When modern and contemporary design “abandon” traditional architectural components in favor of new forms, among the components left behind is the bay window. Yet when we think of those components as reinterpretations of customs in architecture rather than abandonments (columns, by way of instance, are turned into skinny pilotis without details such as capitals), then the concept of this bay window is alive and well, if less used than it should be.
Below you’ll find six examples that show the advantages of modern answers to bay windows — improved area, lighting and seats capacity — and the numerous means of expressing the idea in modern homes and in modern renovations of old homes.
Reverse Architecture
This addition to a ranch home looks like the conclusion of a tube that runs from front to back, with large windows on each side. The front image window is partly frosted to keep privacy.
Reverse Architecture
Here we’re looking toward the front window in the kitchen before it had been supplied. Only one thin strip of glass is apparent; the adjacent pieces are translucent. Adding cushions into the bay could make it a fantastic window seat; one can peek out through the perpendicular strip or just like the light coming in through the painting-like panes of color.
Reverse Architecture
Like the front window, the back window projects in the home, cantilevered a foot or two above the ground. But unlike on the the front, all of the glass is apparent, and the place inside is an extension of the floor, giving more room for seats close to the kitchen.
Jack deLashmet and Associates
This home on New York’s Long Island includes a reasonable number of ins and outs on its outside. I’m attracted to the tall part facing right.
Jack deLashmet and Associates
A view from the side reveals a tall bay window adjacent to a section of curtain wall set back in the rock facade. A stair can be seen beneath the large bay window.
Jack deLashmet and Associates
It turns out the bay window is in fact an extension of the stair landing. The Eames Lounge Chair from the previous photograph indicates that this space is ideal for relaxing, sitting and enjoying the view.
Mark Brand Architecture
On a more modest scale is the two-unit condo in San Francisco, with modern bay windows over the garage.
Mark Brand Architecture
What looks fairly subtle on the exterior is striking the inside, owing to the relative dimensions of this window (almost the full width of this bedroom) and the way in which the architect articulated the window seat. The one thing I’d change for myself would be the height of this sconces, which seem to be head height, making it hard for somebody to lean against the walls while still inhabiting the window seat.
Griffin Enright Architects
For the transformation of the old home, the architects articulated two second-floor boxes capturing distant perspectives. From the outside we can see that the glass is treated such as bifocals — using a translucent strip at the base to keep privacy.
Griffin Enright Architects
The two bays serve the master suite. The translucent strip is only low enough at the bedroom so one can see the horizon while lying in bed.
Griffin Enright Architects
But in the toilet the translucent strip is greater so one can have a bath in solitude — and have a view of the skies.
Hufft Projects
1 byproduct of departing from tradition is that components such as bay windows can be located where they will need to be, not in the center of a facade. On the home here, the bay projects out of one corner that is already bumped out from the floor plan.
Hufft Projects
The bay is flush on one side, but as the windows reveal, the architects employed the liberty to do some unconventional items on the exterior.
Hufft Projects
On the inside the bay makes great sense, giving the bedroom perspectives and light from two sides and a little extra space for a chair. The good space on the exterior wall is for the mattress, so without the bay, the side window would not work.
Kariouk Associates
It might be stretch to call this top-story addition to this remodeled house a bay window, but it serves similar purposes to another bays concerning light, place and seats.
Kariouk Associates
The bay is large enough that it basically doubles the size of their bedroom, making a sitting space and supplying light gain on either side. The view is enormous, so it is no surprise that the space reaches it through its projection outward.
More: Get More of Everything With a Bay Window