Why aren't more people building like this...

Another article in the star, about better designed houses to reduce the need for air-conditioning, even on the hottest days.

One of which refers to passive cooling, quite a few different people advertising this when you google it - another similar term is passive solar gain. The theory is that you use a bit of common sense in the design of your house - seems a bit of a luxury in most mass builds. So you get the warmth of the sun in the winter months, and block it out in the summer, also using shade, movement of air to exhaust the hot air, and circulate cool air. We first saw this in the BedZed carbon neutral development in the UK.