"Where's progress in home design? "
Like many products today, homes are not designed to take advantage of new technologies, the technologies are implemented only to cut construction costs. Old Florida houses, or even the houses in Cuba and other Spanish colonies in the tropics, were designed to fit in with their environment. For centuries, house construction has evolved to take advantage of local materials, weather, geology, etc. They were comfortable and durable. Today, houses in Florida are designed for ease of quick, cookie-cutter construction, and without air-conditioning are immediately uninhabitable.
It doesn't matter how good your scientists and engineers are if some suit in the front office cares only about maximizing profits.