[jongjong]

In Australia, we have the opposite problem; houses are optimized for hot weather and are often too cold during the winter. Houses such as Queenslanders are designed to let air easily flow through the house and they are built on stilts which creates a cool area underneath the house; some houses even have gaps or holes in the flooring near some of the walls (e.g. for cabling; they don't bother sealing them). They often lack proper wall and floor insulation. Works great during the summer though.

I suspect it's difficult to build houses that are good in all weathers. I think the most adaptable I've seen was in Malta; they have relatively cold winters and sometimes very hot summers. Many apartments are narrow/deep and the areas exposed to the outside have big windows/doors at the front and back (leading to balconies) with one side usually facing the sea breeze. Because they're narrow, they don't have much surface area exposed to the outside which provides great insulation during the winter - For the summer, you keep cool by opening the windows on both sides so the wind flows through the whole apartment. It's also fine in terms of natural light; for modern apartments, the entire external wall may be glass so at least the living room gets plenty of sunlight. Bedrooms are a bit darker but that's usually a good thing; especially since many people like to sleep in on weekends.

In other parts of Europe (e.g. Berlin) they more typically have some apartments facing the outside and others facing an internal courtyard. They don't let the wind flow through and each person has a different experience.