  The views that windows provide from inside a building affect human health and
well-being. Although window view is an important element of architecture, there
is no established framework to guide its design. The literature is widely
dispersed across different disciplinary fields, and there is a need to coalesce
this information into a framework that can be applied into the building design.
Based on the literature, we present a framework for what constitutes 'view
quality.' At the basis of our framework, we propose three primary variables:
View Content (the assessment of visual features seen in the window view), View
Access (the measure of how much of the view can be seen through the window from
the occupant's position), and View Clarity (the assessment of how clear the
view content appears in the window view when seen by an occupant). Each
variable was thematically derived from different sources including daylighting
standards, green certification systems, and scientific research studies. We
describe the most important characteristics of each variable, and from our
review of the literature, we propose a conceptual index that can evaluate the
quality of a window view. While discussing the index, we summarize design
recommendations for integrating these three variables into the building process
and identify knowledge gaps for future research.
