I was raised in a home on the south coast of Texas. I remember when the hurricane threats would come through, while the rest of our neighbors were out buying plywood my dad was walking around securing the shutters on the front of our house. Most people probably thought they were just for looks but every few years we’d unhinge those guys and let them fulfill their given purpose – protecting our windows.
Shutters are a building detail that has been employed for quite a long time. They have acted as a means of controlling light and ventilation, protection from the elements, security and of course keeping out unwanted pests and insects. Over time, building technology has allowed shutters to be built in a variety of styles and from a variety of materials, though we have moved away from the marble shutters of ancient Greece. Try shutting those by yourself.
Shutters now generally play a secondary role in the operation of building openings. The majority of shutters we see are merely ornament, applied to the face of homes for aesthetics. The shutter has gone the way of the “antique” coffee grinder set on a shelf for show. We still cling to the nostalgia of the past even though shutters, even operable ones, are rarely if ever used. The shutter does add character to a façade, but seeing a piece of plastic applied to the side of a window gives an uneasy feeling of falsity. Architecture should be honest in how it speaks. There needs to be “truth of expression” as John Ruskin put it. If it’s a shutter, make it a shutter not a bauble. Otherwise we should embrace our changing needs or technology and design accordingly.
