Co Tyrone student ramps up roll-out of unique windows in Ukraine as temperatures drop

Harry Blakiston Houston founded the NGO Insulate Ukraine after developing a design for shatterproof windows with insulating benefits, which can be put together in 15 minutes and cost only $15 (around £12).

Since visiting eastern Ukraine in January 2023 to test his design, over 10,000 windows have been installed, allowing 3,000 civilians to return to their homes.

But with winter drawing in and temperatures dropping to below freezing - reaching minus 12 in certain areas - Harry has ambitious plans to scale up his project and install 50,000 windows by March 2024.

Calling for support Harry said: “Giving to this project at this time will make a huge difference to helping people stay warm and safe this Christmas. You are giving people somewhere they can live and they don’t have that at the minute.

“Russia is waging war using the weather as a weapon.”

The simple design involves four sheets of recycled polythene plastic stretched around a PVC piping frame. Speaking about the design and assembly process, Harry said it is “as simple as wrapping Christmas presents”.

“Simplicity was built into the design. We wanted something that was really simple, because what we do is we teach a local team, then we establish an operation and support them in delivering that operation really well.”

Harry said that Insulate Ukraine oversees the wider operation of the project, including securing funding and materials, but “the real grind, the day-to day-work” is carried out by Ukrainians on the ground.

The 27-year-old began his work in Izyum, a town which was captured by Russian forces in April 2022 and was eventually freed from occupation in September of that year.

The surviving inhabitants of Izyum were using carpet, sandbags, OSB boards and plastic to keep out the cold. But, as Harry discovered, these did almost nothing.

He installed his first window and came back later to see if it had made any difference to the inside temperature of the home. Harry recorded a temperature spike of 12C in the space of eight hours.

Speaking about his first visit to Ukraine, Harry said: “You go there to these areas and it just hits home. Every single building has a bullet hole, every single building has marks of fire and marks of war and every single building has shattered windows.

“And it always strikes me when I am in these villages because a lot of them are about the same size as my village in Northern Ireland and they have just been totally razed to the ground.”

Harry grew up in the small village of Gortin in Co Tyrone, which is around 10 miles north of Omagh.

He added: “It's one of the most shocking things. But the most surprising thing which provides a huge amount of hope and is quite extraordinary is the resilience of the locals – even in these scenarios – to continue living.”

Harry paused his PhD at Cambridge in order to take up his work with Insulate Ukraine full time, adding that he “suspects that life has sailed past” him as he focuses on scaling up the project.

“We’ve done a lot of windows so far but we want to spread the windows right across the active firing zone, which is where they will have the most impact because they are shatter resistant,” he said.