ᐅ Floor-to-ceiling windows – Why choose floor-to-ceiling windows? Advantages and disadvantages?
Created on: 27 Jul 2018 16:45
Y
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In the past, people used to talk about their "own four walls," but nowadays it would be more accurate to say: "my own four / six / eight windows" – depending on how many floor-to-ceiling and nearly ceiling-high windows break up and interrupt the walls. Floor-to-ceiling windows have gone from being a status symbol to a matter of course; they represent a contrast to the traditional windowsill and flowerpot world that new-build residents want to leave behind. These windows can be tilted or even opened, provided they have fall protection, but the question remains: Can you really love them?
In fact, buying a floor plan can stir emotions when you see the bright, airy rooms and seemingly weightless walls in the graphical simulations provided by the real estate agent. Glass reaching to the floor was previously only known from high-rise scenes in major films and extravagant museum buildings. Just the prospect of floor-to-ceiling windows gives a sense of becoming a more open, lighter, and brighter person.
In the public perception, these windows convey something solemn, dramatic, visionary. For example, when the Handelsblatt profiles the leading conservative talk show figure Hans-Olaf Henkel, the very first paragraph notes that the vigorous AfD official looks out through floor-to-ceiling windows from his penthouse in Berlin-Mitte towards "his goal," the government district. Gerhard Schröder, on the other hand, offers a reversed perspective in his book Decisions: My Life in Politics. The former chancellor writes about the moment after Oskar Lafontaine’s resignation in 1999: "When Joschka was outside again and Heye had also said goodbye, I stood as usual—whenever faced with a confusing situation—by the floor-to-ceiling window through which a late sun sent its last rays. Early spring and a faint light green in the park of the Federal Chancellery."
However, most people who stand before floor-to-ceiling windows in confusing situations are more likely to see withering turf or a chaotic collection of ride-on toys, children's bicycles, scooters, skateboards, unicycles, and rubber boots: springtime in a new residential development in Munich-Oberföhring, Hamburg-Ottensen, or Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. Especially where housing is built for families, floor-to-ceiling windows are now the standard design feature, and even Germany’s best-selling house model "Flair 113" features floor-to-ceiling windows beneath its pitched roof.
The rise of underfloor heating was probably the trigger: since new buildings are heated from below, radiators no longer need to be placed under the windows, and the windows can extend all the way to the floor. This results in more light inside and makes the façades appear less bulky and unwelcoming.
Planning is one thing, but the reality for residents is another. Or, in the words of Anne Zuber, editor-in-chief of the magazine Häuser: "Reality is the moment when you glance into the fridge while walking past, shove two slices of salami into your mouth, and get watched by neighbors from three different directions." Zuber’s advice to future architects and planners: "Don’t forget the salami zones."
For now, however, the pleasure belongs to pleated blind manufacturers. These blinds, which can be slid up and down within the window frame, are ideal for turning floor-to-ceiling windows back into windows you can look through only up to hip level. However, these windows then appear like strictly skirted governesses among the openings in the walls. Others use frosted adhesive film, which always raises the question: Why have floor-to-ceiling windows if you cover them up?
A walk through a new development shows that residents simply block some of their floor-to-ceiling windows over time. It looks odd because the backs of furniture are hardly decorative façades. But what else can one do when a children's room has one wall with a door, one with a wardrobe, and two walls with floor-to-ceiling windows? Anyone living with floor-to-ceiling windows quickly realizes that these windows demand things from you that you cannot always provide. Writer Anke Stelling has just released an illuminating novel about a mother's existential crisis in Prenzlauer Berg. Her book is titled Floor-to-Ceiling Windows. In it, the narrator reflects, "The new building looks from the outside exactly as you want it nowadays. But the floor-to-ceiling windows honestly make furnishing difficult—at least if you didn’t know during the initial floor plan design who would sleep where and with how many people and pieces of furniture you would move in. The windows demand a coherent overall concept."
Every move, especially if building your own home, feels like a fresh start, like the chance to finally have that "coherent overall concept," the hope to take control of your own life. But once you’re living there, the windows bring you back down to earth—right to the ground they reach. Yes, architects praise the exchange between private and public space in residential complexes, and design furniture catalogs suggest that minimalist living is possible in everyday life, but in the end, the floor-to-ceiling windows remind you: everything remains improvisation, nothing is really coherent.
My daughter is turning eight; she was just born when we moved into the new building. She only knows floor-to-ceiling windows. In her room, she has three of them. When asked before her birthday what she wished for, she said: "A windowsill." Why’s that? "So you can sit comfortably on it. Or lean on it. With a cushion or something. Or put something on it." And what would that be? "A flowerpot."
Photo: Till Raether, source: Schlafzimmer-Süddeutsche
In fact, buying a floor plan can stir emotions when you see the bright, airy rooms and seemingly weightless walls in the graphical simulations provided by the real estate agent. Glass reaching to the floor was previously only known from high-rise scenes in major films and extravagant museum buildings. Just the prospect of floor-to-ceiling windows gives a sense of becoming a more open, lighter, and brighter person.
In the public perception, these windows convey something solemn, dramatic, visionary. For example, when the Handelsblatt profiles the leading conservative talk show figure Hans-Olaf Henkel, the very first paragraph notes that the vigorous AfD official looks out through floor-to-ceiling windows from his penthouse in Berlin-Mitte towards "his goal," the government district. Gerhard Schröder, on the other hand, offers a reversed perspective in his book Decisions: My Life in Politics. The former chancellor writes about the moment after Oskar Lafontaine’s resignation in 1999: "When Joschka was outside again and Heye had also said goodbye, I stood as usual—whenever faced with a confusing situation—by the floor-to-ceiling window through which a late sun sent its last rays. Early spring and a faint light green in the park of the Federal Chancellery."
However, most people who stand before floor-to-ceiling windows in confusing situations are more likely to see withering turf or a chaotic collection of ride-on toys, children's bicycles, scooters, skateboards, unicycles, and rubber boots: springtime in a new residential development in Munich-Oberföhring, Hamburg-Ottensen, or Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg. Especially where housing is built for families, floor-to-ceiling windows are now the standard design feature, and even Germany’s best-selling house model "Flair 113" features floor-to-ceiling windows beneath its pitched roof.
The rise of underfloor heating was probably the trigger: since new buildings are heated from below, radiators no longer need to be placed under the windows, and the windows can extend all the way to the floor. This results in more light inside and makes the façades appear less bulky and unwelcoming.
Planning is one thing, but the reality for residents is another. Or, in the words of Anne Zuber, editor-in-chief of the magazine Häuser: "Reality is the moment when you glance into the fridge while walking past, shove two slices of salami into your mouth, and get watched by neighbors from three different directions." Zuber’s advice to future architects and planners: "Don’t forget the salami zones."
For now, however, the pleasure belongs to pleated blind manufacturers. These blinds, which can be slid up and down within the window frame, are ideal for turning floor-to-ceiling windows back into windows you can look through only up to hip level. However, these windows then appear like strictly skirted governesses among the openings in the walls. Others use frosted adhesive film, which always raises the question: Why have floor-to-ceiling windows if you cover them up?
A walk through a new development shows that residents simply block some of their floor-to-ceiling windows over time. It looks odd because the backs of furniture are hardly decorative façades. But what else can one do when a children's room has one wall with a door, one with a wardrobe, and two walls with floor-to-ceiling windows? Anyone living with floor-to-ceiling windows quickly realizes that these windows demand things from you that you cannot always provide. Writer Anke Stelling has just released an illuminating novel about a mother's existential crisis in Prenzlauer Berg. Her book is titled Floor-to-Ceiling Windows. In it, the narrator reflects, "The new building looks from the outside exactly as you want it nowadays. But the floor-to-ceiling windows honestly make furnishing difficult—at least if you didn’t know during the initial floor plan design who would sleep where and with how many people and pieces of furniture you would move in. The windows demand a coherent overall concept."
Every move, especially if building your own home, feels like a fresh start, like the chance to finally have that "coherent overall concept," the hope to take control of your own life. But once you’re living there, the windows bring you back down to earth—right to the ground they reach. Yes, architects praise the exchange between private and public space in residential complexes, and design furniture catalogs suggest that minimalist living is possible in everyday life, but in the end, the floor-to-ceiling windows remind you: everything remains improvisation, nothing is really coherent.
My daughter is turning eight; she was just born when we moved into the new building. She only knows floor-to-ceiling windows. In her room, she has three of them. When asked before her birthday what she wished for, she said: "A windowsill." Why’s that? "So you can sit comfortably on it. Or lean on it. With a cushion or something. Or put something on it." And what would that be? "A flowerpot."
Photo: Till Raether, source: Schlafzimmer-Süddeutsche
Well, I don’t understand all the fuss about desks... All the desks I know have open space underneath. That way, a lot more light comes into the room through floor-to-ceiling windows, even if there is a desk in front of them. It also makes the room feel much larger when the light can pass through.
Of course, this doesn’t make sense everywhere, but since windows now often have better insulation values than masonry, it’s not only reasonable but actually offers added value without major drawbacks.
I’m not trying to argue for or against it, but I don’t see it as negatively as described here.
We are fortunate to have secured a plot in an established residential area with easily 40 meters (130 feet) to the next house, and there is only one single window facing our garden. There will be a large, continuous window area on the ground floor and a huge floor-to-ceiling window upstairs, where I can cozy up in winter with a book and enjoy the view of the big garden.
Of course, this doesn’t make sense everywhere, but since windows now often have better insulation values than masonry, it’s not only reasonable but actually offers added value without major drawbacks.
I’m not trying to argue for or against it, but I don’t see it as negatively as described here.
We are fortunate to have secured a plot in an established residential area with easily 40 meters (130 feet) to the next house, and there is only one single window facing our garden. There will be a large, continuous window area on the ground floor and a huge floor-to-ceiling window upstairs, where I can cozy up in winter with a book and enjoy the view of the big garden.
@haydee
Hmm, I see it quite differently. Are all the glass skyscrapers like the DB Tower at Potsdamer Platz also complete design failures because you can see under the desks inside from the outside?
Then there’s a desk placed in front of the child’s room window. So what? It’s not fixed in place.
It’s quite possible that as the child grows, the room will be rearranged several times, eventually freeing up the full-height window again.
Hmm, I see it quite differently. Are all the glass skyscrapers like the DB Tower at Potsdamer Platz also complete design failures because you can see under the desks inside from the outside?
Then there’s a desk placed in front of the child’s room window. So what? It’s not fixed in place.
It’s quite possible that as the child grows, the room will be rearranged several times, eventually freeing up the full-height window again.
My mother’s neighbors have a floor-to-ceiling window right next to the toilet… that really makes me shake my head.
We have one in the bedroom; I simply like it for ventilation, and it’s the only window there, so a standard one would have felt too small to me.
In the children’s bedroom (or future office), there is also a large window, but the lower part is fixed and the upper part opens.
The one in the kid’s room serves as an emergency exit and opens onto the garage.
At the very top, under the gable, there’s another window with a fixed lower part, so it’s the only source of light and therefore necessary.
The two double units in the living/dining room are not planned to be obstructed in the current design.
We have one in the bedroom; I simply like it for ventilation, and it’s the only window there, so a standard one would have felt too small to me.
In the children’s bedroom (or future office), there is also a large window, but the lower part is fixed and the upper part opens.
The one in the kid’s room serves as an emergency exit and opens onto the garage.
At the very top, under the gable, there’s another window with a fixed lower part, so it’s the only source of light and therefore necessary.
The two double units in the living/dining room are not planned to be obstructed in the current design.
I don’t like desks with all the PC cables in front of the windows. If there is a chest of drawers blocking it, or if the lower part is taped up, or if blinds are hanging there 24 hours a day, it just doesn’t work. Especially since children’s rooms are often rearranged, windows that are not floor-to-ceiling offer more flexibility.
Floor-to-ceiling windows make sense for a reading corner. There isn’t just one single solution.
High-rise buildings usually have mirrored facades, so there is no other way to bring natural light into the building. Single-family houses generally have more exterior wall area relative to their floor space.
Floor-to-ceiling windows make sense for a reading corner. There isn’t just one single solution.
High-rise buildings usually have mirrored facades, so there is no other way to bring natural light into the building. Single-family houses generally have more exterior wall area relative to their floor space.
U
Username_wahl28 Jul 2018 14:06We have tall, narrow windows without shutters at the staircase (north side), and despite having a master square layout, walking around without clothes is a bit tricky due to motion detectors, especially in the mornings and evenings...
In the living-dining area facing the garden (south), we have a large glass front and several meters (feet) of space to the neighbors, which is no problem with some large plants in front. I really like that.
The other rooms have standard windows with windowsills, which are very convenient for flowers, toys, and small items.
In the living-dining area facing the garden (south), we have a large glass front and several meters (feet) of space to the neighbors, which is no problem with some large plants in front. I really like that.
The other rooms have standard windows with windowsills, which are very convenient for flowers, toys, and small items.
haydee schrieb:
Is there a dresser in front of it, is the lower part sealed shut, or are blinds hanging there 24 hours a day? Then it simply won’t fit.As I said, I completely disagree. I actually think it fits very well. Blinds can be opened, the dresser can be moved, and films can provide sun protection or serve other purposes.
There are cable management systems for PC cables. This way, everything can be hidden, allowing light to enter the room along the entire wall height, even if there is a desk there.
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