this website fills the wanderlust void by letting you look out a stranger's window

with COVID-19 disrupting international travel plans for the foreseeable future, and social distancing allowing for little engagement outside of your own home, a recently-launched website is bringing personal views from the across the globe to your own doorstep. windowswap is envisioned as ‘a place on the internet where all we travel hungry fools share our ‘window views’ to help each other feel a little bit better till we can (responsibly) explore our beautiful planet again.’ website visitors can simply click to ‘open a new window somewhere in the world’ and be transported to a stranger’s view in india, italy, new york, switzerland and many more spectacular locales.  

windowswap — a quarantine project by sonali ranjit and vaishnav balasubramaniam, developed by maryam touimi benjelloun — seeks submissions from around the world, calling on those interested to share a 10-minute long, horizontal HD video of a window and frame, and its location for credits. from a stunning mountainous landscape in villongo, italy, to a busy streetscape in shanghai, china, it’s easy to get lost virtually navigating the globe and peering out someone’s window to get a glimpse of their view. video submissions, rather than images, lend a particular element of surprise, as bicycle riders wiz by a window in copenhagen, and a cool breeze can be seen passing through a room in honolulu. swap your window here.

project info: 

name: windowswap

created by: sonali ranjit, vaishnav balasubramaniam

developer: maryam touimi benjelloun