Why are windowless bedrooms allowed?

[Admiral Beez]

How can this be legal?

BLACKBURN | Daniels On Parliament

1 BEDROOM + DEN

www.danielsonparliament.com

Every bedroom should have an external window. This BS of a glazed wall from the bedroom into the kitchen or living room has to stop.

Developers should not be allowed to call a windowless room a Bedroom!!

Not long ago, we were told by RE pros, that a windowless room could be a study, den or have some such name OTHER than a bedroom. Then we heard that IF a windowless room had a glazed opening - either fixed or operable (like a glass door), then it could be called a bedroom! Many new condos have...

urbantoronto.ca

 

[tripwire]

I've seen lots of windowless bedrooms since 20+ years ago. Not as bad as the above perhaps; most of what I saw were rooms with two sliding frosted glass doors making up a corner of the bedroom. There were options for non-frosted glass or just regular (sliding) doors too IIRC. But the principle was the same that the window was with the kitchen/living space, and the bedroom further back and windowless.

 

[neuhaus]

The long skinny bowling lane units with the interior bedrooms are pretty common unit type layouts so that developers can efficiently squeeze in so many units on a floor plate. The link to the other thread (as noted above) covers what is considered a legal bedroom under the building code. Basically if it meets minimum floor area requirements and faces a source of natural light (that’s why interior bedrooms have clear or translucent glass sliding doors or partitions), than it can be considered a bedroom.

I’ve seen some silly interior bedrooms at M5V Condos where the window of a bedroom formed the backsplash of the neighbouring kitchen to get natural light. Generally speaking I don’t like interior windows from an aesthetic point of view as they seem like display windows at a pet store and they are designed like an afterthought (which often it is).

Structural bays of a condo building are typically around 12 to 15 feet wide, meaning there’s a column or structural wall occurring at those intervals and unit layouts are often designed, more or less, around this parameter. A unit that is only one structural bay wide can only fit only a room in this width, so the logical layout is to fit a living room at the end where the windows are and to tuck an interior bedroom towards the inner part of the unit (closer towards the entrance).

Some of Brad Lamb’s newer condos features a bedroom at the window end of the unit with sliding glass doors or partitions separating it from the living area. I think this “interior living room” is even weirder as it gives the bedroom priority over the living room, and offers the bedroom very little privacy and puts it on display when you have guests over. The living room will be darker and have no views. I rather have windows in the living room over the bedroom if I had only one choice.

 

[tripwire]

I guess one benefit with these long/narrow layouts with the bedroom by the window is that you can make use of the full width of the unit. Versus if the bedroom was away from the window, it has to be a bit smaller to account for the hallway to walk through. I guess it'll really depend on the person whether the bedroom having light and window is more important that the living room/privacy. I think if there was a balcony involved then it's a no brainer that the living room has to be by the window.

But yeah, a bedroom with glass as the kitchen backsplash is pretty .