The Winter Garden

Graham McKay

Jul 30

Many countries adapt their housing in order to use space inside according to the season. It's as natural as wearing loose clothes if it's hot, a hat if it's sunny, or carrying an umbrella or wearing a raincoat if it's raining. The umbrella simply keeps rain from wetting what's below it. A wide brimmed hat will keep the sun off your head and neck. In much the same way, these adaptions we make to buildings are usually additional sheltering or insulation layers that create a "layer" of ameliorating microclimate that wouldn't have been there otherwise.

Balconies, porches and verandahs are all like hats in that the only microclimate they create is one that's dry or shaded. The Mediterranean balcony is usually large enough for a dining table that will be used as often as possible. Awnings shield these balconies from evening sun in summer and outdoor heaters may extend its use well into autumn. These balconies are rarely enclosed because, in a Mediterranean summer, it's nice to be outside and any cool breeze is welcome.

In Russia, deep window sills were traditionally used for growing plants in summer or even for sitting but, in winter, a second set of windows was put back into position on the inner edge of the sill as secondary glazing.
In Japan, the outer rooms of a traditional house were used as a climatic buffer between the outside and the innermost living room the family retreated to in winter, retiring to the frigid outer rooms only to sleep.
In post-WWII timber-frame Australian houses, the rear verandah was often enclosed and used as space for additional storage space or space for clothes drying on rainy days. The space would have a stud wall to sill height and the opening above would be fitted with fly screens and louvered glass windows – a window type you don't see so much of anymore.

The rear half of Lacaton and Vassal's 1993 Latapie House has a similar buffer zone between inside and outside that, being more enclosed than a terrace, traps heat and excludes chill winds to extend its period of use as a habitable room. It's another of these peripheral spaces that provide an energy advantage for the inner rooms but, even in winter, can still be used for drying laundry or other tasks normally performed outdoors.

Vladimir Paperny's book Architecture in the age of Stalin: Culture Two mentioned how "warmth" was seen in Stalin's time as a desirable quality for buildings and so balconies dutifully began to appear on Russian buildings to represent this "warmth" despite them being filled with snow most of the year. Stalin may have seen balconies as representing "warmth" of climates more southern, but they were also a new facade element. They appeared on Art Deco apartment buildings in the 1930s but I expect mainly as a way of getting some horizontal curves onto the facade. High-rise apartments in 1930s New York or Shanghai managed without them, as did people in multi-storey housing worldwide. Unlike windows and doors, balconies are therefore a new building element that entered people's vocabulary with the advent of high-rise housing. Sometime after 1950 the wind changed and balconies came to be seen as essential.

I pulled out my trusty reference book Apartments and Dormitories – An Architectural Record Book from 1962 to check. Let's see. Balconies appear on the 1953 John J. Cochran Garden Apartments for the St. Louis Housing Authority. They're small but, because they're associated with the living area, they're probably intended as an extension of it even though it's not clear how they were meant to be used. You and maybe another person could sit there and read perhaps, or just stand there and enjoy not being inside. Or you could maybe put a plant there and think of it as representing a garden outside your window.

The Army Twin Towers Apartments from about the same time in Chicago have no balconies. This is understandable for the time and place. Lake Shore Drive didn't either and nobody had a problem with that.

Yet, the 1951 River ledge Garden Apartments in New York do. It seems that balconies came to indicate that one's dwelling has a desirable view best viewed from a balcony.

The 1950 Fordham Hill Apartments in Bronx, N.Y. don't. It's easy to imagine balconies first appearing on upmarket high-rise housing.

The buildings in Brazil's 1954 Pernambuco Beach Development in Guarujá (by Henrique E. Mindlin) have balconies, but they're off the small studio bedroom at the rear and not facing Pernambuco Beach.

Yet by 1965, balconies could be seen around the world, largely because of the large US hotel chains and the association with the glamour of travel and views to be had.

Hilton Hotel, Teheran, 1965

This remains true for high-rise residential in Dubai, but less so for hotels. In Dubai, high-rise residential is mainly occupied by the expat community for whom balconies have associations of outdoor meals and views over water even if, in some kind of reverse St. Petersburg situation, they're unusable for most of the year. The balcony is mostly a place for showing visitors your view. Dubai balconies are never enclosed because most of these residential units are rented. In fact, there are fines for "misusing" balconies by:

Airing laundry or hanging curtains
Placing flammable liquids, mops, toys, washing machines or anything else other than outdoor furniture
Feeding birds
Installing antennas and satellite dishes
Balcony alterations or extensions
Throwing waste or any sharp object from the balcony
Smoking and barbecuing
Letting wastewater, from watering plants or cleaning, spill down to the balconies below

Misuses that don't relate to safety or consideration relate to maintaining a uniform appearance across the facade in order to maintain property value. It's no different in Australia where multi-storey residential developments are ruled by something called The Body Corporate that demands compliance with its regulations. It's a strange situation where you can't do what you like on your balcony despite having paid for it. On the other hand, it's the nature of a balcony to have a public dimension yet, in Australia as in Dubai, that public dimension is seen as what the building as a whole presents to the street, not what its individual parts do.

Similar rules exist elsewhere. On the surface, it looks like the balconies at F+P's Albion Wharf Riverside are subject to rules that allow occupants to put on their balconies one table, two chairs and a topiary plant of less than one metre high and all (apart from the plant) in neutral colours.

The first time I heard the term "winter garden" it was with respect to a development called Falcon Wharf, about one kilometer up The Thames from Albion Wharf Riverside, in Battersea where I was living at the time. A "winter garden" was being presented as some new type of value-adding architectural feature when really all it was, was an enclosed balcony. Since the building is adjacent to London's heliport, an additional two layers of glass between you and helicopters landing and taking off is going to be good thing. Besides, in London, the possibility of using a balcony throughout the entire year is attractive, and so instead of the obligatory two large potted plants, table and chairs in neutral colours, these winter gardens quickly filled with shelves and children's brightly coloured playthings and became an extension of the living space and a different kind of facade.

• • •

In a previous post I mentioned how much owner-modification occurs with residential units in multi-storey buildings in China. I've had an opportunity to witness this firsthand. The customization happens either before the occupants move in or very soon after. Many occupants will have the front door replaced. Some occupants will have a timber floor laid over the existing synthetic stone one. The majority of occupants will enclose their balconies. The occupants of the middle apartment in the image below have chosen not to (for now).

Notice that the balustrades are glazed to handrail height, and with no openings? This next image is an example of infill double glazing on top of the single-glazed balustrade. It must cost less and makes no sense for thermal control but it's probably not possible to buy single glazed window units anyway. The occupants don't know it, but they have made a winter garden.

Most owners go for the full replacement and the only controls at the level of the development seem to be the colour of the frames. Nevertheless, there's still an infinite number of pattern and shape variations. In this next image, the installed windows are almost identical but this is more by accident than design. It might have been a referral but it's just as likely the owners picked up the same business card in the elevator.

This following list of balcony customizations is not exhaustive.

Some people choose to do nothing. There is already a place on the balcony for the washing machine. The balcony is still where most people will dry their laundry and many households will have a suspended drying racks fitted for this purpose. There are 36 balconies in the image above. Ten are unmodified but eight of them might not yet have been sold. I can't say for other cities but, in Wenzhou, the red ribbon seems to indicate the unit is still on the market.
The most common type of extension is to go for maximum indoor space by removing the wall with the double doors and extending the wall separating the living room from the second bedroom. Both spaces now extend to what was the balustrade. There are 25 units like this, but the new partition wall is not always in the same place but can dogleg to appropriate space from the adjacent bedroom.
One variation on this is to extend the living room to the balustrade but to keep the balcony to the second bedroom for the drying of laundry. There's none like this in this photo.
Another variation is to extend the living room to the balustrade and to extend only the floor of the bedroom to the balustrade. This creates and inner room but the winter garden space in front of the bedroom can still be used as if it were a balcony. I'm not sure what the advantage is of doing this, but it would bring maximum daylight to the living room. I think there are about five of this type in the photograph but they're difficult to spot unless you see a person or an ironing board crossing the boundary between extension and winter garden. The modifications on the right side, three-, five- and nine-floors up from the bottom are like this but the window framing is such that the bedroom could be extended in the future.
Another variation on this and not seen in the above image is to enclose the balcony but extend only the flooring to the balustrade. This creates two internal rooms and is closest to my first example of a winter garden. This next image is from a different unit I was shown, but this is what it looks like. It's most likely to be used as play space and/or the drying of laundry. I liked many things about this unit, but not the enclosed balcony with its laundry trough fitted at one end. (I notice many people here that seem to prefer handwashing, at least for certain items.)

The most extreme modification is to do away with the second bedroom completely and extend the entire space to the balustrade. This has been done for the two top-floor apartments on the right half of this next building. The right-side apartment now has a huge pane of glass with two smallish openable windows, whereas the left-side apartment divides the new space into four with the two middle panels making a Juliet balcony.

This type of modification was almost certainly done because of the long views up the river these apartments must have. View is a driver we recognize although it doesn't have to be connected to balconies.

Conclusions:

The association between balconies and having a good time was probably an artificial one to begin with. Daily life is not the same as being at a resort in some foreign country. Not everybody here sees a balcony as an opportunity to put plants and a café table on [as, in fact, I have done] and to have a drink of choice while appreciating either a view or simply being outside. I can't see anyone else using their balcony this way so our feelings for them don't seem universal. Balconies seem to be a cultural artifact, and how to use them or not, a cultural construction.

Having just said that, I don't want to give a false impression of differences between cultures. All these modifications and customizations could be nothing more than the British equivalent of stating new ownership of property by immediately having the kitchen refitted and the bathroom re-tiled.

Whatever the reason, I do like this facade variation that happens organically. Unless the building has been designed like Albion Riverside with its aesthetic effect dependent upon the denial of human habitation, this facade customization doesn't make any difference to how the building is perceived.
I think evidence of a building being inhabited by people who aren't all the same is a thing to be encouraged. The overall look of the building shouldn't be controlled to deny occupants a degree of choice in how they want to occupy what is, after all, their space. Here in China, a balance seems to have been found between personal need and public expression. I'm pretty sure the people who make these customizations don't know of or were inspired by Jean Nouvel's 100 11th Avenue that uses different window patterns to create a homogenous aesthetic monolith that denies its inhabitants any individuality of their own. (The representation of diversity over actual diversity is probably one of the more dangerous ideas of the past 50 years.) What I'm seeing here in China is architecture without architects.

But if few people here appreciate balconies as quasi-external space, then why do developers feel the need to provide them? It could be that winter gardens still feel too enclosed for many people, especially when it comes to the drying of laundry. At the same time, fewer internal walls and finishes usually means less cost for the constructor so it could be as simple as that, especially when coupled with a market that sees the possibility of customization as a right to be exercised. Whatever the reason, everybody seems happy with this way of doing things.