Houses that are open for all the world to see

October 28, 2014 7:37 AM

I never was fond of houses with picture windows, or too many windows at all, but then I fell in love with this home...

I just want to know how practical it is to have a house like this? It's very beautiful, but it has so many windows and doesn't seem very secure. Is it just something nice to look at?

posted by Cybria to Home & Garden (26 answers total)

Yeah, I'd worry about security too with all those sliding doors and glass. Although it is lovely, I'd hate to have any nearby neighbors --- just putting up curtains everywhere isn't going to keep it private, day or night. And no matter how energy-efficient they claim it is, I'd wonder about that in extreme cold or hot climates.
posted by easily confused at 7:48 AM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Glass is pretty hard to break and even "normal" homes have more than enough windows for a potential robber to break through. Almost every house I've been in has a rear sliding patio door that's all glass which is trivially broken. A number of break-ins in my neighbourhood have happened this way and they're all typical houses with a lot fewer windows than this. But most burglars will avoid breaking a window if possible since it's loud.

The glass in those doors is probably double or triple paned for energy efficiency and you'd need a sledgehammer to break them. Or a normal hammer and a lot of time.

At any rate, ever house has issues but I don't have any reason to believe that houses with fancy architecture are inherently any less secure.
posted by GuyZero at 7:50 AM on October 28, 2014 [15 favorites]

IME, houses like these are often built on private acreage where neighbors are scarce, or in neighborhoods where security is inherently tight because of who lives there. You could contact Origin and ask them if they offer security packages along with their house designs, just to see what they say. I'd get reinforced windows and doors and a top notch security system, personally. Most houses are vulnerable to committed thieves, so while I get where you're coming from, I don't know that a house like this would really have such poor construction that it'd be easy to break into it. I'd say this type of house would probably be more secure because it'd be custom built and have other structural reinforcements.
posted by Hermione Granger at 7:53 AM on October 28, 2014 [4 favorites]

I assume a house like that would have a decent security system, and I agree with GuyZero about the glass; there's also coating you can put on normal single-paned windows that makes it incredibly difficult to break.

I'd feel super-weird from a personal safety (as opposed to home security) standpoint about having windows open at night, though, so I'd definitely need blinds or curtains everywhere. I'm always baffled by people who just have their windows open to the street.
posted by you're a kitty! at 7:53 AM on October 28, 2014

What do you mean by "practical?"

At a glance, I assume that house is made from modern, high-efficiency materials. It probably is well insulated and benefits from natural light and heating.

I think whether your house will be broken into has more to do with location and contingency than how much glass it has. I mean, robbers aren't going around looking for big glass windowpanes thinking "Oh man, that there is the jackpot! All I need is a brick!"
posted by General Tonic at 7:55 AM on October 28, 2014 [20 favorites]

I know a woman who has a house like this out in bumfuck Florida. She's about 75 and lives alone. She has an excellent security system, so that has never been a problem, and she said she likes the enormous picture windows because walking around the house and bathing in front of them (her bathroom is full of these windows) is titillating (her words). She has no neighbors within visible range.

The most exciting thing was that she'd get an occasional panther prowling outside of her house at night and it was spooky to see its eyes glowing out in the darkness.
posted by phunniemee at 8:01 AM on October 28, 2014 [4 favorites]

That's a gorgeous house. Short of living right on top of the neighbors, so that you'd lose most of the benefit from the windows by having to put blinds in every single one (and you can still see out of venitians if you angle them right), I wouldn't think twice about living in one.
posted by acm at 8:10 AM on October 28, 2014

I love this aesthetic. I think that there are a lot of older homes with old sliding doors and single pane windows in not-sturdy frames that are far less secure than this. It's not the amount of windows that's a concern, but how the windows are constructed. With proper window treatments, this house would be a dream.
posted by quince at 8:12 AM on October 28, 2014

If you're worried about people breaking windows to get in, then any single window large enough for a person to crawl through (which is probably a requirement of the fire code for every bedroom), is exactly the same level of risk as many windows large enough for a person to crawl through. More windows changes nothing security-wise.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:19 AM on October 28, 2014 [12 favorites]

We have gigantic sliding glass doors in two rooms on one wall of our house. They are energy-efficient so they don't let in appreciable heat, and we do curtain them when we are getting full sun (usually in the winter when the screening trees have dropped their leaves). If I could afford it, I would also put in solar sensors to automatically shade the window in full sun.

I don't think that sliding glass doors are less safe than regular doors/windows. They can be sensored in an alarm system, they are now designed so they can't be lifted from the track from the exterior, and the bolt can't be jimmied. They face a fence, a row of screening trees, and a greenbelt, so neighbors can't peek in at us. The worst thing that's ever occurred is a contractor showed up unexpectedly on a Saturday morning to work in the back yard when we had the curtains full open and we were not yet fully dressed.
posted by muddgirl at 8:22 AM on October 28, 2014

Agreed with the others, there's no more security risk with those windows than there are in my ranch house with many adult-sized windows. All you need is enough space for a person to get in and go unlock the front door. Burglars prefer not to decapitate themselves or sever a limb trying to get in a large plate window.

Also, you're looking at the intended backside of the house, that's going to point out at your vast acreage...or your fenced back yard. I have stayed in vacation homes of similar design and often the front side of the house literally has no windows (or in one place it had tiny long windows along the top of the wall), and you end up with the illusion that you are alone with your presumably nice view out the back. Lock your gate, and you're about as safe as you are in a bunker.

My only concern would be that I'm not pointing all that un-awninged glass West or South, because triple-pane or not the sun is a hot bright thing and I don't like it.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:30 AM on October 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

I grew up in a house where two walls of the living room was essentially all windows. I loved it and my parents did too--we never had any blinds or curtains at all, which was OK because the windows were not facing the road and we were separated from our nearest neighbor by 200' and a high border of pampas grass.

From a security standpoint, any house that has windows on the ground floor is equally at risk. I think privacy is a bigger concern, but if you situated the house correctly it would be OK.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 8:48 AM on October 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

From a security standpoint, what's the difference between one window on ground level and twenty? Unless you live in a bunker it's no safer to have fewer windows as long as any of them are accessible from the lot/street.
posted by lydhre at 9:06 AM on October 28, 2014

These articles point out some unanticipated problems, notably the impact of unrelieved sun on the interior temperature (insulation won't help with this, except to make it harder for heat to escape). Sun damage to fabrics was also mentioned.

Then, too, you need to make sure the whole thing is very well constructed, so there won't be leakage or buckling.

My ideal house would have some windows, sure, but the main criteria for me is how little or how much maintenance it will require each year as time passes, including cleaning, repairs, and adapting to my life.
posted by amtho at 9:38 AM on October 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

Our full-length windows are also heavily shaded by an attached screened-in porch. That's easier to do on an ground-floor house than a high-rise, of course.
posted by muddgirl at 9:40 AM on October 28, 2014

Regarding security: While having six large windows may not be a bigger problem than having one large window, having a house that looks expensive, makes it easy to see when you are or are not home, and displays all your belongings might have an effect.
posted by amtho at 9:40 AM on October 28, 2014 [3 favorites]

It might make you feel a bit "naked" at first but, as said above, these type of houses are usually built on larger lots in suburban areas so you can easily have a pet dog or two which are excellent for security. Plus you get to have doggies.

I've lived way out in the country and in the city and then out in the country and then the city etc. and each time I've transitioned I initially felt a bit unsafe in my new surroundings but that sensation passed quickly.
posted by vapidave at 9:49 AM on October 28, 2014

I love having lots of windows. One room can be seen into, so the windows have miniblinds, angled to let in sun, but allow privacy. In the summer, miniblinds are angled to reduce sun and let the breeze in. I have a nice view and often wish the house had more giant windows facing it.

If I built a house and had the cash, I'd have fancy automatic curtains and/or blinds.
posted by theora55 at 10:10 AM on October 28, 2014

I can relate. And I did buy that house. A few scattered thoughts:

The creepy feeling of being watched, of having one's private self observed, can, if you conceive it right, be a feature, rather than a bug. If you make people completely unobservable in their private lives, they'll gradually devolve into dirty, lazy, neurotic (or, at very least, not very social) bedbugs. There's a Sherlock Holmes quote about that (about what depravity lies behind rural doors), but I can't find it.

Being on display - or even just imagining you are - makes you keep up appearances (in all senses of the phrase) more. This is NOT a bad thing. Think of the pleasant and relatively un-neurotic 1940's, when "keeping up appearances" at all times was the norm.

Your very attraction to this house, with all its windows, indicates a yearning for light, openness, and vitality. Follow through, and the house will help keep you on that track (just as how those who live in dark basements are encouraged by their abodes in their sloth and depression).

I don't know you, but, still, I beg you to buy this house.
posted by Quisp Lover at 10:13 AM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

I contend that a house like that is less of a security concern. If you were planning on robbing it, you activities inside the house are much more exposed to someone passing by or coming home. A house with just a few windows per room makes it easier to not be seen by neighbors or from the street. If your neighbor knows you are away and suddenly your house is lit up like a christmas tree, they will know right away.

I lived on a ground floor of a brownstone in Chicago and got used to my place being exposed to folks looking in. Forced me to keep it cleaner.

Fwiw, I think it is a beautiful house.
posted by 724A at 10:18 AM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

TL;DR version: No.

Longer version:

I would think a house like this would not be "practical" from a security standpoint or "anyone walking by can see me" standpoint unless you are in a very rural area where you cannot see your neighbor's houses.

I live in a rural area, I have 3 acres of land, and I can still see 4 of my neighbors' houses. So I think this house would be better on a "The Pioneer Woman" style farm or similar HUGE plot of land, where it is quite a chore to get close enough to the house to look inside.

Even so, I'd worry about the effect of prolonged/enhanced sun exposure. Plus, I don't care how "energy efficient" they SAY those windows are -- even low-e triple-pane windows will have a worse R-value than a properly insulated wall. So, more surface area of window == less energy efficient. If you're off the grid, fine, but if you rely on paying for any sort of public utility for heating and cooling, be prepared for high energy bills.
posted by tckma at 11:28 AM on October 28, 2014

There is someone in my (relatively urban) neighborhood who has a house just like this and it is so much fun to peek in all their windows and see what they are up to.
posted by epanalepsis at 11:41 AM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Looking at the actual plans for those pods, the big windows are all on one side of the pod and if there are windows on the other side, they're small and up high. So the intent is clearly that you have the big-window part facing into your yard or acreage and the street/neighbor side is not on view.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 12:12 PM on October 28, 2014 [3 favorites]

Very common in LA. In reality they are almost all ways situated so all the windows face a fenced back yard/pool area and people have privacy screening/ blinds/ porticos, overhangs, awnings and covered decks. This is for privacy and also so the sun doesn't melt your furniture. I lived in a house , located on a small urban lot, that had maybe 6 sliders and the entire rear was windows and no one could see in because of the way it was laid out. Even cheek to jowl beach houses are more private than you'd think.

Pro tip: spend the money for the blinds that are inside the windows that you never have to clean.
posted by fshgrl at 2:14 PM on October 28, 2014 [2 favorites]

I grew up in a house like that. It was carefully placed on the lot with fences and plantings and slopes so that all the huge windows looked out onto yards and patios and none of them felt exposed to the neighbors or the street.
posted by moonmilk at 3:32 PM on October 28, 2014 [1 favorite]

Years ago, I read a book about small businesses that talked about some corner store in a bad neighborhood that had a crime problem. New owners took over and they removed the bars from the windows and removed the flyers and what not obscuring the windows and they put in big picture windows so that it was not possible to hide from view while robbing the place. It quit being robbed.

One of the most vulnerable entry points to a house is the door between the house and the garage. It often has the same level of security as a typical bedroom door instead of an exterior door and people are not always conscientious about locking the garage. If thieves get inside the garage, there are often tools there to help them break down the door and after they close the garage door they can work on it without fear of being seen from the street or by neighbors.

As noted above, it is a potential security feature.

However, yeah, it might be problem if you buy some gigantic flat screen TV for thousands of dollars and leave cash money laying around on surfaces in full view of the windows and so on. If you live in a house like this and if it isn't in the middle of nowhere and if the windows are street facing and not privacy-fenced-backyard facing, I can see where you might need to be more careful about making sure you do not live in an ostentatious fashion and do not brag to people in a way that convinces folks that robbing you is especially desirable. Though, really, not being too showy with wealth and not talking smack that will make you a target is a good policy generally.
posted by Michele in California at 4:51 PM on October 28, 2014