Windows are one of the elements on which design has been most focused in our urban civilizations. They have evolved over time, telling different eras with their styles. Let's retrace the steps in the history of this architectural element ...
From prehistory to the Greco-Roman age
Both the caves (the first houses of man) and the tents in the Neolithic period and the huts of the earliest farmers had only one opening, the only point of contact between inside and outside.
The first openings in the masonry made to facilitate the exchange of air in the building and to illuminate the interior were made by the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations in public and cult buildings. Without glass, in the cold seasons the gates were closed with thin and transparent sheets.
The use of glass as a cover for windows dates back to Roman times (XNUMXst century AD): following the development of the glass blowing technique, born in the Middle East, glass was used on the windows of both public and private. Previously, the most common technique for manufacturing window panes was that of casting molten glass into molds.
Middle Ages and Gothic period
The window in the Middle Ages it had different shapes (mullioned window, triple window ...) and was without glass (the technological wisdom of the Romans had been lost) and had minimal dimensions. During the Romanesque period the rose window was born, a large circular window divided into geometric shapes in a radial pattern, which is widely used in religious buildings.
In the Gothic period, technological advances made it possible to redistribute the building's loads, the facades were lightened and populated with large, tall and decorated windows and large stained glass windows appeared. The use of windows and doors spreads in civil buildings.
The glasses are contained in metal profiles and the window is inserted in a structure obtained in the masonry; the blinds are made of wood.
Renaissance and Baroque
In the Renaissance the Florentine and Roman noble palaces presented architraved windows combined with classic characters. Vasari, in the Lives (1550) writes that beautiful windows correspond to illustrious architecture. In this era, a tax on windows was instituted, considered a sign of great wealth. Unlike the rich, the people still closed the openings with wooden doors.
In the Baroque period, the window was the most important element of the building's facade. The technology of the wooden window frame born in the Renaissance is developed (from a door to two doors even folded in the middle) and progress is also made in glass technology.
Modern age
In the nineteenth century, thanks to the lightness of the load-bearing structures and the development of technology that made it possible to take advantage of increasingly larger glass panes, the windows were enlarged.
In non-residential construction, iron doors and windows are used, while for housing the use of wooden doors and windows prevails.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, windows with fixed glazing (with the sole function of lighting) made their appearance, designed by Le Corbusier, ribbon windows and aluminum frames.
