ᐅ Window sill height 130 cm in the bedroom / home office?

Tolentino schrieb:

Yes, exactly! In my opinion, you don’t have enough of that right now.

I wouldn’t control that by window position and size, but rather through privacy screens inside and especially outside.

Why? My wife didn’t want that either, but it happened to work quite well with our other preferences, which is why our design is fairly symmetrical.
However, I never really understood it and honestly didn’t care. Eventually, I was told by my wife not to press the issue anymore for the sake of peace at home. But with you, I feel I can! Why is the symmetrical or even identical arrangement of windows on the outside so important when you’re inside yourself?

There are very few examples of absolute symmetry even in excellent architecture. I’m not a fan of houses whose façades lack any harmony because the design was planned solely from the inside out. However, I would set the window sill height according to what fits best for the room.
Not every room HAS to be flooded with natural light.

audiophilone schrieb:

@11ant By setbacks, do you mean those at the corner windows, right?

No, I mean the projections and recesses on the entire building structure, this jumble of many inset and protruding blocks.

audiophilone schrieb:

so I tried a bit more again...

Well, at least the smokey eyes are off now.

hampshire schrieb:

As @11ant already points out, you can see a number of costly details. It’s no problem if the budget allows it; there’s no law against building economically.

I only mentioned the costs to illustrate the point. I find the cost (in)efficiency less regrettable than the fact that these generous extra expenses are also aesthetically inefficient. Lots of sculpting on the overall building structure, and all of it completely “for nothing” (because the original poster doesn’t even notice the projections and recesses and asks me if I probably meant the corner window posts).

Hangman schrieb:

I would only use windows with a high sill height where there is a clear reason to do so. For example, we have several windows at 1.25m (4 feet): one behind a kitchen counter because we use the windowsill as extra shelf space, another on the hillside side of the house to direct the view upwards to the summit cross, and one in the entrance hall because the staircase runs along the wall and I didn’t want the sill too close to the steps.

Sills don’t even need to be raised entirely: small kitchen herb pots can also stand on fixed-glass lower sections of windows that are not raised…

audiophilone schrieb:

We somehow don’t want to have a puzzle of windows on the house.

That’s commendable, but it would be less distracting than a puzzle of projections and recesses.

Tolentino schrieb:

Why is the symmetrical or even identical arrangement of windows on the outside so important if you’re sitting inside?

A window layout that appears symmetrical from inside on an individual wall would reliably break up a rigid external symmetry. That doesn’t guarantee that alternating projections would be the golden mean between internal and external symmetry—but it’s worth trying.

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OK, I admit it – that was too much text 🙄

Short version: I didn’t say “do it like in this picture,” but rather encouraged you to think completely freely when planning the INTERIOR. And if you manage that (and I’m afraid right now you’re somehow stuck), then something like this puzzle can emerge as an intermediate step. Afterwards, the following applies:

Hangman schrieb:

you domesticate the whole thing, for example by using repeating proportions or formats (which can alternate between portrait and landscape), alignments between the ground floor and upper floor, etc. The important thing is that you think completely freely when planning the INTERIOR. Whether and to what extent you standardize this again for the exterior view is a subsequent step.

In your post, there are aspects beyond the exterior view — functional aspects — and that’s what this is about:

audiophilone schrieb:
... don’t particularly like floor-to-ceiling windows on the upper floor ... Of course, it’s important to me to have enough light ... occasionally a view from above ... so that not everyone can look into my house ... We somehow don’t want to have a puzzle of windows on the house.

Between floor-to-ceiling and 130cm (51 inches) there are still 129 other centimeters. For example, we mostly have 65cm (26 inches) windows. This allows you to see outside, but others can’t see inside. We didn’t want a puzzle either, so we standardized to 95cm (37 inches) and 165cm (65 inches). So the windows are either 95x165 (portrait or landscape) or 95x95 / 165x165, all with a uniform top edge at 225cm (89 inches).

Currently, you don’t have enough light, and regarding the view from above, at least my wife has to stand on tiptoes to look out of 125cm (49 inches) windows.

My recommendation is to completely detach from the exterior during planning and think solely in terms of interior function. Creative chaos is absolutely welcome as an intermediate step because the subsequent organizing and standardizing is much easier than the current approach. Just give it a try... you can always discard it later 🙂

audiophilone schrieb:

Personally, we are not big fans of floor-to-ceiling windows on the upper floor; I could never imagine having something like that in the bathroom.

You don’t have to. But just because you want continuous window bands in the bathroom (which aren’t even really window bands, but rather higher parapet walls) doesn’t mean every room needs to be the same.
From what I understood from @Hangman, he was simply trying to explain the window design, size, and placement to you. Ultimately, they serve not only to structure the building’s exterior but also to bring natural light into the living spaces of a house.
You don’t look at the house only from the outside!

audiophilone schrieb:

so everyone can peek into my house

Are you building on a market square? Or are you so important that people stop in front of your windows to stare inside?
Yes, privacy and shielding personal spaces from views are important! But don’t exaggerate.

audiophilone schrieb:

We somehow don’t want our house to look like a puzzle made of windows.

No one is forcing that!
Although it does look a bit like that: insisting on a window band, and if not in the bathroom, then at least nicely above the bed. Once you live in the house, you curse it because in summer you have to go to great lengths to darken the windows to avoid overheating and too much light while sleeping.
Then you end up gathering small windows in one place and some large ones below—which is also almost like sorting puzzle pieces 😉
As I said: in southern regions, larger window areas make a lot of sense, especially to illuminate living spaces. But the problem here is that the rooms are not oriented in the most suitable direction.

audiophilone schrieb:
We would somehow prefer not to have a patchwork of windows on the house.

When does something become a patchwork? There is usually something in between that wouldn’t deserve such a negative label. It has often been said that you would do well to plan the windows from the inside out, but you are resisting that. You don’t have to, apparently exterior symmetry is so important to you that you should just go ahead and do it that way.

11ant schrieb:

Balustrades don’t even have to slide up completely: Kitchen herb pots can also be placed on fixed-glass lower window sections that don’t slide up higher...

They can. However, to avoid a puzzle effect, we followed the style of the two neighboring 125cm (49-inch) windows (by the way, I find countertops extending into the window recesses excessive and impractical). In the current floor plan, the issue is addressed by having no window in the kitchen at all. Tough times for the kitchen herbs then 😉