Dec 1, 2009: Curtain Door

Not some college kid with an old shower curtain nailed over the doorway, or a slum shack with a curtain for a door. In this case, curtain door is a figure of speech, a technical description, because if you can afford this door, you ain't living in a slum, baby.;)



Neatorama points to the Emerging Architecture site, showing this prize winning door.

The door alone to this diamond merchant’s residence in Surat, India, was judged enough to make it one of the four prize winners this year.
At 5.2m (17ft) high and 1.7m (5.6ft) wide, the door is comprised of 40 sections of 254mm (10inch) thick Burma teak. Each section is carved so that the door integrates 160 pulleys, 80 ball bearings, a wire-rope and a counter weight hidden within the single pivot.

I don't understand how 40 pieces, 10 inches thick, adds up to 17 feet, but that's what is says?

Stacked one above the other in the closed position, each plank can then rotate by a simple push causing the door to reconfigure into a sinusoidal curve.

If the cops break his door down, it'll cost more to fix than his lawyer will. :haha:

Screwy looking house.

Maybe it's the thickness of the door? That'd be my guess.

xoxoxoBruce;613850 wrote:

...If the cops break his door down, it'll cost more to fix than his lawyer will. :haha:

How much does it cost to get a lawyer fixed? And why do you know this?


:D

It's a cool looking door, but doesn't look very weather tight. I can see light shining through the gaps on the sides, even where it's closed. It must be interior. The weather would come right through.

xoxoxoBruce;613850 wrote:

I don't understand how 40 pieces, 10 inches thick, adds up to 17 feet, but that's what is says?

Notice the beams are rectangular, not square. The thickness of each piece, hence the door, is 10". The height of each piece is about 5".

Or maybe it's some kind of metric feet. Stinkin' commies.

glatt;613892 wrote:

It's a cool looking door, but doesn't look very weather tight. I can see light shining through the gaps on the sides, even where it's closed. It must be interior. The weather would come right through.

A lot of architecture in India is rather open. The climate favors breezes and central courtyards, open to the wind and rain.

Klaus-Peter Gast wrote:

The courtyards also take up an old Indian architectural motif whereby the courtyard provides light and air for the rooms directly in this hot climate, and people are able to spend time outside or inside according to the time of day. The courtyard is also the classical symbol of something shared, a place where people meet, spend time with each other and live together. This aspect is emphasised in the courtyard for the general public, which is placed immediately inside the entrance and constructed in the form of a Kund, a large area of stone steps. Here people spend their waiting time together almost as if in a state of communal meditation. A waiting area that would be completely inconceivable in Western culture functions as a “think tank” here, with the ambience of waiting stimulating communal reflection.

Pie;613907 wrote:

A lot of architecture in India is rather open. The climate favors breezes and central courtyards, open to the wind and rain.

Good point. I didn't notice where it was.

It's beautiful, but rather drowned by the big ugly walls. It's a cinderella curtain door.

The site above also links to a series of extraordinary Nat'l Geographic pictures. http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/11/national_geographics_internati.html

Nice link.

It looks beautiful but I still can't get my brain around how it is suppose to close.

Sheldonrs;613889 wrote:

How much does it cost to get a lawyer fixed? And why do you know this?


:D

... because we don't want them to breed.

har har

case;614002 wrote:

It looks beautiful but I still can't get my brain around how it is suppose to close.

Case, looking from the top, it would open like a fan or deck of cards. It stays attached at the top, and each piece of wood swings open a little further than the one above it.

That's a reasonably cool door. [COLOR="LemonChiffon"]But, I'm more interested in a door that will work in a 45 year old American Ranch, on a 1000 square foot budget.[/COLOR]

WANT!!!