Traditional Italian shutters have an important function. Italians could and can use shutters to keep their homes cool. Italians will close their internal or external shutters in the morning after keeping them open all evening. This stops the Mediterranean sun from heating their homes.
Shutters serve several purposes. First is for insulation. They help keep the heat indoors in the winter and the cool air inside in the summer. Few houses in Europe have air conditioning, so it's important to keep the hot sun out and allow the thick stone walls to cool the home.
Climate and Energy Efficiency: The climate in Europe, including Italy, often features hot summers and colder winters. Rolling shutters can help regulate indoor temperatures by providing insulation and reducing heat gain in the summer, as well as minimizing heat loss during the winter.
The Mediterranean made wooden shutters incredibly popular, due to the ease of working with the material, and that both light and air control were possible with wooden shutters.
In the Italian tradition windows are fitted with external shutters that have different names according to local dialects. In our area we call them “Persiane e Sportelloni” (Shutters and Panel Shutters). The materials used range from wood to aluminium and UPVC.
and this is because in the 18th century one of the main ingredients in green paint was arsenic. but even so it was so strongly believed that by painting your shutters. nowadays of course arsenic is no longer used to make anything. but Florentines don't make it a point to upkeep the traditional.
Well, it's a full window shutter. They typically roll down and block out nearly all sunlight (heavy rains and storms too) from entering windows and greatly reduces heat buildup, inherently cooling the inside of your home.
It's to do with our climate. It doesn't generally get hot enough for us to want to shut out the sun and heat.
Do all houses need shutters? Absolutely not, and many, many houses would look much better without shutters, rather than with “today's” shutters. What do we mean by that? For starters, many shutters today serve no purpose, other than to add an accent color, and to fill in space around windows.
The tradition of using orange roof tiles in Croatia dates back to the Roman Empire, when terracotta tiles were commonly used for roofing. Terracotta is a type of clay that is baked at high temperatures, resulting in a durable and waterproof material that is ideal for roofing.
There is one thing, however, that most Italian kitchens have in common: They tend to be short on counter space, cabinet space, and pantry space. This is partially because Italians tend to move their kitchens with them — cabinets, appliances, and all — so you won't find a lot that's built in or bolted down.
Italian Homes Are Built of Stone, Brick & Concrete
Older Italian homes have stone or brick walls. More modern homes have concrete walls. It's part of the reason centralized AC and heating aren't common in Italy.
Screens wouldn't help with the heat in a house without A/c. Also, as several people pointed out, the windows open to the inside, and a screen wouldn't fit in.
Since many French houses don't have air conditioning and are only insulated against the summer heat by their thick stone walls, having the windows open and the shutters closed really helps to cool the inside when it's sweltering hot outside.
In France and Germany, all houses have exterior shutters. However, they differ in look and material. In France, shutters hang outside to the right and left of each window. In larger buildings, they are folded into the outside window frame.
Plantation shutters add value to your house in several ways. Potential buyers will appreciate that shutters are energy efficient and can lower utility costs, making your house appear more appealing than homes without shutters. Buyers save money on energy bills throughout the year, making your property more desirable.
They provide insulation
The main reason why window shutters will add value to your house is because they are fantastic insulators. They are far more effective than curtains or blinds when it comes to keeping your house warm because they're thicker and they add an extra layer of insulation to your windows.
Colonial Spanish-style homes did not have glass in their windows, but wooden shutters that closed from the inside and a wrought-iron grate that allowed the breeze to come in.
There are numerous reasons why English cottages have low doorways. Many relate to thermal insulation and structural integrity, which were well-known in the Middle Ages. Another important factor is the average height of people back then. There was little need to build tall doors for short people!
It's obvious, but two doors might have been in place to provide separate entrances to the home, opening to different spaces. While one door may have led to a formal area, the other could have been used for day-to-day business.
Long considered to be a key measure for good respiratory hygiene, Germans often crack open windows to let nasty, stale air out and fresh, but cold, air in, even in the dead of winter.
He traces the two-door house back to the combined dwelling house and animal stall—sometimes called a “housebarn” or Wohnstallhaus — which existed in every Germanic area of Europe in the first millennium. At first there were separate entrances to the animal stalls and the dwelling portion of these large houses.
Why is so little of Germany available on Google Maps Street View? It ran into a lot of public (political and legal) opposition on privacy grounds when introduced in Germany in 2010, leading to a provision that everyone could have the building at their own address blurred.