No cleaning required!

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Hadassah, the hospital on the hill.

The Jerusalem Hills finally had clouds and even a few minutes of rain last Friday and Saturday, something to show for SkyWatch Friday.

The new hospital tower, in its final stages of construction, had guided tours on Friday.
I gladly put on a hard hat and went up to learn.

But of all the high tech and eco-friendly innovations in the building, the windows impressed me the most.
They are double-glazed with vacuum insulation between the two panes of glass.

The blinds are encapsulated within the double glazed unit!
These integrated or "integral blinds" offer protection from the heat and the glare of the sun.
And once sealed in this dust-free environment, the blinds require no cleaning.

Anyone who has cleaned trissim or even worse, Venetian blinds at home understands what a revolutionary new system this is.

Despite the cloudy sky, the big windows in the patient rooms let in a lot of light.
Hadassah wants to save and to use as little artificial light as possible.
A little knob allows the patient to adjust the blinds.

Instead of the present 4-5 patients per room in the old hospital, the new tower's rooms will be for only 1 or 2 people.

Nathan Margolin, the engineer who guided us, said the planners wanted to make all the windows un-openable.
But there was opposition. (I, for one, would hate to sleep in a sealed room.)
So they compromised: each room will have one or two very small windows that can be opened.
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The nursing stations and doctors' offices are toward the inside of the building, while all the patient rooms face the outside.
I think looking out over the green valley and the terraced and forested hills is healing in itself.
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