Hallway with a View
May 27, 2010 7:45 PM   Subscribe

Is there an architectural principle along the lines of "put your best window view in a hallway"?

I remember someone mentioning this to me on the grounds that putting a beautiful view in your living room numbs you to it. It's better to put it somewhere a person will only get a fleeting glance.

Is this a real thing?
posted by typography to Media & Arts (6 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
If it is, I bet it would be in the book A Pattern Language.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 7:46 PM on May 27, 2010


I've heard a similar sort of thing about where to place your house - sort of paraphrasing Frank Lloyd Wright, paraphrased by my professor: if you're building your house on a hill, place it on the shining brow, not on the top. Putting it on top destroys the hill, putting it on the brow makes your house part of the hill.

Another professor had an architectural parable of sorts about people who really loved a meadow they knew of, enough that they wanted to build their dream house in it. Instead, they were advised to place their house at the edge of the meadow, which would still allow them to actually enjoy it. Putting their house in the middle would have ruined the meadow.

The principle you mention sounds like a bit of extremism, more someone taking the piss than actually crafting a manifesto.
posted by LionIndex at 8:17 PM on May 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Best answer: peanut has it: Pattern #134 - Zen View

If there is a beautiful view, don't spoil it by building huge windows that gape incessantly at it. Instead, put the windows which look onto the view at places of transition- along paths, in hallways, in entry ways, on stairs, between rooms.

posted by djb at 8:26 PM on May 27, 2010 [1 favorite]


Best answer: It is indeed in A Pattern Language (by Christopher Alexander), which is what I came in here to recommend. It's called Zen View: "If there is a beautiful view, don't spoil it by building huge windows that gape incessantly at it. Instead, put the windows which look onto the view at places of transition-- along paths, in hallways, in entry ways, on stairs, between rooms. If the view window is correctly placed, people will see a glimpse of the distant view as they come up to the window or pass it: but the view is never visible from the places where people stay".

Fantastic book, many other patterns will also work from this book, such as Tapestry of light and dark, and others.
posted by kch at 8:30 PM on May 27, 2010


Response by poster: Hmm, interesting. Thanks guys.
posted by typography at 9:05 PM on May 27, 2010


sounds like one of my decorating principles: hallways, and entryways in particular, are great places to go completely over-the-top with the decor, because you don't generally spend a lot of time there, and it makes a great statement when people come over.
posted by sexyrobot at 1:40 AM on May 28, 2010


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