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Comment by saljam | Hacker News Reader

What's particularly sad is how the vernacular architectural features, which have evolved over thousands of years to deal with these issues, have been largely abandoned over the 20th century. Only to be replaced by ugly concrete buildings and AC units. These include the Malqafs[1] (windcatchers) once found all over Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia. Also the use of underground streams[2] to cool buildings. And generally not building huge south-facing glass windows when you live in a place that reaches 45°C in the summer...

Also, a personal architect-hero of mine is Hassan Fathy[3]. This man inspired generations of environment-friendly architects.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_tower [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanat#Cooling [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hassan_Fathy

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It's sadly part of a growing faddishness with "Western" technology and developments. I find it quite sad because the local solutions are often quite elegant.

In Korea for example, they have clever traditional windows that open like normal windows, but also draw up completely and hang from the ceiling, turning your house or other structure into a pavilion. Large roofs provide lots of shade.

In the winter, you literally light a fire under the floor of the building and radiant heat warms the entire structure.

Some of these things carried over into the modern age, but many sadly did not. They're remarkably comfortable and energy efficient dwellings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ21SchGpsQ

> In the winter, you literally light a fire under the floor of the building and radiant heat warms the entire structure.

Yeah, and occasionally die of carbon monoxide poisoning.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22948168

Thomas Jefferson designed his bedroom with ventilation in mind.[1]

[1] http://www.monticello.org/site/house-and-gardens/bedchamber

Is it realistic that you could find an underground stream wherever you want? Around 20 million people live in Mumbai. I'm just not sure it would work on that scale with tall residential buildings, as awesome as it is.

These tunnels were man-made. But yeah, obviously the scale these worked at was more towards villages and small towns.

> And generally not building huge south-facing glass windows when you live in a place that reaches 45°C in the summer...

People love south-facing rooms with giant glass walls in Japan. I asked several people about it and the most common (sensical) response that I got was that it makes it much easier to do laundry since people hang things out to dry.

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