The Fishbowl

Barley, a dog, glances back at the photographer as she stands on a shiny smooth floor before huge floor-to-ceiling windows that look out on woodsy terrain that comes right up to the building’s edge.

I’m all for architecture that brings in a lot of natural light, but I sometimes feel as though architects haven’t fully thought through how doing so will impact the resulting space. The notion was, no doubt, to give those passing through these halls a dramatic view of the woods beyond, but those woods are so close to the building that the glass feels much more like a wall than it does a window. Add in the total lack of consideration for how the space might be used (a bench along that stretch might have been nice, for example), and it makes me feel more than anything like this window turns the building into a zoo for the benefit of the wildlife, who would like to observe humans and their pets going about their lives while in captivity.