236. WINDOWS WHICH OPEN WIDE

<h2>236...WINDOWS WHICH OPEN WIDE</h2>

<h6>. . . this pattern helps to complete <a href="https://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl180/apl180.htm">WINDOW PLACE (180)</a>, <a href="https://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl192/apl192.htm">WINDOWS OVERLOOKING LIFE (192)</a>, and <a href="https://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl221/apl221.htm">NATURAL DOORS AND WINDOWS (221)</a>.

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<h3>Many buildings nowadays have no opening windows at all; and many of the opening windows that people do build, don't do the job that opening windows ought to do.</h3>

<h3>Therefore:</h3>

<h3>Solution</h3>

<p>It is becoming the rule in modern design to seal up windows and create "perfect" indoor climates with mechanical air conditioning systems. This is crazy.</p>

<p>A window is your connection to the outside. It is a source of fresh air; a simple way of changing the temperature, quickly, when the room gets too hot or too cold; a place to hang out and smell the air and trees and flowers and the weather; and a hole through which people can talk to each other.</p>

<p>What is the best kind of window?</p>

<p>Double-hung windows cannot be fully opened - only half of the total window area can ever be opened at once. And they often get stuck - sometimes because they have been painted, sometimes because their concealed operating system of cords, counter-weights, and pulleys gets broken; it becomes such an effort to open them that no one bothers.</p>

<p>Sliding windows have much, of the same problem - only part of the window area can be open, since one panel goes behind another; and they often get stuck too.</p>

<p>The side hung casement is easy to open and close. It gives the greatest range of openings, and so creates the greatest degree of control over air and temperature; and it makes an opening which is large enough to put your head and shoulders through. It is the easiest window to climb in and out of too.</p>

<p>The old time French windows are a stunning example of this pattern. They are narrow, full length upstairs windows, which swing out onto a tiny balcony, large enough only to contain the open windows. When you open them you fill the frame, and can stand drinking in the air: they put you intensely close to the outside - yet in a perfectly urban sense, as much in Paris or Madrid as in the open countryside</p>

<div align="center"><a id="null" class="null" href="https://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/threedots.jpg">https://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/threedots.jpg</a></div>

<h6>Complete the subframe of the casement with <a href="https://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/apl239/apl239.htm">SMALL PANES (239)</a>. . . .</h6>

<h4><em>A Pattern Language</em> is published by Oxford University Press, Copyright Christopher Alexander, 1977.</h4>

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236. WINDOWS WHICH OPEN WIDE

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