WINDOW RESEARCH INSTITUTE

This stud farm was established in 1988 in Hidaka, Hokkaido Prefecture. As a stallion breeding facility, it can house up to 20 sires. In the stables, the stalls are arranged along one side of the aisle, and staff provide hay for the horses to eat through the iron-barred windows placed between the stalls and the aisle. The stablesʼ exterior walls are fitted with wooden doors, which are divided into upper and lower halves; inside are iron-barred doors, which are fitted at the top with outward-opening aluminum sash windows. These exterior doors keep the stables well ventilated, preventing the horsesʼ hooves from rotting in the straw bedding that covers the floor, and enabling the horses to stick their heads out. In the humid summers, both the upper and lower parts are opened; in other seasons, only the upper one. On cold or rainy days, the doors are kept shut in the evening so that the stalls stay warm.

Breeders Stallion Station Stables
Stockbreeding / Hidaka, Saru District, Hokkaido

This article is an excerpt from “Window Workology,” a joint research project concerning windows and the behaviors around them done in collaboration with Tokyo Institute of Technologyʼs Yoshiharu Tsukamoto Laboratory.