Graphical Construction Glossary >> Roofs and roofing. >> Roof Features >> Clerestory window

Clerestory window

1.) A window in a clerestory.
2.) A window in the upper part of a wall and sometimes the lower edge of the roof to give light and ventilation to a high room. In modern terms any window, often a row of windows above head height, providing light and privacy, but no outside view.

Clerestory or Clear Storey

In religious architecture the upper part of the nave of a church, sometimes with a walkway around it. Usually having lower roofed sections at the side.

clerestory lights

As above, but also the term is starting to be used by skylight manufacturers for small dormer type vertical windows that fit into existing flat roofs, North facing in the Southern hemisphere and South facing in the North.

Long established as a design feature in large public buildings, cathedrals and the like. The word is again coming back into fashion with architects using them for increasing light and ventilation in tall rooms while maintaining privacy where needed.

An external view of the church of St Nicolai, Stralsund showing the C-windows between the copper roofs. Also of note in this photo are the curious copper roofed vents and the use of the copper flashings to the tops of the flying buttresses. The brown patches in the upper roof are new copper sections that have not yet had time to achieve the green protective patina that comes with age. Photo thanks to Wikimedia.

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Adam Smith 1723-1790

"When we build, let us think that we build for ever."John Ruskin 1819-1900