I think we got lazy with our designs once centralized air was mainstreamed. The house my father grew up in the 1950s was designed like you mentioned. It would only allow light through during certain times of year/day with its overhanges and louvers and it jad more windows which allow more air flow....now according to him it was still a miserable place to live during the 1950s Texas summers....

Sort of. Pretty much all of suburban housing is cookie cutter houses made out of the cheapest possible material available. Really the only improvements we've made is better insulation and standardized 2 way heat pumps.

I can't imagine apartments and buildings are much better when you can just slap an AC onto anything and call it a day.

I once lived in an apartment with no windows that could open. They were all sealed.

I am from the US and am living in malaysia at the moment and have traveled throughout South East Asia. I think the issue is not that our homes are built I efficiently, but that we just do not tolerate heat the same way that those in South East Asia do. We could open our windows and doors like they do in asia to create a draft and cool down, but it would still be warmer than we would like. Living in Asia is warmer than we would like in general.

I have to wonder if the United States builds houses inefficiently on purpose.

Starting roughly during the housing boom just after WWII, the United States started building houses cheaply on purpose. One of the most noticeable changes is common house designs went from being Craftsman bungalows with high (e.g. 10') ceilings, lots of windows for good ventilation, and large roof overhangs for shade and protection from wind-driven rain, to "American Small Houses" with 8' ceilings, minimal windows and no roof overhangs.

As the owner of one of the latter (in the South, BTW), I can tell you that trying to keep it cool via cross-ventilation is largely ineffective.

If you think US houses are bad, you should see Australian houses. Barely any insulation and very ~~draughty~~ drafty, so they're too cold in winter and too hot in summer. A huge percentage of houses fall below the WHO's recommended safe temperature in winter.

Sure, you can use AC or heating, but it dissipates very quickly.

I'm from Melbourne, and the climate there is fairly similar to the San Francisco Bay Area where I live now. Similar winter weather, but it gets a bit hotter in summer. Bay Area houses are much more comfortable though. My US house is a 1960s build yet it has way better insulation than even a 2010s build in Australia.