light into the upper part of the room such as churches, gyms, and atriums among others.
Bay Windows: Expanding Views and Space
Protruding windows that stick out from the walls of a building, provide a little alcove inside. Such as used to give panoramic views and correctly complete a building’s exterior work.
Pivot Windows: Modern Functionality
Pivot windows are windows that will spin around a central axis, providing easy ventilation, and a decorative touch. Modern architecture often uses these windows in which we can design them in different shapes and different sizes.
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Windows are far more than just functional aspects of a building. They are an integral propriety of architectural symbols, tying in art, culture, and utility in fascinating ways. Each type has a mesmerizing geometry or the serene elegance of rose windows, while each has its own unique story and fulfills its purpose. The creativity and innovation in the way these architects designed these unusual windows help not just shape our experience of light and space but reflect it.
