“Most houses grossly violate the basic principles of natural summer cooling and sound winter heating.”

—  Ken Kern

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

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Ken Kern photo
Ken Kern 48
American writer

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Ken Kern American writer

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“Perhaps the wind
Wails so in winter for the summers dead,
And all sad sounds are nature's funeral cries
For what has been and is not.”

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The Spanish Gypsy (1868)

“The Arab's tent… actually consists of two separate tents. The outer tent is white and acts as a heat-reflective layer. The lower-inner tent additionally protects… by providing a blanket of moving air between the two tent layers. …this tent system also illustrates the two, most basic principles of summer cooling: reflective insulation and ventilation. …One system must supplement and reinforce the other.”

Ken Kern American writer

The Owner Built Home: A How-to-do-it Book (1972)

“What is the purpose of houses? It is to protect us from the wind and cold of winter, the heat and rain of summer, and to keep out robbers and thieves. Once these ends have been secured, that is all. Whatever does not contribute to these ends should be eliminated.”

Mozi (-470–-391 BC) Chinese political philosopher and religious reformer of the Warring States period

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Ch 20, as quoted in Van Norden, Bryan W. (2011). Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy. Hackett Publishing. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-60384-468-0.
Mozi

Thomas Young (scientist) photo

“In the astronomical and physical division of the work, will be found a general rule for determining the correction on account of aberration; a comparison of observations on the; formulae for finding the heat of summer and winter; remarks on the theory of the winds; and a comparative table of all the mechanical properties of a variety of natural bodies.”

Thomas Young (scientist) (1773–1829) English polymath

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A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and the Mechanical Arts (1807)

Vitruvius photo

“The Phrygians… select a natural hillock, run a trench through the middle of it, dig passages, and extend the interior space as widely as the site admits. Over it they build a pyramidal roof of logs fastened together, and this they cover with reeds and brushwood, heaping up very high mounds of earth above their dwellings. Thus their fashion in houses makes their winters very warm and their summers very cool.”

Vitruvius book De architectura

Source: De architectura (The Ten Books On Architecture) (~ 15BC), Book II, Chapter I, Sec. 5

Xenophon photo

“If the campaign is in summer the general must show himself greedy for his share of the sun and the heat, and in winter for the cold and the frost, and in all labours for toil and fatigue. This will help to make him beloved of his followers.”

Xenophon book Cyropaedia

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Cyropaedia, 4th Century BC

John Dalton photo

“Philosophers are generally persuaded, that the sensations of heat and cold are occasioned by the presence or absence, in degree, of certain principle or quality denominated fire or heat… It is most probable, that all substances whatever contain more or less of this principle. Respecting the nature of the principle, however, there is a diversity of sentiment : some supposing it a substance, others a quality, or property of substance. Boerhaave, followed by most of the moderns, is of the former opinion; Newton, with some others, are of the latter; these conceive heat to consist in an internal vibratory motion of the particles of bodies.”

John Dalton (1766–1844) English chemist, meteorologist and physicist

Meteorological Observations and Essays: Mit Tabellen, 1834 p. 18

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