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Comment by spaced-out | Hacker News Reader

Looking at the residential complex in the article, Risørholmen, it looks like the "ugly" modern houses have rooftop gardens are large windows while the traditional houses have only a few small windows. Sure, the red tiled roofs look nice, but I wonder if this is a case of aesthetics taking precedent over functionality.

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In Finland in the 1970s, there was a trend away from traditional gable roof to modern flat ones: so much cleaner, more elegant, and easy to build!

Then they realized that it snows a lot in Finland, and having big flat spaces where snow can accumulate is not a great idea.

To add to this: large windows seem great on the surface, however in Nordic countries, the houses are generally very well insulated and rarely have air conditioning, so the new houses with floor to ceiling windows turn into unlivable greenhouses in the summer.

>so the new houses with floor to ceiling windows turn into unlivable greenhouses in the summer.

I find this hard to believe. I live in a place with tall (not quite floor to ceiling) windows and hot summers and having such large windows gives the house way more ventilation, not less.

I remember a apartment where I live as student. First floor next to bus stop, west fasting windows. So not really that great to open. And the central ventilation itself was not that effective. Net result was 27C inside in mid winter...

But it is the alternative to paying workmen to go up on slanted rooves to knock the snow off them - "lumityö".

In addition to functional advantages, the modern variant of that complex just looks better to me. It would be even better if it was a bit more colorful.

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