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One thing I noticed recently during the massive heatwave we had in southern Europe is how we forgot the most basic principles for building in hot climates. For

One thing I noticed recently during the massive heatwave we had in southern Europe is how we forgot the most basic principles for building in hot climates. For example, we enlarged windows and doors, to the point were, standing behind one that's been cooking in the sun for a couple of hours, you feel the radiant heat a meter away from it. All the older houses around the Mediterranean have smaller windows and doors, to limit the sun (and by extension the heat) from coming in. We've cut down so many trees in the cities and poured so much concrete that some places are radiating heat for hours after sundown, making the night a couple of degrees hotter than it should really be. Those are just a couple examples of poor architectural and city planning, but there are dozens of simple yet efficient techniques and tricks that we should reuse to make our cities more livable. Our ancestors didn't have all the new materials and knowledge we now have, but they were logical and lived with their environment.

renewiltord 3y ago
Exactly. Deforestation in the Amazon is dwarfed by the end of old forests in Europe. There's almost no fauna and flora in Europe: all destroyed in the name of industrialization and civilization. Recent small-scale reforestation is touted as healing, but one might as well lay a bandaid on an amputated arm.
- KptMarchewa 3y ago
  This might fit the UK or Netherlands, but not overall Europe.
  - foota 3y ago
    This article provides a fairly in depth coverage: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18646-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18646-7 Tldr forest coverage peaked 8k years ago, stayed more or less there till Romans, went down some couple dozen percent, paused after the Romans, then was decimated (heh) in the medieval era and modern times before now starting to recover.
    - KptMarchewa 3y ago
      I'm not disputing that forest coverage dropped significantly; "There's almost no fauna and flora in Europe" is very untrue though.
- IMTDb 3y ago
  Forest resources in the EU expanded significantly over the past 70 years. From 1950 to 2020, there has been an increase in forest area (+37%) Source: https://efi.int/forestquestions/q15#:~:text=Forest%20resources%20in%20the%20EU%20expanded%20significantly%20over%20the%20past,wood%20production%20(%2B87%25) https://efi.int/forestquestions/q15#:~:text=Forest%20resourc....
  - fuzztester 3y ago
    But is it with monoculture? Seen some HN comments about that recently.
    - notjoemama 3y ago
      Maybe, but…presentism? Europe could do what the US has done and declared so much land federally protected that growth is stifled and property rises to a level that prevents the young from buying it. Although that’s a different topic…
      - TylerE 3y ago
        The land that is federally protected is generally not exactly sites so as to make for prime housing. Most of it, by area, is in places like northern Alaska.
      - acdha 3y ago
        That’s a problem but it has nothing to do with protected park land. Much of it was driven by racism: white people started leaving cities following civil rights era losses and sprawling out into adjacent suburbs, which were often forced to be low-density to exclude poorer people. That locks in a hefty climate footprint with all of that driving and larger low-efficiency houses.
  - latch 3y ago
    The loss of forest resources in Europe over the last 10000 years, and in particular the last 5000 years (largely due to human activity) dwarfs any recent gains (1). (1) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18646-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18646-7
- jackvalentine 3y ago
  I came across this post yesterday that describes the issue in the context of Australia well. https://aus.social/@morachbeag/110959467825393289 https://aus.social/@morachbeag/110959467825393289
- jahewson 3y ago
  Europe was deforested long before industrialization.
throw0101b 3y ago
> For example, we enlarged windows and doors, to the point were, standing behind one that's been cooking in the sun for a couple of hours, you feel the radiant heat a meter away from it. Or perhaps get windows with low-emissivity ("low-e") coatings that block certain wavelengths of light: * https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/E-coating https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/E-coating * https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/window-types-and-technologies https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/window-types-and-technolo... * https://www.nachi.org/low-e-windows.htm https://www.nachi.org/low-e-windows.htm
mrtksn 3y ago
>For example, we enlarged windows and doors, to the point were, standing behind one that's been cooking in the sun for a couple of hours, you feel the radiant heat a meter away from it. There are window films that can block most of the light in frequencies which carries the energy and let the light from visible spectrum in, barely dimming the brightness and almost doesn't change the color. I recently installed such a filter, I'm amazed everyday how the hot bright sun is so tamed once inside the house. Sometimes I open a window to let the full spectrum in just so I can put my feet on the spot of the unfiltered light and then on the filtered one and compare how hot it gets where the sun shines in full power and can barely heat once filtered. It feels like magic, like a winter sun that is bright but doesn't heat. The filter itself heats up like crazy, it even gets too hot to touch but heat transfer by convection doesn't do much. My grandma lives in an old house built with thick stone walls with tiny windows. It stays naturally cool but I really like large windows. IMHO, the humanity has advanced enough to have large windows and still keep it cool. It's also good for the mood, some people like me really really like the sun and even the heat up to a point.
- throwaw1yyy 3y ago
  Mind sending a link to the film you purchased? I have a large hot window I’ve been thinking of doing this to
  - mrtksn 3y ago
    The particular one I bought is this one: https://dropovercl.s3.amazonaws.com/21fa0b29-7858-4233-b895-d4fc324fe385/f26dfb32-12e0-4087-b50f-edef2dcc9be1/2e1fc9f4-f5c4-4a64-85be-dee3d24a6ae2.png https://dropovercl.s3.amazonaws.com/21fa0b29-7858-4233-b895-... It doesn't seem to be a real brand, Bauhaus sells it and its made in Taiwan. I'm sure there are similar or better films out there.
  - tguvot 3y ago
    proper architectural films with published specs (uv/ir rejection ratios, etc), not sold retail. at least i failed to find them
- 3y ago
jongjong 3y ago
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.
deanCommie 3y ago
> We've cut down so many trees in the cities and poured so much concrete that some places are radiating heat for hours after sundown, making the night a couple of degrees hotter than it should really be. This one drives me absolutely bonkers because it's so clearly a CULTURAL CHOICE. Some places (Netherlands, Germany), make an effort to plant trees on streets, and frequent small parks and lawns. But France doesn't - Paris being the worst. I don't know how Parisians own dogs. I find I have to walk for blocks to find a strip of grass for my pooch to go. Seems like they choose to just eradicate nature everywhere instead. Japan is like this too inside the cities! Note: I understand that both have massive beautiful green PARKS. But I'm referring to small patches of nature or grass between those, on neighborhoods, trees on side streets, etc.
temporallobe 3y ago
I’ve lived in Europe (Balkans) and have family there as well. Some of them still don’t have AC but their houses are still pretty cool in the summers because homes there are mostly made with thick clay brick blocks AND they have “roletne” (we have no equivalent in the US, but they are built-in rolling shutters that can completely darken a room), and as long as those are kept closed during the day, the temperature stays tolerable. However, in recent years some have broken down and installed those high-efficiency in-wall units because the temperatures have been higher (at least that is the perception). I literally don’t know anyone over there with central AC and most are surprised to hear that many homes have them in the US.
- thiht 3y ago
  > we have no equivalent in the US, but they are built-in rolling shutters that can completely darken a room I'm always amazed the US doesn't have these. It's not exactly "peak" technology (I've had these my whole life) and so freaking useful. Having no AC, they're like the only reason I can keep my apartment cool during the summer. I know it because I didn't have them 2 summers ago and I almost ended up buying an AC. This summer I didn't even use my fan because I could keep my house cool.

renewiltord 3y ago

Exactly. Deforestation in the Amazon is dwarfed by the end of old forests in Europe. There's almost no fauna and flora in Europe: all destroyed in the name of industrialization and civilization. Recent small-scale reforestation is touted as healing, but one might as well lay a bandaid on an amputated arm.

KptMarchewa 3y ago
This might fit the UK or Netherlands, but not overall Europe.
- foota 3y ago
  This article provides a fairly in depth coverage: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18646-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18646-7 Tldr forest coverage peaked 8k years ago, stayed more or less there till Romans, went down some couple dozen percent, paused after the Romans, then was decimated (heh) in the medieval era and modern times before now starting to recover.
  - KptMarchewa 3y ago
    I'm not disputing that forest coverage dropped significantly; "There's almost no fauna and flora in Europe" is very untrue though.
IMTDb 3y ago
Forest resources in the EU expanded significantly over the past 70 years. From 1950 to 2020, there has been an increase in forest area (+37%) Source: https://efi.int/forestquestions/q15#:~:text=Forest%20resources%20in%20the%20EU%20expanded%20significantly%20over%20the%20past,wood%20production%20(%2B87%25) https://efi.int/forestquestions/q15#:~:text=Forest%20resourc....
- fuzztester 3y ago
  But is it with monoculture? Seen some HN comments about that recently.
  - notjoemama 3y ago
    Maybe, but…presentism? Europe could do what the US has done and declared so much land federally protected that growth is stifled and property rises to a level that prevents the young from buying it. Although that’s a different topic…
    - TylerE 3y ago
      The land that is federally protected is generally not exactly sites so as to make for prime housing. Most of it, by area, is in places like northern Alaska.
    - acdha 3y ago
      That’s a problem but it has nothing to do with protected park land. Much of it was driven by racism: white people started leaving cities following civil rights era losses and sprawling out into adjacent suburbs, which were often forced to be low-density to exclude poorer people. That locks in a hefty climate footprint with all of that driving and larger low-efficiency houses.
- latch 3y ago
  The loss of forest resources in Europe over the last 10000 years, and in particular the last 5000 years (largely due to human activity) dwarfs any recent gains (1). (1) https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18646-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-18646-7
jackvalentine 3y ago
I came across this post yesterday that describes the issue in the context of Australia well. https://aus.social/@morachbeag/110959467825393289 https://aus.social/@morachbeag/110959467825393289
jahewson 3y ago
Europe was deforested long before industrialization.

throw0101b 3y ago

> For example, we enlarged windows and doors, to the point were, standing behind one that's been cooking in the sun for a couple of hours, you feel the radiant heat a meter away from it. Or perhaps get windows with low-emissivity ("low-e") coatings that block certain wavelengths of light: * https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/E-coating https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/E-coating * https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/window-types-and-technologies https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/window-types-and-technolo... * https://www.nachi.org/low-e-windows.htm https://www.nachi.org/low-e-windows.htm

mrtksn 3y ago

>For example, we enlarged windows and doors, to the point were, standing behind one that's been cooking in the sun for a couple of hours, you feel the radiant heat a meter away from it. There are window films that can block most of the light in frequencies which carries the energy and let the light from visible spectrum in, barely dimming the brightness and almost doesn't change the color. I recently installed such a filter, I'm amazed everyday how the hot bright sun is so tamed once inside the house. Sometimes I open a window to let the full spectrum in just so I can put my feet on the spot of the unfiltered light and then on the filtered one and compare how hot it gets where the sun shines in full power and can barely heat once filtered. It feels like magic, like a winter sun that is bright but doesn't heat. The filter itself heats up like crazy, it even gets too hot to touch but heat transfer by convection doesn't do much. My grandma lives in an old house built with thick stone walls with tiny windows. It stays naturally cool but I really like large windows. IMHO, the humanity has advanced enough to have large windows and still keep it cool. It's also good for the mood, some people like me really really like the sun and even the heat up to a point.

throwaw1yyy 3y ago
Mind sending a link to the film you purchased? I have a large hot window I’ve been thinking of doing this to
- mrtksn 3y ago
  The particular one I bought is this one: https://dropovercl.s3.amazonaws.com/21fa0b29-7858-4233-b895-d4fc324fe385/f26dfb32-12e0-4087-b50f-edef2dcc9be1/2e1fc9f4-f5c4-4a64-85be-dee3d24a6ae2.png https://dropovercl.s3.amazonaws.com/21fa0b29-7858-4233-b895-... It doesn't seem to be a real brand, Bauhaus sells it and its made in Taiwan. I'm sure there are similar or better films out there.
- tguvot 3y ago
  proper architectural films with published specs (uv/ir rejection ratios, etc), not sold retail. at least i failed to find them
3y ago

jongjong 3y ago

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.

deanCommie 3y ago

> We've cut down so many trees in the cities and poured so much concrete that some places are radiating heat for hours after sundown, making the night a couple of degrees hotter than it should really be. This one drives me absolutely bonkers because it's so clearly a CULTURAL CHOICE. Some places (Netherlands, Germany), make an effort to plant trees on streets, and frequent small parks and lawns. But France doesn't - Paris being the worst. I don't know how Parisians own dogs. I find I have to walk for blocks to find a strip of grass for my pooch to go. Seems like they choose to just eradicate nature everywhere instead. Japan is like this too inside the cities! Note: I understand that both have massive beautiful green PARKS. But I'm referring to small patches of nature or grass between those, on neighborhoods, trees on side streets, etc.

temporallobe 3y ago

I’ve lived in Europe (Balkans) and have family there as well. Some of them still don’t have AC but their houses are still pretty cool in the summers because homes there are mostly made with thick clay brick blocks AND they have “roletne” (we have no equivalent in the US, but they are built-in rolling shutters that can completely darken a room), and as long as those are kept closed during the day, the temperature stays tolerable. However, in recent years some have broken down and installed those high-efficiency in-wall units because the temperatures have been higher (at least that is the perception). I literally don’t know anyone over there with central AC and most are surprised to hear that many homes have them in the US.

thiht 3y ago
> we have no equivalent in the US, but they are built-in rolling shutters that can completely darken a room I'm always amazed the US doesn't have these. It's not exactly "peak" technology (I've had these my whole life) and so freaking useful. Having no AC, they're like the only reason I can keep my apartment cool during the summer. I know it because I didn't have them 2 summers ago and I almost ended up buying an AC. This summer I didn't even use my fan because I could keep my house cool.