Friday 13 June 2008

The opposite to glass

Glass does two things, or rather, it does one thing and not another: it allows the passage of the, but not the passage of air.

But what of the opposite of glass, something that allows air, but not light?

Such a material would have to be super-absorbent and be designed in such a way as to allow air through. The diagram below shows a cross-section of a simple shape that would achieve this (on the left) and more complex 3D shape (on the right). I envisage that a panel of such tubes would interlock to give a window (to air, but not light).


Hopefully then, I won't get woken up by those early sunrises, but can still enjor the cool morning breeze!

1 comment:

adreama said...

My original envisioning for this idea was a plastic sheet of the air-flow cells, with that sheet being fitted into a window frame.

However, I think it would be possible to have fabric version, made of black-out material.

This could roll up and down like a normal blind (with the cells folding in on themselves).

Alternatively, the cells could compress on one axis like a venetian blind. The floor of each cell would be the equivalent of a slat of a venetian blind.

A heavy bar at bottom would ensure the blind does not move significantly with the breeze.