How to Improve Natural Light and Ventilation in the Bathroom With a Shower Window
As one of the smallest spaces in the home, shower rooms often find it difficult to get enough light. While bedrooms are given priority to choose the most favored spots alongside exterior walls – giving them access to the fresh air, natural light, and better views provided by windows – sanitary spaces are often left to feed from the scraps in the aftermath, afforded only a sliver of external wall, if any.
Due to issues with privacy and water damage, meanwhile, when a shower room does have the opportunity to add a window, it’s rarely positioned in the shower itself. But with many using an energizing shower to gently wake themselves up in the morning, and with steam making the shower an environment with extra high humidity levels, a window in the shower can make a big difference, adding natural light to the space itself, while keeping the entire room well-ventilated.
As with any uncommon solution, however, there’s a reason windows are rarely found inside the shower space. The most obvious drawback is privacy. If a home is overlooked – or even if it’s not – a large, clear glass window alongside the shower can leave the user feeling exposed and uncomfortable. Even through windows using frosted, etched, or smoked privacy glass, for example – which already have an adverse effect on natural light – the shape of the body’s form can still be seen.
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Other crucial considerations for shower windows, meanwhile, include the positioning, the design, and the materials used in the window frame. Waterproof window materials like vinyl or fiberglass are more suited to wet and high-humidity areas like showers than wood or aluminum, which are more susceptible to warping or leakage over time. The best way to ensure a shower window remains undamaged by prolonged water exposure, however, is to position it outside the reach of splashing water. Here are some examples of where to position shower windows to increase natural light without giving up privacy.
Add Height to Stay Out of Sight: Ceiling-Height Shower Windows
One of the easiest ways to allow as much natural light as possible into the shower space, without losing any of its privacy, is simply to raise the height of the shower window. By keeping the window above head height, passersby are unable to notice it’s even being used, while the angle of sunlight will drop into the space nicely, especially when combined with light-colored shower tiles and surfaces to reflect the natural light around the space. Positioning the window well above shoulder height also means its joints and seams are less likely to be in the direct path of splashing water.
These projects feature Showers with High Windows
Chuumuk Housing Complex / ArquiPartners
Mockingbird House / The Ranch Mine
Casa á Beiramar / Metropole Architects
CLT House / Hello Wood
Zenith Shower Windows Provide Direct Natural Light, Ultimate Privacy, and a Sky View
As steam from the shower rises, it collects together at the corners of the ceiling, getting denser as it waits to be circulated by the room’s electrical, natural, or hybrid ventilation system which, if not sufficiently efficient, will fight a continuously losing battle. High ventilating windows at the top of a shower’s wall or even above the shower as a skylight are far more capable of circulating the steam quickly. Additionally, skylights above showers are rarely overlooked, receive more direct natural light than vertical windows, and feature one of the most captivating free-to-air views we all have access to, the sky.
These projects feature Top-Floor Showers Lit by Skylights
Casa 9 Border House / LCA Architetti / luca compri architetti
Sussurro House / Davide Andranno Architetto
Piil Tree House Retreat / Arsenit
Fully Glazed: Wall-to-Wall Shower Windows With An Open View
When a home isn’t overlooked by neighboring properties it makes the combination of natural light and privacy far easier to balance. But it’s not only homes in remote locations that get to experience the freedom of a light and visually spacious glazed shower wall, there are other ways to add privacy without bricking over the glass. By adding a privacy screen or louvered facade to the exterior, for example, the view of the outside environment can remain largely unrestricted, while the view inside is blocked. Alternatively, selective landscape design such as the inclusion of tall grasses or positioning the room behind a naturally occurring slope can also block it from sight, giving users a natural view while they shower like no-one’s watching.
These projects feature expansive windows for showers that aren’t overlooked
Copan D Apartment / Estúdio BRA Arquitetura
Hidden Garden House / Sam Crawford Architects
White Rock House / Omar Gandhi Architect
Find the above projects with shower windows in this ArchDaily folder created by the author.