Let there be light: how to design an internal window
Walls and doors may be a conventional way to divide up your house or apartment, but there are times when the most obvious solution isn't the best one. This is particularly true in small spaces, where a healthy dose of ingenuity is often required. Internal windows can be objects of beauty, but they are also a highly practical way to help create more rooms in a small footprint, when to divide up the floorplan might mean missing out on natural light from the external walls.
Sebastian Bergström's Stockholm apartment is an excellent example, where he has created a kitchen and bedroom out of a single room, with glazing in between to allow light to flood into both spaces from the bedroom window. Gytha Nuttall's flat, too, which uses a ‘box within a box’ construction to create more rooms hanging from a vast double height ceiling, required internal windows to bring light into the box. But even if you're not working with the awkward constraints of your architecture, they can be beautiful addition to your house. A full set of of glazed doors, for example, can be a wonderful compromise between a fully open-plan layout and something a little more intimate. Scroll down for our favourite design ideas for internal windows.