WINDOW RESEARCH INSTITUTE

The Swiss Confederation, with the four linguistic and cultural areas of German, French, Italian and Romansh across the Alps, has diverse regionality in one country, with climate and geography differing greatly in each region. Historically, as it is connected to other European countries by land, Switzerland has experienced the movement of people and materials between other European countries, as well as the rise and fall of a variety of agriculture and industries according to political circumstances such as terrain and taxation systems. Such factors make the way windows can be seen in each region of Switzerland diverse in terms of their “behavior,” including design, style, genealogy and usage. Moreover, in the genealogical tree of contemporary architecture, unique windows have been created by architects such as Mario Botta and Peter Märkli upon accepting contexts of vernacular windows. These windows still continue to this day under the policies for CO2 emissions reduction. With this as a backdrop, we collected and classified the cases of windows in all periods and regions in Switzerland, and produced drawings. We also summarized interviews conducted with relevant architects.（2018-2019）

This study considers the future of windows from the standpoint of advanced architecture that incorporates the latest technology, such as robots and computers. There have been various theories for generating form in the past, such as those dealing with pattern language, shape grammar, and archetypes. Computational form generation is the new trend today. The possibilities for next-generation window fabrication lie in 3D printing technology, which deals with material honesty and additive layer manufacturing. We believe that the idea of “spatial forms”—forms with built-in spaces—will have an important role in the future of windows. (2016)

Windows induce acts from two different directions; the act of looking outside from the inside through the window and the act of looking at the window from the outside. Different views appear from these acts. The view through the window gives a glimpse of one aspect of your city you do not know by cutting out the familiar landscape you usually see. The view emerging in the window of the building allows you to see acts that are happening by the window from the outside and to make conjecture about the person and the house inside. In this study, we built experimental windows in four different cultural spheres (Shiga Prefecture in Japan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal and the Republic of Croatia), focusing on the two-way nature of windows, what the view to be cut out and the scenery around the window tell us, and the relationship with the place where each window is located.(2016−2018)

A window penetrating a wall connects the interior of the building with the exterior of the surrounding world; moreover, the window itself occupies a physical, three-dimensional space. It is not only the space of the constructed element of the window, but also that of the immediately adjacent spaces. In order to articulate this transition from one space to the other, from outside to inside, from public to private and intimate, several thresholds were introduced in the course of history. The project analyses different, emblematic windows in the European culture, aiming at the identification of prevailing window archetypes, exploring their character as an element of the building composition, as an element of its interior space and especially as an element of the public space, which it characterises profoundly and often surprisingly. Collages and renderings are used to demonstrate the impact of different windows on the same streets and squares. Energetic and artistic dimensions are considered together with architectural and urbanistic qualities.（2016）

The waves of the industrial revolution that began in Britain in the 19th century gradually propagated to countries in Europe and had a strong influence on peoples’ lives. The beginning of the 20th century is the time when people living in ethnographic networks encountered industrial networks. During this time, especially in Northern Europe, architects who left behind many works called masterpieces stand out. This is thought to be due to the way industrial networks integrated with the system of mass production collided with unique ethnological networks fostered by nature and human behavior in Northern Europe, which caused a strong reaction to develop. Architects like them can be referred to as the generation who studied architecture when it was still in ethnological networks and encountered the waves of industrial society networks as they gained practical experience.
This study analyzed works by those architects and clarified two issues of how the window integrated nature and human behavior, and in what production system windows were made. (2016−2018)

We studied films as an extension of our research on visual media. Specifically, we analyzed the representation of windows in Alfred Hitchcock films, James Bond films, and Japanese family films. In Hitchcock films, windows are used in various ways as foreshadowing devices. In Bond films, windows are frequently used in dramatic action scenes, as is typical of action films. We identified several different trends over the years in Japanese films. Three particularly noteworthy films are Tokyo Story by Yasujiro Ozu, The Family Game by Yoshimitsu Morita, and Tokyo Sonata by Kiyoshi Kurosawa. （2015）

We focused on sightlines, which are an important element related to windows, to clarify how they shape perception and action in relation to place. We analyzed spaces that generate collective activities within today’s cities—or what we call “spaces of commoning”. After identifying such spaces in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo, we conducted case studies on three spaces: the Kichimojin street, a vending machine bar in Yurakucho, and a district of densely packed wooden buildings in Hiroo. We were able to identify various types of conceptual windows through looking at the relationships between sightlines and spatial elements.（2015）

Windows at night, when the direction of light passing through windows is reversed, have the function of transmitting various information on the inside to the outside. Focusing on the light that spilled outside through windows (window light), we conducted field surveys at night and model experiments. We began our surveys by targeting 89 areas in the metropolitan area to examine the size of the windows facing the street and the state of lighting (brightness, color temperature and visibility of the inside). Then, we built 1:50 scale lighting models in which the lighting situation in rooms and the materials of the windows could be changed, and had the subjects evaluated the window lights by changing the lighting conditions. From the results of these surveys and experiments, we presented the actual condition of the window light as well as the relationship between window light and a snse of security on the street at night, streetscapes and the expression of residents’ characteristics. (2015)

Rina Yamamoto｜The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo Windows play various roles in society. Five sociologists explored this issue from each professional perspective. “Windows as Media” retrospectively viewed how windows expressed the diversity of human connections. “Invisible Light and Windows” discussed the history in which windows and light were related to health in modern Japan, taking an example of tuberculosis treatment. “Buildings and Window Proliferation” verified that the development of modern society was associated with the proliferation of transparency, which was symbolized by a window. “High-Rise Condominiums and Windows” analyzed the meaning of view from the building in high-rise condominiums. “Windows as Points of Intrusion” showed that the repair of not only physical windows but broken windows as a metaphor was important from the perspective of criminal sociology. “Society shapes windows and windows shape society.” We reconfirmed such mutual determinacy. (2015)

It can be seen that windowpanes and photography form an inseparable relationship from the fact that the two have almost the same history. In the first year, I categorized and analyzed photographs of windows taken by photographers in all periods and countries with four English prepositions, which show the relationship between windows and the human line of sight: “By the window,” “Through the window,” “With the window” and “From the outside.” In the next year, I examined my own photographs of windows based on the knowledge I gained from these categorizations. In my “Architecture Landscapes” series, I attempted to recapture buildings as part of their environment by alternately presenting my photographs of windows and photographs of the view seen from the winow. I also photographed works by Le Corbusier using the same methodology and summarized the results in a photo book titled “Looking Through: Le Corbusier Windows” in 2019. (2015−2016, 2019)

Human beings became people by making the window. This is a view of human beings as “homo fenestrator (a person who makes window).” In addition, the window is a medium that connects people to the environment with diverse meanings. Since the birth of the windows, in a society adaptive to regional ecology and a growth-oriented society, people have evolved with society, producing windows. However, at present, society is struggling from over-consumption and uneven distribution, which are specific issues in a growth-oriented society. This causes global environmental problems. By reviewing and analyzing windows made globally throughout human history for 50,000 years, this study aims to obtain suggestions not only for the windows of the future, but also for the environment and human beings. (2015−2016, 2020)

This study examined how windows are depicted in manga produced after World War II to understand how windows are perceived by the general public. We extracted frames containing windows and openings in Sazaesan by Machiko Hasegawa, Doraemon by Fujio F. Fujiko, and Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsujo by Osamu Akimoto and analyzed the settings and activities depicted in them. We also interviewed manga researchers Eiji Otsuka, Kaichiro Morikawa, and Takashi Moriyama about the evolution of window representation and the relationship between windows and society. This study revealed that windows also function as devices for plot development.

Unlike in factories where the indoor environment is mechanically controlled, artisanal workshops rely on windows to bring in light and air to expel heat, smoke, and vapor, and the artisans work in close association with the windows. We studied such windows by conducting field surveys to document artisanal workshops, food processing workshops, and shops connected to streets. We developed relationship diagrams and overlaid them on isometric drawings to visualize how various phenomena, objects, and people in the spaces interact in relation to the windows. These revealed the roles the windows play in tying together the elements of nature and the work activities.

Windows in Japanese architecture are generally included in hashirama-sochi (literally meaning intercolumnar devices). This term refers to all devices between columns, and a rich space peculiar to Japanese architecture is created by inserting devices ranging from simple openings to walls, lattices, doors and shoji (paper screens) between columns. Based on the above concept, this study summarizes the surprisingly rich history and development of hashirama-sochi. The features of our study were not only in the survey on references and graphics, but also in the production of short films as a medium that can most easily record changes in hashirama-sochi. In this study, we made four films, which finally succeeded in capturing the landscape in Osaka from the early modern times when the hashirama-sochi concept expanded into the city.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Indonesia, we are developing energy saving standards for middle-class housing complexes (rusunami). This rusunami means high-rise apartments (mainly for sale) built in major cities, and such apartments are being constructed as a national project to support the increasing middle-class population. The target is a group which, despite being categorized as middle-class, are in actuality a relatively low-income group. There are some collective housings whose construction costs are cut in return for the government’s subsidies. Therefore, the quality and performance of those buildings is so poor that almost no considerations for energy saving have been taken so far. In this study, we discuss “Windows in the Tropics” intended for the rapidly growing middle-class in Southeast Asia through the project for the standardization of energy saving.

It is said that society, as it matures, shifts towards a stock-type society, whose construction demands shift from new construction and rebuilding to mainly renovation. This tendency has begun to be seen in Japan as well. Renovation work varies greatly, from interior repair only to equipment repair, seismic retrofit and envelope work. Of these, building envelope renovation is essential to maintain or improve building performance, and the renovation technique for windows becomes especially significant in a stock-type society, as windows are weak in terms of performance but important in design. Therefore, we intend to present how window renovation should be done by collecting various cases and analyzing the current situation, and to establish a recycling system in consideration of the life cycle of windows, expanding our perspective to window waste generated by rebuilding and renovation.

We have been continuing to examine how high-performance windows are beneficial to health and also money saving. This year, we studied the relationship between windows and sleep. Experiments were conducted to examine how indoor thermal environment affects sleep, how a change of settings affects sleep, how sleep performance affects work performance, and how improved sleep quality affects economic evaluation. We also studied how the thermal environment and insulation quality of a home affects physical activity levels. We found that improving window performance can lead to an increase in the number of healthy people, boost productivity levels, stimulate industry, and reduce CO2 levels.

Under the theme of architectural discourse, we conducted research on how Western and Japanese architects (including historians and critics) had discussed the window in their publications and articles. The purpose of this research was to reconfirm how wide the meaning of the window had expanded. We extracted 299 discourses that contained keywords such as window, opening, daylighting, perforation and hole through our search with major writings of 137 eminent architects, and then picked out 120 cases that appeared to be more like proverbs. As a deliverable, we produced a perpetual calendar with one proverb for every three days called the window proverb calendar, in which we summarized architects’ proverbs and discourses.

The peoples that once populated regions from North Eurasia to North America lived in earthen huts with soil-covered roofs. These roofs had an opening at their apex, which structurally could not be filled. Peoples that utilized these openings as entryways used ladders that were decorated at the tip with guardian spirits. These openings were the first windows. They were also seen as passageways for people’s souls to travel between the human world and the heavens. Why did people choose to live in such closed, uncomfortable spaces? The true value of these dwellings no doubt lay in their use as sleeping places, as they offered a dark space where one could lay embraced by the earth protected from the threats of nature. From this perspective, the skylight was the single biggest contradiction of these dwellings. Yet, without a window, they would not have had a connection with the outside world. The history of human dwellings thus started out with this built-in contradiction.

In Window Behaviorology I-III, we positioned the window in an equilibrium relationship between climate and lifestyle. In this study, focusing on how the windows created complicated rhythms and patterns in the urban space by repeating themselves on the wall along the street, we researched and analyzed windows as a collection. Even if the scale and purpose of buildings is different, a certain sophisticated pattern is recognized with the windows lined up on the building wall as the windows have responded to the climate and repeated trial and error under the dual restrictions of operability and workability. Such repetition of windows can integrate street spaces. In addition, when windows, which represent the existence of the individual living there, gather while maintaining a certain distance from each other, the street space will represent public standards. Here we can see from the simplest model of a public space that the participation of individuals supports the whole, and the way the whole should be provides the uniqueness to streetscapes.

The diversity of traditional houses spread throughout Japan tends to be recognized as a result of regional characteristics. However, if we were to focus on the window area, we notice that this is not true. Similar details are occasionally seen across the region. They are like dialects. Drawings, images and movies, collected by a measurement survey in 36 places ranging from Aomori Pref. to Okinawa Pref., were compared and analyzed while the dialect formation theory was used analogically. The intermediate space, consisting of fitting joinery, lattices and verandahs, which can be regarded as stereotypical, is integrated with the settings by residents, for which windows respond to a variety of applications and varied climates. As a result, an affluent state of windows has emerged.

To start, we began rereading architectural history through windows. Windows are especially a node of various technologies. The development of technologies in different fields were studied, and the transformation of the window to be a historical turnaround was positioned by unifying those developments. Then, while tracing the history of visual media such as paintings, advertisements, manga and movies, we analyzed how windows had been expressed. The following became clear from these materials; how people used to behave by the window in the past, what images the window aroused in each period, what narrative imagination creators exercised from the window, and what type of expression was common among different media.

Windows are one of the elements that can be found in architecture that embody the lifestyles of different regions, climates, natural features and sometimes even politics. The diversity of windows speaks of a variety of physical and cultural environments of the land. However, windows are not always specified primarily by climate and culture. The various behaviors of people who appear around windows sometimes induce a particular form. Conversely, such windows sometimes nurture cultural and climate specificity. This study, by picking out intriguing windows from all periods and countries based on such recognitions, attempts to reinterpret and redefine the window from the perspective of how those windows can be connected as a “word chain.” The interest in windows is never-ending as common characteristics can be found in windows from totally different regions, and different developments of windows can be discovered from specific regions.

Various behaviors concentrate on windows in most architecture, and the windows are repeated in areas and towns beyond the individuality of buildings. We studied the concept of the window as well as the positioning of windows in society, comparing windows that we gathered in cities around the world. We collected and surveyed excellent examples of windows in 28 countries around the world and compared and considered individual windows with collected window behaviors, by which we have extracted the concept of the window as an equilibrium between considerations for climate, such as sunlight and humidity, and considerations for religious norms and lifestyle.

Basic architectural elements are roofs, walls, floors and windows. Each of these is so important that architecture can no longer be considered architecture if any of them are missing. For instance, if you were to make a box without any windows, it is not an architecture but a structure called a shelter. Therefore, we thought that if we understood windows, we could understand what “architecture” was all about. Therefore, in order to pursue the ontological question of what the window is, we made a study model and conducted research on specific housing work. The result made it clear that the window does not exist as something self-evident, but emerges through its relationship to various surroundings.（2007）