Full Width [alt+shift+f] Shortcuts [alt+shift+k]
Sign Up [alt+shift+s] Log In [alt+shift+l]
31

Designing a New Old Home: The Elements

from The Map is Mostly Water [alt+shift+b] in life

Heating and Cooling and Airflow Ensuring your house works well with the natural world is one of the most crucial parts of designing a home. Like I wrote in the first part, it’s also one of the most ignored. We wanted to build a house that would stay as naturally cool in the summer as possible. If we were successful, we wouldn’t need air conditioning. We also hoped to take advantage of modern insulation to mostly heat the house with a medium size wood stove, and avoid any forced-air duct work.
18th Sep 2022

Stay updated

Get a weekly newsletter with the top 5 articles worth reading every week.

More from The Map is Mostly Water

Fujifilm X100 vs Leica Q vs Ricoh GR

Notes on three fixed-lens camera lines

18th Jul 2026 • 2 votes
Veganism and Moral Intuitions

Inspecting some ethical claims, in the hope you might revisit some of your own intuitions

24th Jun 2026 • 1 votes
Designing a New Old Home: Mistakes

But in me haste to do the job, I was too blind to see

5th Mar 2026 • 1 votes
Ink in the Stomach

Something I believe very strongly, mostly from observing changes in myself, is that, once you’ve shoved your own hands deep in the entrails of a building, you’ve permanently altered your entire relationship with the world.

3rd Jan 2026 • 3 votes
Viscerality

some notes on pleasure

2nd Nov 2025 • 21 votes

More in life

More warm bodies

Independent thinking continues to be the greatest edge

49 minutes ago • 1 votes
Why Great Engineering Teams Don't Need Productivity Metrics

Measuring output and time spent is easy, while measuring efficiency and effectiveness is hard. Here's why trusting your engineers beats tracking their productivity.

9 hours ago • 1 votes
You can just eradicate things

The technology to eradicate mosquito-borne disease already exists. We just have to be brave enough to use it.

12 hours ago • 1 votes
Peak Burnham

A Champagne Supernova In the Sky

2 days ago • 1 votes
[instagram] there will still be 125 pieces of my love lingering somewhere on the internet

i used to be one of those people who would say, marriage is just a piece of paper. but after being with her for years and years through all the tears and laughter it is starting to make me sad that if anything were to happen to me she wouldn’t be able to do things like make medical decisions on my behalf, collect my body when am gone, etc. I had to go to a lawyer to do specific paperwork that were not necessary if we were simply married. will i be able to call her my wife in my lifetime? it is just so saddening that the closest person to me will never be recognised as such in the eyes of the law. when i die, she will just be my “friend”. nevertheless am grateful to spend these 125 months together, perhaps even if she won’t be able to claim my body and if history will deem us as just“friends”, there will still be 125 pieces of my love lingering somewhere on the internet. (she made us clothes again! it is 98% zero waste!)

3 days ago • 1 votes
📚 BoredReading

You seem to be enjoying this.

Join free to unlock everything.

Create free account

Already have an account? Sign in