How Heat Shaped the World’s Buildings Long Before Air Conditioning

How Heat Shaped the World’s Buildings Long Before Air Conditioning

A thick wall can feel like a machine with no moving parts. Step from a blazing street into an old stone house, and the air changes at once. That small shock of comfort explains a big idea: heat has shaped buildings as powerfully as style, religion, or wealth.Architecture is often discussed in terms of beauty, status, or engineering. But one of its oldest jobs is simple survival. Long before air conditioning, people had to figure out how to live,…