Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology (13695446384)

Demerara windows were built primarily into 18th- and 19th-century

Colonial architecture Colonial architecture is an architectural style from a mother country that has been incorporated into the buildings of settlements or colonies in distant locations. Colonists frequently built settlements that synthesized the architecture of their ...

-styled buildings to cool homes in hot climates, such as Guyana, before the invention of

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

Demerara Demerara ( nl, Demerary, ) is a historical region in the Guianas, on the north coast of South America, now part of the country of Guyana. It was a colony of the Dutch West India Company between 1745 and 1792 and a colony of the Dutch state ...

is a historical region of Guyana. The

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent mat ...

design includes perforated sides and

louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

s to block direct sunlight. They are shuttered

sash windows A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History T ...

with the shutter hinged at the top so it could be propped open, sloping outward. They were generally propped open with a stick. At the window sill, a container of ice, water, or a potted plant helps cool warm air as it passes through the window into the building. The windows are generally fitted in the upper floors. Initially, this type of window was just used in the homes of the wealthy, but spread over time to the homes of other classes of people. They were generally made of pine because the wood was less likely to move than native timbers in heat and humidity. It was generally made with twelve panes, which is a Georgian-style architectural detail. In other parts of the Caribbean, particularly the British colonies and territories such as Grenada, the name came to be generally applied to a window that opens outwards from hinges at the top.

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{{Reflist Windows British colonial architecture

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