Framed By A View

Do you prefer a floor to ceiling wall of glass with only a marginally favorable view outside, or a building wall with only one typical small window that has an absolutely fantastic view?

I prefer the smaller window with the better view.

Why? Because a view should cause you to pause. To stop and look. To figure out why that view deserves its own window. Someone took the time to frame a certain thing and wants you to appreciate it.

Would I like a wall filled with these small windows every 2 feet? No.

A framed view like this is special. It stands alone.

What are windows traditionally for? For light or for views? If they are for daylight then I’d rather have daylight enter a space from above, for example with clerestories, rather than have large windows that don’t frame anything worth looking at.  I think windows are not always placed carefully on walls.  Especially in typical residential houses…..I don’t want to look out my kitchen sink window and see my neighbor’s brick wall or a fence staring back at me.

Today we stepped outside of Florence to visit San Gimignano.

The architecture, the materials, the shops, and the food, were all great, but the framed views really caught my eye.

Among all of the heaviness of the brick and stone, there would be an alley with an opening at the end to an amazing view of the hillside and lovely Tuscan landscape. I couldn’t help myself from stopping right in the middle of the street to admire the view.

The openings throughout San Gimignano were not necessarily windows, but framed openings. The framed openings felt as if created by something pushing through the thick buildings from one end to the other to form one strongly depicted view.

Take this sequence of pictures for example. They show my approach up to this specific framed view. It was exciting walking up to it. My walk quickened, anxious to see what was beyond the opening in the wall.

After reaching the door opening, we climbed steps to the highest point at San Gimignano.

This view was not framed. It was completely open, 360 degrees.

I found this overwhelming. Where do I look first? Where do I take the first picture? Should I zoom in? When people took pictures of their friends, how did they decide what part of the view to get in the background? It obviously didn’t matter, as long as you got some part of it.

From these two sets of photos, which do you think is better (between the 360 degree view or the framed view)?

Look out of your home, work, or office window today to see if you have a framed view of something and see if the view is absolutely wonderful or just mediocre?

Go out there and appreciate the view!!