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Frame as Filter


The building serves as a filter through which the city is perceived. It can serve both as an escape from the busy city life or it can help to focus the noises, lights, and smells that are ever present in the urban fabric. Openings in buildings are the conduits through which these sensations are filtered. Windows and doors are a means through which light, people, sounds, all components of city life beyond, can enter the interior space in a focused manner. Without dividing planes between street life and home life there would be no depth to the social context. A beautiful blue sky would simply be a plain wash of color if there were no frame to distinguish its hues. Buildings provide backdrops to what is going on beyond them, receiving light, creating shadows, providing overall depth to what is present already. Buildings interact with their environment in more ways than one and some buildings do so more successfully than others. The most successful buildings are those that embrace the social context and express the infinite layers that it is composed of.