Jalousie windows are windows which are made up of glass and either wooden or acrylic louvers and have a parallel glass held up in a frame. The wooden louvers usually are put together on a track so as opening and shutting is in unison. This is in order to control the amount of air going in and out of the house. Crank mechanism is usually used to control them.
Jalousie windows are usually best suited to porches or areas that are not really climate-controlled. They originated from middle ages and were shaped like lanterns. They were mainly installed in kitchens for maximum ventilation. Originally, it consisted of just a barrel, they later evolved into framed slats which could open and shut by pull of a string. They are mostly found in areas where there is hardly any winter and were extremely common in houses in Florida and California in the 20th century. Nowadays, louver windows consist of glass slats, with a metal lever or shutters of plastic or wood.
When its raining heavily, the jalousie windows could be left wide open because there is no fear of water seeping through since the louvers protrude toward the outer side. However, the panes cannot be sealed completely and they can easily be pulled out or fall off when mishandled, so they should be handled with great care.
They were used in the fifty’s and sixty’s as well in the mobile homes before the switch to sash windows during mid seventy’s and eighty’s. The jalousie windows are also known as glass, slated or louver windows. The ones with panes that are extremely wide are known as awning windows.
Jalousie windows are angled in order to let in fresh air and admit maximum amount of light and at the same time, keep off rain, noise and direct sunshine. The slat angles could be fixed or adjustable. The slat is the long, flat, thin piece of plastic, and there are several at the center. Some modern ones improve indoor day lighting because they are built all the way almost to the bottom of a wall. However, most of the time, louvers are usually painted so as to prevent direct sunlight from reaching a room. The paint though, calls for more care since it may look untidy when it begins to chip and therefore it needs to be painted over once in a while maybe two or three coats of paint.
Louvers are not usually seen as design language elements in architecture of today but just a technical device. However, some architects use them as a section of their aesthetic event of their own buildings in overall. A good example is Alvar Aalto, a finish architect who would make arty effects in all his buildings, by combining jalousie windows of different sizes and types, for example, movable and fixed. He mostly used wood.
Louvers are usually used as a partly passive way of heat control on a spacecraft. The spacecrafts, whether for humans, cargo or maybe just for planetary exploration, are usually built with Jalousie windows. They are appropriate for extreme whether conditions and change in climate. Also Jalousie windows could be used as just an accessory in some automobiles.
