4 ms·

Houses - and especially high rise developments - are increasingly built according to global fashions or individualistic whims, divorced from regional styles whi

Houses - and especially high rise developments - are increasingly built according to global fashions or individualistic whims, divorced from regional styles which evolved with the local climate and available materials.

DoreenMichele 5y ago
regional styles which evolved with the local climate and available materials. That's often called vernacular architecture and it typically innately includes elements of passive solar design. Such building styles were well-suited to local climate with a minimum of energy-intensive cooling or heating because people simply couldn't afford it. Additionally, we had cultural practices rooted in staying adequately warm or cool without counting on an HVAC system: Tapestries on castle walls blocked drafts and provided insulation. A "three dog night" was a night so cold, the upper classes let three of their large hunting dogs sleep with them to stay warm. Siestas were naps taken during the hottest part of the day in place of working in the heat. Buildings routinely had windows positioned to create a cross breeze if you opened them. Windows routinely were positioned to provide adequate light for essential tasks without having to turn on any lights during the day. Etc. Now we build some awful little cardboard box and slap an HVAC system on it as if tech makes up for bad design. It doesn't.
- viraptor 5y ago
  > Now we build some awful little cardboard box and slap an HVAC system on it as if tech makes up for bad design. This is really infuriating. I lived in a small town which was full of houses built decades ago for workers building hydro plant close by. They were supposed to be temporary and really deserve to be knocked down these days. But they still function... with multiple split system ACs heating them up. Even if they're money/energy sinks, people don't have enough savings to invest in a more efficient rebuild.
  - DoreenMichele 5y ago
    Even if they're money/energy sinks, people don't have enough savings to invest in a more efficient rebuild. Poverty is always expensive. That's what keeps people trapped in it. If it were cheap to be poor, it wouldn't be poverty. It's the fact that you get bled for your time, money, energy and anything else you've got that makes people poor.
    - exporectomy 5y ago
      Sometimes, yes, but not generally. I know people who can't help themselves from spending whatever money they've got on random short term pleasures. Even when they receive a windfall, it's quickly gone with nothing to show for it. They certainly don't invest in a more energy efficient house or even bulk buy household items or other boring money-saving things when they have the opportunity. There's ways of thinking and behaving that make people get poor and stay poor. That's not even a bad thing. Some of these people seem quite happy. They're not trying to be rich.
      - DoreenMichele 5y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19585789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19585789
      - viraptor 5y ago
        What Doreen linked 100%, but also - you need to actually know how to save in a long term. If you didn't get that daily-things-that-improve-your-position continuous education as you grow up, it's not necessarily trivial to continuously apply when you get older. I've seen people do really stupid things because they were not aware of better ways which were obvious to me. (And I bet I did some stupid things which are obviously stupid to you) I'm thinking here of "skills to survive on minimal pay" being very different from "skills of long-term financial management".
        exporectomy 5y ago
        There are certainly all sorts of reasons for poverty, but I'm just pointing out that poor people aren't always poor because they're trapped in a vicious cycle. Sometimes they're impulsive or don't have a way of thinking about the future. Also that that way of life seems to be quite enjoyable. It may be not something that needs fixing. Who says accumulating wealth is the most important goal in life? One such person I know had a good upbringing with proper education and professional caring parents and all that but can't hold onto money. It's not about lack of opportunities but maybe mental illness or far-from-normal personality or somehow just doesn't care about long term planning.
atatatat 5y ago
Is this why household mold is on an epidemic level rise?
- scruple 5y ago
  Do you have a source for that?
  - atatatat 5y ago
    Not handy, struggling to find. Saw a somewhat authoritative article about it recently.
    - scruple 5y ago
      Total tangent, but I've been struggling with in-home humidity recently so household mold has been a nagging concern in the back of my mind. I'll try searching around a bit, too. Anecdotally, quite a few people in my friend group are also dealing with high (> 70%) relative humidity in their homes, so it'd be interesting to find out there's a broader trend happening.
fy20 5y ago
Well in a way houses are still built for the local climate, but the local climate has abundant cheap energy. Building houses to be better insulated and able to tolerate extreme temperature events with just minor discomfort is possible[0], but it is also more expensive. If you spend $50,000 more to insulate a house to tolerate this, and it reduces the energy costs by $1,200/year, then financially it's not worth it [1]. Of course for the environment that's a big difference, but capitalism :-) [0] I live in Northern Europe, in a house built to our pretty strict building standards, and we don't even turn on the heating until it goes below freezing outside. Yesterday we had highs of 32C (90F) - which is hot for here - and I was out so the AC was off. When I came home in the afternoon, our living room which directly faces south and has no shade other than decorative blinds was... 25C (77F). [1] Average stock market returns over the last century are around 10% per year. Even if you conservatively half that, it still doesn't work out.
- wcoenen 5y ago
  There have been 10 year periods with negative inflation-adjusted annualized return. E.g. for the S&P500 it was -3.4%/year in the 2000's and -1.4%/year in the 1970's [1]. That makes any investments with a guaranteed long term benefit look better. [1] See table at bottom of http://www.simplestockinvesting.com/SP500-historical-real-total-returns.htm http://www.simplestockinvesting.com/SP500-historical-real-to...

DoreenMichele 5y ago

regional styles which evolved with the local climate and available materials. That's often called vernacular architecture and it typically innately includes elements of passive solar design. Such building styles were well-suited to local climate with a minimum of energy-intensive cooling or heating because people simply couldn't afford it. Additionally, we had cultural practices rooted in staying adequately warm or cool without counting on an HVAC system: Tapestries on castle walls blocked drafts and provided insulation. A "three dog night" was a night so cold, the upper classes let three of their large hunting dogs sleep with them to stay warm. Siestas were naps taken during the hottest part of the day in place of working in the heat. Buildings routinely had windows positioned to create a cross breeze if you opened them. Windows routinely were positioned to provide adequate light for essential tasks without having to turn on any lights during the day. Etc. Now we build some awful little cardboard box and slap an HVAC system on it as if tech makes up for bad design. It doesn't.

viraptor 5y ago
> Now we build some awful little cardboard box and slap an HVAC system on it as if tech makes up for bad design. This is really infuriating. I lived in a small town which was full of houses built decades ago for workers building hydro plant close by. They were supposed to be temporary and really deserve to be knocked down these days. But they still function... with multiple split system ACs heating them up. Even if they're money/energy sinks, people don't have enough savings to invest in a more efficient rebuild.
- DoreenMichele 5y ago
  Even if they're money/energy sinks, people don't have enough savings to invest in a more efficient rebuild. Poverty is always expensive. That's what keeps people trapped in it. If it were cheap to be poor, it wouldn't be poverty. It's the fact that you get bled for your time, money, energy and anything else you've got that makes people poor.
  - exporectomy 5y ago
    Sometimes, yes, but not generally. I know people who can't help themselves from spending whatever money they've got on random short term pleasures. Even when they receive a windfall, it's quickly gone with nothing to show for it. They certainly don't invest in a more energy efficient house or even bulk buy household items or other boring money-saving things when they have the opportunity. There's ways of thinking and behaving that make people get poor and stay poor. That's not even a bad thing. Some of these people seem quite happy. They're not trying to be rich.
    - DoreenMichele 5y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19585789 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19585789
    - viraptor 5y ago
      What Doreen linked 100%, but also - you need to actually know how to save in a long term. If you didn't get that daily-things-that-improve-your-position continuous education as you grow up, it's not necessarily trivial to continuously apply when you get older. I've seen people do really stupid things because they were not aware of better ways which were obvious to me. (And I bet I did some stupid things which are obviously stupid to you) I'm thinking here of "skills to survive on minimal pay" being very different from "skills of long-term financial management".
      - exporectomy 5y ago
        There are certainly all sorts of reasons for poverty, but I'm just pointing out that poor people aren't always poor because they're trapped in a vicious cycle. Sometimes they're impulsive or don't have a way of thinking about the future. Also that that way of life seems to be quite enjoyable. It may be not something that needs fixing. Who says accumulating wealth is the most important goal in life? One such person I know had a good upbringing with proper education and professional caring parents and all that but can't hold onto money. It's not about lack of opportunities but maybe mental illness or far-from-normal personality or somehow just doesn't care about long term planning.

atatatat 5y ago

Is this why household mold is on an epidemic level rise?

scruple 5y ago
Do you have a source for that?
- atatatat 5y ago
  Not handy, struggling to find. Saw a somewhat authoritative article about it recently.
  - scruple 5y ago
    Total tangent, but I've been struggling with in-home humidity recently so household mold has been a nagging concern in the back of my mind. I'll try searching around a bit, too. Anecdotally, quite a few people in my friend group are also dealing with high (> 70%) relative humidity in their homes, so it'd be interesting to find out there's a broader trend happening.

fy20 5y ago

Well in a way houses are still built for the local climate, but the local climate has abundant cheap energy. Building houses to be better insulated and able to tolerate extreme temperature events with just minor discomfort is possible[0], but it is also more expensive. If you spend $50,000 more to insulate a house to tolerate this, and it reduces the energy costs by $1,200/year, then financially it's not worth it [1]. Of course for the environment that's a big difference, but capitalism :-) [0] I live in Northern Europe, in a house built to our pretty strict building standards, and we don't even turn on the heating until it goes below freezing outside. Yesterday we had highs of 32C (90F) - which is hot for here - and I was out so the AC was off. When I came home in the afternoon, our living room which directly faces south and has no shade other than decorative blinds was... 25C (77F). [1] Average stock market returns over the last century are around 10% per year. Even if you conservatively half that, it still doesn't work out.

wcoenen 5y ago
There have been 10 year periods with negative inflation-adjusted annualized return. E.g. for the S&P500 it was -3.4%/year in the 2000's and -1.4%/year in the 1970's [1]. That makes any investments with a guaranteed long term benefit look better. [1] See table at bottom of http://www.simplestockinvesting.com/SP500-historical-real-total-returns.htm http://www.simplestockinvesting.com/SP500-historical-real-to...