Those who are recent inhabitants of the City of Miami don’t know what it was like to live here or in the Caribbean in the 1950’s or 60’s. My family used to come and vacation here in the 60’s. We had come from Cuba in 1961 and moved up north, but we came here once or twice a year on vacation.In the 50’s or in the early 60’s no one had central air-conditioning. Most people would have window or wall A/C units in their houses. And many houses did not have air-conditioning at all.
So how were houses designed then? Well, most houses were designed for good cross ventilation. They had either jalousie or awning windows. Either of these allowed the entire window to be opened for breezes to come through, as opposed to single-hung or horizontal sliding windows which only open half-way. Ceilings were high and often had ceiling fans. Although most houses had no insulation, between the high ceiling and cross ventilation the summer heat was bearable. In places like Cuba where there were always crosswinds from the ocean, the summers were even more pleasant.
I remember when I lived at the sorority house at Georgia Tech in Atlanta while going to architecture school, there was no air-conditioning in the house. We made due with a whole house extractor fan on the second floor, and honestly, most of the time, this took out most of the heat in the house, making the sorority house quite livable, even during Atlanta’s muggy summer days.
Another detail which good architects took into consideration was the orientation of the house and protection of the walls and windows. In our Southeast region of the US, the sun is almost never in the north except during some days in the winter. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west and goes a little to the south as it goes across the sky from east to west from sunrise to sunset. This means that the east, west, and south exposures of a house need overhangs. Windows on the west need to be avoided as western sun is the hottest of the day. In addition, the sun casts deep shadows. Being next to these windows is very uncomfortable in the afternoon. Windows on the eastern exposure are most welcomed as the sun in the early morning is very pleasant.
