<story><title>India&apos;s lattice buildings cool without air con</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220920-how-indias-lattice-buildings-cool-without-air-con</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spaceman_2020</author><text>Modern Indian housing in major Indian cities has done a complete 180 from these tried-and-tested architectural practices. The materials used seem to be deliberately chosen to maximize human misery. There&amp;#x27;s glass everywhere which, besides being impossible to keep clean in India&amp;#x27;s dusty summers, also retains heat and makes most housing unbearable without AC.&lt;p&gt;Then there are the designs themselves. Faux wood is everywhere, as are laser-carved patterns that collect dust. Spaces are designed to maximize square footage, ventillation and sunlight be damned.&lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;builder floors&amp;quot; that dot cities like Delhi are an exercise in public ugliness and bad design.&lt;p&gt;Edit: An example of the kind of housing I&amp;#x27;m talking about. Superficially &amp;quot;modern&amp;quot;, but absolutely the wrong design for Indian weather:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;newprojects.99acres.com&amp;#x2F;projects&amp;#x2F;findahouse&amp;#x2F;findahouse_grandeur_builder_floors&amp;#x2F;images&amp;#x2F;l44oozuc_large.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;newprojects.99acres.com&amp;#x2F;projects&amp;#x2F;findahouse&amp;#x2F;findahou...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>michael1999</author><text>Canada makes similar mistakes.  People imitate California designs in a Canadian climate and then find that the building is uncomfortable, and expensive to heat and cool.  In many cases, builders will actually reuse complete designs without modification.  Just madness.</text></comment>
<story><title>India&apos;s lattice buildings cool without air con</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220920-how-indias-lattice-buildings-cool-without-air-con</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>spaceman_2020</author><text>Modern Indian housing in major Indian cities has done a complete 180 from these tried-and-tested architectural practices. The materials used seem to be deliberately chosen to maximize human misery. There&amp;#x27;s glass everywhere which, besides being impossible to keep clean in India&amp;#x27;s dusty summers, also retains heat and makes most housing unbearable without AC.&lt;p&gt;Then there are the designs themselves. Faux wood is everywhere, as are laser-carved patterns that collect dust. Spaces are designed to maximize square footage, ventillation and sunlight be damned.&lt;p&gt;The &amp;quot;builder floors&amp;quot; that dot cities like Delhi are an exercise in public ugliness and bad design.&lt;p&gt;Edit: An example of the kind of housing I&amp;#x27;m talking about. Superficially &amp;quot;modern&amp;quot;, but absolutely the wrong design for Indian weather:&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;newprojects.99acres.com&amp;#x2F;projects&amp;#x2F;findahouse&amp;#x2F;findahouse_grandeur_builder_floors&amp;#x2F;images&amp;#x2F;l44oozuc_large.jpg&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;newprojects.99acres.com&amp;#x2F;projects&amp;#x2F;findahouse&amp;#x2F;findahou...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pembrook</author><text>In the example you give, there’s no way of knowing if it’s been properly designed for Indian climate per given budget constraints.&lt;p&gt;There appears to be windows on only 2 sides of the building, 1 of which is far enough inset to create significant shade.&lt;p&gt;Depending on what direction the building faces, this could in fact be optimal design for staying cool while still having windows.&lt;p&gt;Now, of course, the best design for staying cool would be an underground cave carved out of rock with no windows—-but is that really how we want to live?&lt;p&gt;There is no scalable home design that works without AC when temperatures regularly get to 100-120F with high humidity.</text></comment>