Letters | German design is not what Hong Kong needs to solve the problem of windows falling off buildings

The material used to make hinges and rivets should be improved, rather than asking space-starved Hongkongers to consider installing windows that open inward

Reading Time:1 minute

Police officers examine a fallen window outside The Mira Hong Kong hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui after a falling window struck and killed a woman on January 21. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 6:37am, 30 Jan 2019Updated: 6:36am, 30 Jan 2019

Cyrus Cuthbertson advised us to imitate the German practice of having windows open inward to prevent them from falling (“Simple change could prevent windows falling”, January 28).

I need not point out that inward-opening windows would still fall, only that the fall is inward, if they are made from the same material that is so susceptible to corrosion.

Window hinges and rivets are in many cases wrongly made from alclad or aluminium hot-rolled onto the surface of an alloy. The riveting action scrapes off the protective coating of pure aluminium to expose the highly corrodible duralumin beneath. Similarly, the hinges lose the pure aluminium coating after a few openings, and the rest is history. The hinges and rivets should be made from stainless steel or brass instead.

If only we had such plentiful living space as they have in Germany, we would probably have had inward-opening windows too. But here we live in such tiny flats that we resort to stealing a few square feet of living space from outside by building bay windows. We’re surely not going to render the bay window space unusable with inward-opening windows.

There is also the need for our windows to be more airtight to withstand typhoons. Outward opening windows naturally get pressed against the window frame and become more airtight the stronger the wind gets.