Until recently, civilization was humming along just fine without this costly convenience—and going back might not be as impossible as we think.
Oh man, I know this too well. In general though, men's and women's clothes really are very different. Aside from the obvious, women's clothes tend to be made of thinner materials designed less for heat retention than for style or softness. I worked in an office where most of the women wear skirts and open toed shoes and most of the men wear long sleeves, slacks and ties, disputes over the air conditioning were a common issue. In my own space, I try not to use air conditioning. Changing the filters is kind of a pain and I don't like sleeping in cooled air pulled through dirty filters. Also, I'm really thrifty.“We are probably overcooling our office buildings by 4 to 6 [degrees] F just so that office workers, particularly the males, can wear their business suits,” wrote Richard de Dear, who is head of architectural design science at the University of Sydney and a researcher on thermal comfort.
air conditioning is one of the things i hate the most about modern society. it's not something one can easily change on their own, especially considering people spend a lot of time in rooms owned by their employers, who set the thermostat as they see fit. if you try to change your own AC use you'll either be too warm at home or too cold everywhere else. it has to change on a societal level to work properly.
I don't dislike air conditioning; I dislike our dependence on it. I just don't get why architects will use the same design for a building in the Southwest and a building in the Northeast. We have millennia worth of examples of how to design buildings for different climates, but we just build sealed masonry boxes and then blast the air conditioners in them instead. It's a waste of energy.air conditioning is one of the things i hate the most about modern society.
I suppose this is the proper way of saying it. I'm lazy with my specificity sometimes. Architecture isn't part of regional culture anymore. It wouldn't be unusual for the same architect to design a buildings in both locations, or even one building that's duplicated in both locations. When buildings are contracted, they are subject to the same nearsightedness as the rest of the economy: they pick something 'good enough' and cheap as possible. So that means cookie-cutter design.I don't dislike air conditioning; I dislike our dependence on it.
I just don't get why architects will use the same design for a building in the Southwest and a building in the Northeast.