Windows are something that many of us take for granted—they’re just part of the houses we live in or the buildings we work in. And yet for older people, windows can be vital as a way to access the world, especially those who spend a lot of time indoors.
In 1981, Graham Rowles carried out some seminal work in the United States looking at the “surveillance zone”, the area immediately outside older people’s homes. He found that older people watched their neighborhood in this zone from their window, and were able to participate in the community without having to literally be in it.
