Final window placement from exterior
SEQUENCE OF STEPS FOR PLACING A WINDOW

What sequence of operational steps will be helpful unsnarling the tangle and getting the windows in a room just right? Here is a rudimentary decision sequence:

  1. STEP 1: First, get clear which are exterior walls.
  2. STEP 2: Next, get clear where the sunlight and warm light is coming from.
  3. STEP 3: Now get clear about beautiful views—that means distant views, and near views, a favorite bush, a tree, a place flowers bloom, a place where the sun shines and reflects into the room. Decide where to put windows to see these views and to point towards these views.
  4. STEP 4: Now judge the size and number of windows in different walls. We want to place the windows so that the light is good—not just enough of it, but beautifully placed so that the room comes to life because of the light in the room.
  5. STEP 5: We want to place the windows so that the result of the placement, creates centers of space in the room, which are well-placed in the sense that they generate warm, comfortable human space which is pleasant to inhabit.
  6. STEP 6: We want to preserve one or two major unbroken wall surfaces in the room, and not have too many holes.
  7. STEP 7: We also want the windows, as rectangles, to be pleasant and beautiful to look at, look through—this concerns their shape and size: grouping, subdivision and articulation.
  8. STEP 8: Finally, having sketched these windows on the wall of the house, go and look at them from outside. We must be concerned about the effect of these windows, with those in other rooms, on the overall character of the building in which they are placed, when seen in context with all the other windows, as a pattern of windows from the outside.
  9. FINISH