Uzen Silk Scouring/Window for Steam Discharge

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto Laboratory (Tokyo Institute of Technology)

08 Sep 2020

A silk scouring plant founded in 1906 in Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture. Silk scouring is achieved by soaking the raw silk in boiling water infused with chemicals to remove impurities such as proteins, creating the luster and smooth texture peculiar to silk. To discharge the large volume of steam generated by the many large tubs in the scouring plant, the wooden building has a monitor roof, the sliding windows of which can be opened and closed from below with a cord.

Uzen Silk Scouring
(Silk/Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture)

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.