Cambridge student designs plastic windows for war-torn Ukraine homes
The plastic windows are replacing bullet and bomb-damaged glass.
PhD engineer student Harry Blakiston Houston created the Insulate Ukraine project to bring light back into homes and insulate people from the cold.
Mr Houston said there was a woman in Mykolaiv, southern Ukraine, who had been sleeping in her bathtub for months because it was the warmest place in her house.
“We were able to get her back to some kind of normality after the windows went in,” he added.
“The house was immediately warmer and lighter – she was able to rearrange everything and actually live in her home again.”
The windows use polyethylene, a plastic often used in plastic bags and bottles, PVC piping, pipe insulation and duct tape, creating four layers of insulation.
The designs insulates better than double glazed windows.
Insulate Ukraine employs 14 locals, 9 in Izyum, eastern Ukraine, and 5 in Nikopol, southern Ukraine.
It has implemented windows in over 300 homes and raised a total of $60,000.
Residents are either given materials to build the windows themselves or staff and volunteers install them for them.
Staff member Helen Demchenko said new windows have been provided to more than 200 customers in Izyum.
Fedor Tikva, 64, from Izyum, said the windows have made his house liveable again.
He said: “It was very damp and cold there … all the windows were broken.
“I am happy now because after the installation of all the windows the house became more cosy and warmer and lighter … so we are cheering and saying hooray”.
Houston came up with the idea while queuing to see the late Queen lying in state last year.