Austin Bans Windowless Bedrooms

The Austin City Council voted to ban the construction of new windowless housing units, which health experts say are detrimental to the health of those who live in them. In Austin, thousands of such rooms have been built in recent years to accommodate college students, explains Juan Miro in an article for Daily Legal News.

As an architect and professor, Miro writes that he was shocked to hear that windowless bedrooms were not already illegal in Austin. “Indeed, in New York City – as in major cities around the world – windowless bedrooms are illegal. A percentage of the room's floor area, set in each city's building code, determines the minimum window size.” Austin, however, follows the International Building Code, which only calls for natural or artificial light.

Miro points out that the cheaper-to-build windowless rooms have not led to lower rents for students. Rooms that already exist will be legal to rent after the construction ban goes into effect.

“The experiences of students living in windowless rooms in Austin should serve as a cautionary tale for authorities who control building codes.” Miro is working with other advocates to change the International Building Code to close the loophole that allows for windowless rooms, arguing that “Having natural light in buildings should be a human right, not a developer's choice.”