The importance of the view from a window for older people I think is often over looked. Seen as mundane, peripheral or even unimportant, it gets ignored as a significant part of someone’s home. Yet my research, building on some seminal work in this are carried out by Professor Graham Rowles in 1981, suggests the view from the window is vital to older people, especially those who spend a lot of time indoors. I interviewed 42 people who were largely housebound and spent most of their week at home about their view from the window. I found older people spend a while setting up their space for the view out of the window and deliberately use the space to construct narrative and meaning. The views become “thick” with meaning and a place of high significance for the observer.
Looking ahead, could technology help access scenes that couldn’t be seen from the window? Webcams, so called windows-on-the-world technology, for instance offer potential. There is some interesting work already on this including a virtual "window to the outside world" by Gillian Dowds and colleagues, Lori Reynolds’ Virtual Nature Experience and the simple but effective Video Window by Bill Gaver. The views might not have to be exactly what is outside, maybe technology can help with passing views, as if at a train window on a journey, like happens at Scarlett House Care Home in the Cotswolds, UK.

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The Conversation Article:
Musselwhite, C.B.A. (2018) Why windows with a view are so important to older people. The Conversation, 19th December.

Journal Article:
Musselwhite, C.B.A. (2018) The importance of a room with a view for older people with limited mobility. Quality in Ageing and Older Adults, 19(4), 273-285

Presentations:
Musselwhite, C.B.A. (2015). Importance of motion for the motionless: the significance of a room with a view for older people with limited mobility, in the Symposium: Understanding the meaning of transport, mobility and space for older people, International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics European Region Congress, Convention Centre Dublin, Ireland, 23 April.