While driving around Kansas City last week, we noticed a house that had an all wooden exterior. (Which was the original intent of snapping a photo of it.) We thought it was all woodsy (that's an official design term by the way) and neat. Once we got the picture into Photoshop, we noticed something else about it.... the lack of windows. Click through for a close up and a side view.
We zoomed in on the front of the house and noticed that there were two small windows, however oddly placed they may be.
We checked our best friend Google Maps, to see if it came up with anything else. This is the North side of the house, where there again are only a few windows.
The South side of the house however, was where all the windows were hiding. Letting in a nice, soft light, without the harsh setting/rising sun of the East and West.
We like the initiative taken by the architect. They built smart in the first place, instead of building something that blended in traditionally and then having the homeowner figure out how to heat and cool the house as best they can.
How would you feel about living in a home where you only saw your neighbors house and not the street in which you lived on?
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Comments (12)
Clunky, poorly proportioned and ugly. It also does not appear to fit the site. And what is with the "colonial" style door and cheap side lights. The wood siding reminds me of hippy self-builds in Appalachia or rural New York. Yuck.
I have a hard time applauding this. There are less inflexible ways to save energy than omitting windows from most of the house. It's kinda ugly.
if i had a chance for light from different directions, resulting in different moods inside the house, i'd go for it. isn't there someplace between overdoing the windows and not having any? weird idea.
maybe they were sick of voyeurs taking photots of their house and posting them on internet sites for discussion
I just realized I know exactly where this house is. For a long time this was not a great neighborhood, although that has changed in the last 10 years. The park across the street from the house is still pretty dicey at night. I wonder if the windows were omitted on the street sides out of security concerns, and most of them ended up on the south side of the house as a result.
It looks like a passive solar design to me.
I don't know that I would mind not having a view onto the street I live on - it really depends on the street. Without street facing windows, we'd get much less traffic related noise in the house, and it would provide more privacy. I am not keen on looking at the neighbors' place either, but what can you do - you live close, it's just the way it is!
It looks claustrophobic .........I would be so sad to never feel the breeze in my own house. Maybe someone has a sun allergy......
This looks like an early 70's house, after the first gas crisis. At the time it became popular to design homes with minimal glass anywhere but south facing. Some of these homes were also passive solar as lisa13 mentioned however the wooded lot makes that unlikely. I agree it is a patently unattractive building in need of serious updating.
I don't mind a lack of sunlight or windows. I rarely use the ones I have. And after my last two apartments where my bedroom opens DIRECTLY to my front door and faces DIRECTLY into my neighbors front door, or the other situation where there were 6 full sized windows in my bedroom on ground level on a street corner, right next to the sidewalk, DIRECTLY at eye level... well, it suffices to say, privacy is something I miss.
However, despite this, it's a horrifically ugly house.
i grew up in a passive solar house where we had minimal windows on the north side, and when you're in the house you never noticed b/c of so much light coming from one side of the house (open plan) and also skylight windows. and we had huge expanses on which to hang art...
Interesting home.....I actually like it quite a lot! I can't really identify why exactly, but imagining the inside just makes me feel happy (as strange as that may sound).
Look! UGLY HOME!