A couple of years before I retired, the local CA congresswoman insisted we build a new building for our office and move it to UC Santa Barbara, and make it green. It had no AC and was designed with "window circulation", which meant you had to keep upstairs and downstairs office windows open, and then it had skylights that automatically opened after it hit a certain temperature. We also had to keep our office doors open in order for it all to work as intended. It was still freakin' hot when the sundowner winds blew.
I had a GSA security container in my office, which meant windows and the door had to stay closed and locked down. Had I not retired when I did, I would have spent my own money on a portable AC unit.
Several decades ago, a domed sport stadium ("Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome") was built in Minneapolis without any air conditioning - the air pumped inside to keep the dome up was supposed to provide all the cooling needed.
It didn't. The informal name became "The Steamerdome." Fortunately, allowance had been made in the structure to retrofit A/C which was eventually done.
They also tried to save energy by not heating the roof. In Minneapolis. Snow load caused the dome to tear and collapse . . . to no thinking person's surprise.
There was a city office building in St. Paul, MN that was built with solar panels on the roof, which architects and city "leaders" assured everyone would provide all the heating needed thanks to the great insulation they put in.
It didn't. They didn't think about long periods - weeks at a time - with overcast skies during the winter. They got frost
inside.
