False Windows - Yesterday and Today

World Multidisciplinary Civil Engineering-Architecture-Urban Planning Symposium - WMCAUS

土木建筑工程

Niewitecki, Stefan

关键词: 20th century;    Glass curtain walls;    Gothic architectures;    Internet data;    No window;    Rare elements;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/245/5/052066/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/245/5/052066

学科分类：土木及结构工程学

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

The article is concerned with a very interesting aspect of architectural design, namely, a contradiction between the building functions and the necessity of giving the building a desired external appearance. One of the possibilities of reconciling this contradiction is using pseudo windows that are visible on the elevation and generally have the form of a black painted recess accompanied by frames and sashes and often single glazing. Of course, there are no windows or openings in the corresponding places in the walls inside the building. The article discusses the differences between false windows and blind widows (German: blende), also known as blank windows, which, in fact, are shallow recesses in the wall having the external appearance of an arcade or a window and which had already been used in Gothic architecture mostly for aesthetic reasons and sometimes to reduce the load of the wall. Moreover, the article describes various false windows that appeared later than blind windows because they did not appear until the 17th century. Contemporary false windows are also discussed and it is shown that contrary to the common belief they are widely used. In his research, the author not only used the Internet data but also carried out his own in situ exploration. The false windows constitute very interesting albeit rare elements of the architectural design of buildings. They have been used successfully for a few hundred years. It might seem that they should have been discarded by now but this has not happened. Quite contrary, since the second half of the 20th century there has been a rapid development of glass curtain walls that serve a similar function in contemporary buildings as the false windows once did, only in a more extensive way.