• Glowstick@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Make them better looking and push-button retractable from inside, and people will want them.

    EDIT

    At 16:40 he suggests high tech awnings that automatically unfurl and retract to provide the ideal amount of shade on each day of the year. Seems like a nearly perfect solution to me

    • evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      I haven’t watched the video yet, but vernacular architecture back in the day commonly set shading elements like awnings at the right height/angle such that during midday in the winter, sunlight would still directly go through windows and hit interior floors and walls. During summer, the angle of the sun would be high enough that direct sunlight could not reach windows.

      You can get pretty far with just those passive designs. There are tools to help you find the dimensions you’d need based on where you live without having to do any calculations yourself.

      • Glowstick@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        While that may be true, it doesn’t make people want them any more than they currently do. People want to have their full window view available whenever they want it. This means it needs to be retractable and extendable at the push of a button. And once you have that, it’s easy and helpful for it to also be automated

      • TheIllustrativeMan@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        This is the real reason they disappeared - awnings cost money and don’t increase square footage. That’s also why every modern building is a boring box.

        We didn’t forget about them, it’s still covered in architecture school. You can even make them look really cool. But they cost money, and that’s a hard barrier to cross.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        4 months ago

        You can buy them off the shelf and then put them up yourself. Of course then you have to calculate the amount of pain it’ll be to put them up and the fact that it’ll never be as good as getting it done by professional. Plus in my case they’ll be a lot less blood involved.

        10 grand does seem like a lot of money though. How large are your windows?

      • ladicius@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        Better quality of living (in the long run even living longer) and less energy consumption on the AC may change that calculation.