Before the advent of air conditioning and local building codes, any hope of living through a Lowcountry summer meant coming to terms with heat and humidity and finding how best take advantage of the scant opportunities for relief from the weather.

It meant learning to exist in concert with the environment instead of bending it to fit some predetermined vision. As a result, early residents built with rot-resistant woods. They raised their homes off the ground and oriented them to catch breezes and shield interiors from the blazing afternoon sun, among other design elements intended to make life, if not comfortable, at least bearable.

During the baby boom following World War II, those lessons were lost or cast aside in the name of speed and convenience. For the last 25 years, the husband-a

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