A series of short blog posts about our life in Germany.
Since we moved into our apartment three weeks ago, we’ve been afraid to open our windows for fear that Dax or Jacob would fall out and die. (They’re not stupid, but their footing ain’t always perfect.) Fortunately, our balcony is enclosed and we can open that door to the warm summer air, but all our other windows were pretty much condemned to permanent closure.
Who knows how long they would have stayed closed had we not, completely by chance, discovered at a party that German windows are quite talented: they can open they can open up as well as out. That is, if you turn the handle sideways, they open out, giving you a full expanse of window, but if you turn the handle all the way up and pull, they open up a vent at the top.
This type of “tilt & turn” window is quite common in Munich — we see the characteristically tilted white frames all over the place whenever we go walking. From comments online, they seem to be quite popular throughout the country, for good reason. It’s an extremely clever and innovative design, whose simplicity and flexibility (which you can see in the video below) make the windows both useful and kinda fun to operate. They’re made by REHAU, a British company.
Our German windows in action
(note my surprised expression at 0:35 — exactly how I looked when we discovered this at the party)
Comments
Best video ever! They have these in Geneva too.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the video to work, but I was also shocked the first time I saw these German “tilting/tipping” windows…
The overly dramatic video was a nice touch. You should do a general video tour of your place and neighborhood!
All things in good time.
that just blew my mind!
According to the video I dont know if I would consider this cleaver design over the sliding windows we have in America. A couple core use cases are being eliminated by these.
- You can not put a piece of furniture in front of them, if you want to open them.
- You risk damage to any pictures you hang on the wall next to them.
But you stated they open UP, I am assuming this is like the windows in America. This would be cool if they did BOTH, if they do both.
I love German windows for the fact that nearly all have a) this feature of “kippen” (as we call it) and b) being double-paned. Oh sure, double-paned windows *exist* in America (or so I’m led to believe) but you don’t see ‘em around that much.
@Ismael The use case of “I have small furry things I don’t want to jump out” is one use case slightly improved by this design, as sliding windows usually slide up from the bottom, so opening it more than a couple fingers would provide pets room to slip through. (And if you make sliding windows that slide down, it’d be a bitch to reach them.) Also I’m not familiar with the practice of blocking windows with furniture – this seems like a bad idea in general. And how do you damage pictures hanging on the wall? Unless you literally hang a picture in the window sconce, this isn’t an issue (the windows open 90% typically).
One advantage sliding windows do have is that they will stay at any increment you set them to (if the sliding mechanism is in good shape). Many German windows have little hooks to prop the window open at either 15ish or 90ish degrees, which probably covers the majority of cases, but you could definitely make an argument there.
@Yitz: American windows (both the single- and the double-pane varieties) do often come with screens, which allow the window simultaneously open fully while simultaneously preventing Kleinhaustierselbstmord*. As an unintentional side bonus screens also keep out the insects that the cats occasionally go nuts over. Screens + kippen == great success.
I think Ismael’s concern about pictures is that the window could open a full 180 degrees, smashing into the wall next to it. (Ours can’t, due to the frame design.) If they won’t open past 90%, then that’s not an issue.
Incidentally, does replying send emails to previous people on the comment chain? I’ve never been certain.
* the suicide of tiny pets, as a certain middle European country might refer to it.