Our 1950’s split level, like all other mid-century homes, does a lousy job with air circulation. The kitchen is smack in the middle of the house with one window looking out into the backyard. The kitchen is your hot and stinky zone. It really needs a cool breeze.
If we keep the front door open, there is enough cross ventiliation to suck all the hot air from the kitchen. So, as much as would like to lose the screen door, we can’t. My winning the lottery fantasies always involve plugging new windows all over the house. I would raise the ceilings and put in one of those cool new ceiling fans.
Here’s how architects are thinking about air circulation today.
Apt. 11d 
Our house also has dreadful air circulation. In our case at least part of the excuse is that it rarely gets hot here. There’s absolutely no cross-ventilation and many of our windows do not open.
I think part of the issue with designing houses for coolness (and warmth and light) is that design goals aren’t well aligned in areas where the extremes range from no light to a lot of light and very cold to very hot. Our house has been built to maximize light and views (in an area where light can be scarce); it also does fairly well in staying warm.
To really follow the strategies, we also have to accept a higher range of temperatures, adapt our bodies and lifestyles (i.e. rest when its really hot, don’t cook hot foods in the kitchen when it’s hot, wear warm clothing and keep moving when it’s cold).
Like seeing the houses, but they are like designer runways rather than ideas you can more easily incorporate into your own house. Some simpler things we could do in ours that would help is time-controlled/light window shades (that keep the east and west facing windows closed when the sun is directly east and west).
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Yea. I think you need to think about location when deciding what lengths you’ll go to for maximizing ventilation. Even with the windows open and the ceiling fans going, our house would be very unpleasant for much of the summer without central air. But I doubt you could do a cost effective design that would result in enough of an increase in cooling efficiency to offset the increased costs of heating. Because as far as heating goes, I can get through a January with an average daily high still below freezing without paying much more than $300 on a gas bill.
Also, all the ventilation in the world isn’t going to lower the humidity and that’s the main thing during the summer. In the spring and fall, I’ll open the windows when it’s seventy degrees, but not in the summer.
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A former neighbor bought a mid-century house with terrible, terrible curb appeal–a few tiny, tiny bunker-like windows on the wall facing the street. However, as I eventually learned, there was method to the architect’s madness (and yes, it had been specially designed that way). The street side was the one with the greatest amount of sun, so the small windows are designed to minimize the amount of heat getting into the house (we routinely go over 100 degrees, 110 degrees is not uncommon, and it can go higher–a recent record setting summer had over 60 over-100 degree days). Meanwhile, the cooler back wall is almost totally glassed in, has terrific light, and faces a lovely green back yard. It’s actually kind of amazing to walk in and enter this oasis. Nonetheless, it looks awful from the street. I was suggesting palm trees in front to my neighbor to take the edge off.
I’m sure it’s possible to do better these days with modern materials, but that house was a very good effort for the time.
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Victorian homes with high ceiling work well too.
Add in strategies like blackout blinds on the sunny side of the house (close them when the sun is hitting the house and open the windows in the evening) and you can get SOME heat management.
Also dipping your wrists and ankles in cold, icy water.
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Our old house was a nightmare for heating and cooling. We bought it knowing that would be the case as we’d rented the main floor and basement of a similarly-built house down the street. Prevailing winds came from the west but almost all the windows were on the north and south sides. Until we installed new windows, they only swung out to let in a tiny bit of air.
Our current house has some cooling challenges (such as the fact that the large, major windows face due west and we live at a latitude where summer days are very long) but it also has A/C for which we pay surprisingly little when in use thanks to strategic use of fans and blackout curtains. Sure, the location isn’t as central and, thus, transit-convenient as our old house, but we never would have enjoyed the space and comfort we have here in that old house, not even with 100k in improvements!
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If you ever have the $ to do a big remodel, you could do what my sister did with her very similar house; she removed the wall between the kitchen and dining room, walled off the back door, extended the counter across the back wall and basically ended up with a large kitchen / dining area. Only works if you have an attached garage through which everyone pretty much enters via the den.
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That’s a good idea, but it won’t work for us. The previous owners had turned a screened in porch that left from the backdoor into a finished den. It’s actually very nice with a slate floor. The kitchen needs a renovation for sure though. It needs more elbow room around the stove, more light, and an improved window over the sink.
Our split level is larger than the one in the diagram, but all mid-century homes have the same footprint. They’re great in many ways. There’s fantastic flow for parties and traffic downstairs. When they are done right, there’s a feeling that you’re connected with the outdoors.
Every mid-century home owes a lot to Frank Lloyd Wright, but not every builder was able to commit to his design. To appeal to more people, they addws some traditional elements onto the design, which don’t belong. Like shutters. Ugh. Shutters shouldn’t belong on a split level house. At some point, we’re going to fix the outside of the house and kill all the shutters.
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Architectural elements that are not functional drive me crazy! Shutters that don’t close/are too narrow for the window. Fake dormers. French doors opening out to tiny patios that no one ever would use.
And the mixing of materials that make no sense. We have a lot of “monster houses” here in Vancouver that mix brick with Spanish roof tile with wrought iron with wooden fencing with stucco. No rhyme or reason. Painful to look at.
An architect has their role and a builder/contractor has their role. The latter cannot replace the former.
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