Windows: Beyond Convention Towards Connection

UDM HOME RE:SEARCH HOME KNOWLEDGE HOME TITAN CONNECT

DSpace Home
→
University of Detroit Mercy Dissertation, Thesis, and Student Project Collections
→
Architecture Thesis Collection
→
View Item

Windows: Beyond Convention Towards Connection

Zanier, Jordan

URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10429/2183

Date: 2021-05-19

Abstract:

With the situations of mandated physical isolation, such as the Covid-19 Pandemic, variations of connectivity are weakened as well as the mental health of the humans who experience them. This results from being confined to a space with uncertainty as to when normality will resume. In these scenarios, windows can offer some sense of connectivity to the larger external world. There is a unique opportunity to try to redefine the window, with the purpose of providing connectivity where it has been severely diminished. Before this can occur, it is important to first prove that Windows are Critical for our Health & Well Being, as seen in their implementation in building codes as well as their role(s) in psychology, to establish a grounds for the investigation. Although this may be proven, this is only in regards to a conventional window, or a conventional perception. To better understand how windows can be redefined to serve their new connective role, they need to be fully examined in all of their capacities with analysis of What can Windows Encompass & how they can Provide Connectivity. Looking to the areas of Phenomenology as well as the window as a threshold, will enrich the perceptions of what windows are comprised of fundamentally, and how they affect things around them. As both an accumulation and application of the research conducted, three Poetic Designs will be proposed, for a subtle, complex, and hypothetical approach in redefining what windows are as well as how they can provide connectivity when they are greatly needed. This is with the lens of prescribing powerful thinking to invoke a deeper level of conceptual thought.

Description:

Both a concise and thesis statement are provided for this investigation. Concise Statement: In situations of mandated physical isolation forms of Connectivity are diminished, as is our health. Windows can be looked upon as being the architectural essence of Connectivity, yet they can also exist as a element of separation. Expanded Version: When we are in situations of mandated physical isolation, such as our current context of being in lockdown to slow the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, forms of connectivity, as well as our health can be severely weakened. With isolation, the sense of being rooted in the same place can be frustrating, but as I often found myself thinking with my own experience, windows make being stuck in my home a little bit easier. A window is significant for many reasons: In Building Codes windows have to be present in structures for health and safety-related purposes, while Psychologically it can affect one’s productivity and mental health within a space. In its basic etymology, the window is associated with the eye, and this correlation can already begin to suggest ways to improve the Access, Quality and Ability of certain forms of connectivity; ones that are limited due to mandated physical isolation. Asking what a window is, in itself is a difficult question to answer beyond our conventional perception, but with careful investigation with Phenomenology, as well attributing the window as a threshold between environments, will help to expand what the window can encompass. Under Phenomenology, we ask what are the fundamental characteristics of a window, breaking free from the conventional perspective, and trying to conceptualize where the window’s limits are relative to the risk of no longer being itself. Under the study of the window as a threshold, we see the relationship between windows and places. This relationship is complex and constructed over time, with the window controlling the division, unification and blurring of environments. With situations of mandated physical isolation, our sense of connectivity is reduced and although this may be problematic with regards to our health, it also provides an opportunity. An opportunity to look at windows in a new light, and suggest ways to redefine them so that we may adapt to the situation, now and in the unknown future. This thesis is a theoretical investigation that hopes to inspire new thinking for the future of the field of architecture. As mentioned above, events like the Covid-19 pandemic may affect us greatly, but the way we adapt to it displays our strength long after.

Show full item record