Cob: alternatives to inside doors

[Darel Henman]

Michael,
  here are a couple of pictures with sliding doors.

  This first one shows how a large rectangual space can be divided up
into three seperate spaces.  You can see the sliding track door channels
in the floor.  There are four sliding doors to cover the entire
expanse.  Any one or more of them can be slid left or right.  The
sliding doors are very light and about 3/4 inch thick and can also
easily be all taken off the track and placed somewhere till time to put
them back.  In this picture they are decorated with a picturre, but most
are just left a natural paper color.

http://www.aurora.dti.ne.jp/~nakano-h/gosyo1.jpg

The picture below shows how a little nook or sleeping area can be
completely opened up by sliding three sliding partitions to the right. 
You can see a handle on the outer most door.  Make to fit exactly into
the area on the right.

http://www.homepro.co.jp/palette/kenchiku/jirei/img/large/reformscene0702_l.jpg


Then there is Robert A. Heinline's idea of a door that irises out.  But
this would be too difficult in my opinion and require power and require
an internal storage area for parts to be stored which in turn bugs and
pests like to use as a hideaway.

I have seen a circular door which looked very nice, in the movie "The
lord of the rings" in the first part in the houses built under hills
with grass roofs.  This requires that space in it's swing path can not
be used to place furniture if you want to open the door all the way.

Other simple ideas for room seperators are:  hanging curtains or bead.

Here's an example of a hanging cloth type seperator that doesn't go all
the way to the ground/floor
http://www.kanku-city.or.jp/~shimura/images/noren.gif
and also this one:  http://kimonoya.net/pages/noren1/usagi03.html
and also  http://www.aizome.co.jp/image/norendai-s.jpg  and 
http://www.aizome.co.jp/image/norentyuu-s.jpg


Hopefully this will give you some more ideas.

Darel


Michael Bowen wrote:
> 
> I was wondering what your ideas might be on alternative doors for the inside
> of a house. I am not interested in normal doors and am hoping that you all
> might have some good ideas. If you have pics please forward.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Michael