What’s so special about this simple mechanism? Even 50 year old windows can do this here.
Its not special, but also not really common outside of Europe, at least thats what i heard
They are also everywhere in the ex-USSR countries. I think, China, too, has them, based on the rental properties photos that I’ve found. I also looked at rentals from India and found lots of them seem to have those weird windows with bars, but on the inside(?). Does anyone know what’s up with that?
This is most of Europe actually
Have these windows in an apartment in Ukraine
Don’t y’all refuse to put screens in those windows, though? Having two or three different ways to let clouds of insects into yo house is not the height of residential technology.
We use magic
We stay warm by the power of imagination!
Didja steal it from Ikea or something?
𝕯𝖎𝖊𝖘𝖊 𝕶𝖔𝖒𝖒𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖘𝖊𝖐𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖎𝖘𝖙 𝖓𝖚𝖓 𝕰𝖎𝖌𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖚𝖒 𝖉𝖊𝖗 𝕭𝖚𝖓𝖉𝖊𝖘𝖗𝖊𝖕𝖚𝖇𝖑𝖎𝖐 𝕯𝖊𝖚𝖙𝖘𝖈𝖍𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖉
Taking over the world, one Kommentarsektion at a time
Brit here, all the windows in my flat have this system.
Must be a pre-Brexit window.
Glad they’re gone
Edit: -6 votes? 😅 Geez Lemmy is even faster at jumping to conclusions than Reddit!
The Brits?
No, those new-fangled bureaucratic politically-correct continental windows from the EU.
…this is a joke right?
Yes duuh
Honestly I don’t know with any of you people anymore.
You know it.
Klaus Fuchs gave them to you!
Traitor!
I discovered these windows in Netherlands and Germany. I love it. Blew my mind.
I’m confused as well. How do you open windows in non-Europe?
Generally, like this:
The two middle ones are the most common I see. I have one casement window in my house, but it just opens in one way, like in this image.Canadian here, the most common I see is sliding horizontally. Our house has horizontal as well.
Also Canadian, I’ve had horizontal sliding, single hung, and casement with that turning mechanism to open/close them. And I remember seeing windows that were hinged at the top and pushed outwards in high school. Not sure what held them open though.
In france, we call the second one “guillotine”
Never once in my life seen those anywhere in Europe.
I saw something akin to the second one in Spain, they don’t have a good reputation for holding against cold there
Bah, the Spaniards are easily invaded, it’s the Russians we need to worry about!
Is it a real thing?
All over Yurp. Not sure why it just says Germany
This level of sofistication feels like something the Germans wouod come up with
You forgot the one where the window is fixated just in one lower corner and it looks so vulnerable and creepy at the same time
🤣
Yeah and it’s even worse when this happens to a balcony door
The first time that happened to me I freaked out thinking the window was falling out of its hinges.
I still am freaking out every time it happens. What happens if you actually don’t scream and fight for your life by pressing against it and putting it back into a closed position immediately? What happens if you just let it happen and let go?
Then, you reach Enlightenment.
It holds on the one corner until you push it back in.
Source: did this way too often as a kid with our balcony door, accidentally and on purpose
If you let it fall into this position from the original window position, like if you unlock it and wait for a wind gust, it may break the one remaining hinge off and fall flat. Not the best thing to experience, and replacing the window is not either
Oh yeah I should have said, it’s certainly not something you should do a lot or keep it like that haha. They’re definitely not designed to be in that position.
Huh. I didn’t know those were from Germany. We have them in USA too, just not as common I suppose.
New apartment I moved to only has these and I’ve been dreaming of having them for years. It’s amazing. Although it looks fragile and scary when the huge door/window is only fixed lightly on the bottom 😅
Now put some screens in them.
Love those windows. Thought about trying to get some in the US and omg they are expensive here because they’re uncommon.
omg they are expensive here because they’re uncommon.
Encountered the same issue when I wanted double-layer track curtains. Almost ubiquitous in Germany, but unless you order custom, own the place, and can afford to have them installed, all you get in the US is a shitty aluminum rod that’s clunky to use and liable to fall out of the holder or get ripped off the wall…
They are called “casement” windows, specifically turn/tilt operation, and they do exist in the USA. They are typically more expensive than vinyl double hung, and home builders tend to shy away from anything “different” that might scare away home buyers. That’s why you don’t see them very often.
But if you want them, you can buy them and have them installed. You can even get them in patio door sizes, but the larger the door, the heavier it is when it tilts.
It’s really common for people unfamiliar with the door function to lift the handle and think it’s locked, and then a strong breeze blows the door inward. Between the noise and seeing the door falling inward, it can be pretty scary.
Source: I worked in construction in the US with European builders who loved these things and couldn’t figure out why Americans didn’t.
In Italian and French they are caled “Vasistas”, from the German “Was ist das?” (What’s that?), it’s said they called it that way because the first German tourists who saw those windows in France were confused and kept asking for clarifications on how they worked.
vasistas
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/vasistas
its real, though not necessarily the type of window that you described. also exists in Turkish. i have a Turkish colleague who was very proud to explain the origin of that word to us in Germany :D .
Interesting. Like I said in another comment in Italian it means exactly what I said. From the first line on the topic on Italian wikipedia:
A vasistas (also written wasistas) is a type of window that is also opeaneable on the inside […]. The system allows the door to rotate down and the opening is delimited by special stops, called opening delimiters.
But apparently, after reading the French wikipedia page they use that word for something else. So it appears that we did steal the word from them, but used it to describe something different.
In France, a vasistas is a velux roof window. The windows in the picture have been our regular every day windows for a few decades.
AFAIK we also call them velux windows in the UK.
Oh really? My bad then. We call those windows from the pic “vasistas” in Italian, and I was always told we copied that word from the French. I just checked whether such a word existed in French, saw that it did, and didn’t ask any further questions.
I had to check and apparently a vasistas is originally a transom windows and I’ve one on my house front door. It’s the window panel there is on some doors with worked iron on the other side that you can open but won’t allow people from outside to go in. Historically, people didn’t open the full door when people came to their house, just the window part and German would say was ist das?. And when modern velux windows become popular, they were also nicknamed vasistas by older people for some reason? None of this makes sense.
I want this want this to be real and will not investigate further.
It sounds so real!
My expensive vinyl double hung windows in my previous house actually had a casement-like feature and I could easily remove either part. I loved those windows; I wish I could have taken them with me.
I have windows like this in America. But you need 3 hands to work them. I’d kill for a simple lever like that.
You should be able to tilt or turn from the handle. Is it too heavy to maneuver with one hand?
What is this door latch sorcery? How does it work?
Woah. 🤯 that is crazy cool. I feel like I’ve been visited by time travelers from the future.
