It's that brutal. It's also something people used to do a lot of, especially if they were working outdoors.

I've seen house designs for the South which have an open central corridor. It catches and channels any wind and helps cools the rooms on either side.

I'm sure there are other tricks, but builders don't seem to know them any more, and architects build more with a view to looks than practicality.

Modern architecture - whether it's McMansion design, concrete box design, glass tower design, or suburban vernacular design - can be almost criminally stupid about environmental issues.

There are exceptions, especially in the occasional environmentally controlled low-energy office block.

The reality is that it's possible to manage heating and cooling far more intelligently and effectively in most kinds of buildings. But it's considered a fringe eco-hippy interest and not something most of the population needs to care about.

Here in Arizona, if we built things for cooling more like in the middle east (windcatchers/solar chimneys/qanats + thick walled rammed earth and/or monolithic domes), it would probably be more energy efficient.

But I can't imagine that style would go over well with our current (overall) political climate here...

Here in NY, with high humidity it can be upper 80s or low 90s outside but when you factor in the humidity you have no way to cool off. You can be laying down doing nothing but dripping in sweat. Combine that with being in an apartment that's on the upper floor with bad insulation and forget it. I imagine it's even worse in places like Florida.

It's also crazy how big of a difference there is between an upper floor that's poorly insulated vs a basement. You can expect a 15-20f degree difference.