WINDOW RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Located on the premises of the JRA’s production, training, and research center, an approximately 1500-hectare ranch in the Hidaka region, which is Japan’s largest producer of horses, this facility is used for the initial stage of training, teaching horses to run in a straight line. The track is large enough for two or three groups to be assembled and run. The side windows installed along the track evacuate the dust kicked up by the horses running on the wood chips spread along the track. On the north side, glass double-sliding windows keep the wind from entering during the winter. The south side has no glass and the opening is covered only by a screen door. The side windows are set higher than the height of the horses so that even if the horses come in contact with the wall, they will not hit the windows. The upper portion of the vaulted roof contains translucent polycarbonate, allowing diffused light to be cast onto the track.

1000m horse rack, Hidaka Training and Research Center (JRA)
Hourse track / Urakawa 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 Technology’s Yoshiharu Tsukamoto Laboratory.