A 'Window Right'

"A tenant must have the right to lean out of his window and to change on the outside wall whatever he wants, as far as his arm can reach, such that you can see from far away, from the street: Their lives a human." (Seckau 1958) "Some say that houses consist of walls. ... Friedensreich Hundertwasser "Some say that houses consist of walls. I say they consist of windows. If in a street there are different houses next to each other, with different kind of windows, i.e. window-races, for example Jugendstil windows in Jugendstil houses, A modern house with indifferent square windows, and a baroque house with baroque windows, then nobody cares. But if these three types of windows are in one house, one experiences this as an offence against window-race seggregation. Why? Every window has a right on a life of its's own? But after the rules it is as follows: When the window-races get mixed, one offences window-apartheid. The apratheid of window-races must stop. The endless repeating of similar windows, next to each other and above each other is a characteristic of a concentration-camp. In the new buildings of the suburbs, in hospitals and new government-buildings, banks and schools the window-levelling is depressing. The individual, the seperate, and always different acting man is resisting actively and passively against this equalizing dictatorship, dpending on his constitution, with alcohol and drug abuse, flight from the city, cleaning-phobia, television addiction, unexplicable pains, allergies, depressions until suicide, or with aggression, vandalism and crime. A tennant of a rental-appartment must have the possibility to lean out of his window - as far as his arm can reach- removing the mortar. He must get allowance to use a long brush - as far as he can reach- to paint all a he likes, such that, from far away, from the street is it visible that a man lives there and that that person is different from his neighbours." Friedensreich Hundertwasser, January-22, 1990 Last updated: March-1, 2001 (by Hans Hilte Edited by AJ Ward