I once had a craftsman in the basement. He just said: "You will definitely survive the 3rd World War." You don’t joke about something like that, but basically my basement is a small supermarket and the neighborhood appreciates that too.
Ok, is that a compliment for you now? :D Basically a "Späti" in the house... uh, sorry, of course in the concrete basement! Sure, you can justify anything with that, even a tank in the front yard. I am the child of refugees and therefore this way of thinking is not foreign to me, but even my parents eventually dropped it and preferred to enjoy the apartment with a roof terrace and everything above ground. They were forced to be in the basement often enough. They enjoyed the development and moved with the times.
"An oriel window can greatly expand the living space. Oriel windows are very popular for adding some very striking embellishments to the facade. The rooms are flooded with more light. Provided there is an appropriate size, it is definitely possible to convert the oriel into a seating area or a creative corner (writing, painting). The oriel offers comfort and aesthetics (inside and outside)."
Did you go up to the attic and read in a yellowed magazine from the Settlers’ Association from the 60s? :eek: As a former oriel builder (built in ‘90) I can as a sadist rather tell you about disadvantages or don’t really know of any real advantages. “Striking embellishments” were then as now attempted by sticking some zit on nice and boring buildings or placing a Corinthian plastic column in the front yard to forcibly achieve some individuality or style (nowadays lifestyle). Like so many things, wanted but not achieved. It’s also not just a matter of taste because real style or classical architecture has developed and endured over centuries/thousands of years. To even remotely associate a square concrete basement corner as a stylistic tool requires more than whimsical imagination, you call it a “striking embellishment”, uffff.
However, oriel windows are still being installed today.
No, they’ve since been banned by the architects’ guild... luckily.
For a new build, something like that will surely (again) fall victim to the budget cutter.
Since the budget is no insignificant factor in house building, clean lines already make sense for that reason; also in furnishing. Although... there is a website "Front Yards of Horror" or something like that, maybe there should also be “Oriel Window Design of Horror.”
Straight, clean lines are a must!
Nope, just think of Art Nouveau alone... likewise, there are many very good architects, including modern ones, who work with shapes and colors. But it’s not enough to just bend something around a corner to create a design. Unfortunately, it’s often tried. I can’t do it but I also don’t claim to and rather lean on styles that didn’t come about after the third beer at the construction site; I’d rather do nothing than something ugly.
Go to, for example, Bilbao to the Guggenheim Museum, you can’t miss it. It hardly has any straight lines like you think, and it is still beautiful. But it doesn’t have an oriel, at least as far as I have seen.