WINDOWLESS HOUSES?

I have remarked previously on this blog about the ugliness of modern Japanese houses. A prime example of which is the absolute monstrosity some rich folk built not far from where I live : when it was being constructed I actually thought it was going to be a fire station because it was a huge featureless grey block with just a few tiny windows and had three big parking bays built into it. But no, it was just a house, a very fugly house. But hey, maybe it’s like the Taiwanese say : it doesn’t matter what your place looks like on the outside, it’s the inside which matters.

I’ve now detected a new building trend which I hadn’t really noticed before. Properties are springing up with almost no windows! Or at least, just a few tiny ones, oddly placed. Just look at the photos I snapped at a new estate in my neighbourhood. What’s that all about? Is there a window tax or something?

It’s mystifying since the Japanese tend to like bright light - their rooms are usually blindingly luminescent with awful overhead lamps being the norm - no mood lighting or atmospheric corner lamps like us Westerners employ.

I get the privacy thing - Japanese houses are built very close together because land is at a premium, so you don’t really want your neighbours peeking into your business. But until very recently, houses always had a large full-length sliding door window on the front of the house next to the entrance, and maybe also one at the back or side, facing a patio or a yard or even a garden. Not now - I snooped round a few of these new constructions, and several of them have no big windows at all, and very few small ones.

Now, I’m someone who doesn’t like bright light very much, and I keep my blackout curtains drawn for most of the day, but even I like the option of sometimes opening up, and indeed I do every morning while I’m getting ready and having breakfast - curtains back and some light in to wake myself up. I can’t imagine it if I had no window at all or just some tiny square places oddly high up on the wall.

Well, it doesn’t seem to be stopping buyers, so I suppose this siege mentality and troglodyte living must be a new thing.

Would you be up for a large mortgage to occupy one of these lovely residences?