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by mr_overalls
1767 days ago
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The final comments on "AC architecture" are quite interesting. In my childhood home, the American South, pre-1950's housing is highly optimized for cooling. High ceilings, transoms, pier foundations, tin roofs, etc. When Hurricane Katrina hit and left us without power for two weeks in the summer, sleeping in our normally comfortable home was nearly unbearable, even with every window open. The house simply was not designed for facilitating passive air flow. My friends, who lived in a rather dumpy 19th century "dogtrot" farm house, reported sleeping in relative comfort. https://www.southernliving.com/home/dog-trot-house |
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High ceilings - absolutely. Warm air goes up, can it get simpler than that? Primary/Elementary school physics.
If you watch some videos on lost African civilizations and traditional architecture, it's full of them (and curtains rather than doors). Some examples are Basil Davidson's "Africa" serries (on youtube, if you don't mind low quality) and I think Stefan Milo on his channel, the video about coral cities ("Swahili Culture").
Interesting experience with Katrina. You could call it having a house that "fails gracefully" and doesn't rely completely on any one system.
There are downsides to modern, well-isolated houses. When air is the primary medium of heating your house, opening a window means almost literally letting money out. Aside from crap like emissions from furniture (I believe they're called VOC - not a native speaker), dust, bacteria and fungal spores pile up. People develop allergy and respiration-related diseases more easily.