Windows

You will have seen a few of these pics before but repeating as I hadn't mentioned what was going on.

All the window openings are concrete rings of various sizes. Small ones at the back of the main room and the bathroom, mainly for ventilation and larger ones at the front for the light. All the rings are produced at 50cm deep, rather handy and more luck than judgement they are the same depth as the walls. The largest size are used for the water wells around Indonesia, but because they are used horizontally in a well they are not weight bearing radially and the structure is a lot thinner than all the others. We noticed cracks appearing in it just as we finished the whole height of the wall above it. Now that it's been there a while you can see that it would have held OK because of the keystone arch above it, but in panic mode at the time I put a tire in to help support it while I quickly made the window frame! The frame was made from some high quality plywood, two sheets glued and screwed together to make a 1 1/2" frame, quite cool even if I say so myself. Finished with polycarbonate windows drilled and screwed to the frame on both sides, this gives an insulating air gap like double glazing.

The other two widows at the front are made from 5mm polycarbonate sheets, double glazed again, with a pentagram of thin iron wood strips on the inside one riveted through polycarbonate helicopter stylee :) For the frame I used motorcycle wheel rims and a few spokes through a washer in the middle, the two windows are bolted together though the centre washer.

All the other windows took a while to tidy up, many 2am designs. Eventually I bought some stainless steel sheet and rolled it up to fit in the holes and Cherrymax riveted them into place, another helicopter stylee thing! They ended up being way nicer looking than I imagined too! Check out the reflections and the sun getting reflected onto the walls. I used rubber metal edging at the ends, this holds the mosquito netting in place too. The bathroom ones are going to stay like this as it's not going to be air-conditioned but the main room ones are going to have some sort of closing window, maybe polycarbonate or maybe tempered glass saucepan lids :) yet to be designed ……..