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Why is bioclimatic architecture not as popular as other environmentally conscious" concepts? What are the possible loopholes in current practices and how could these be taken care of? To answer such questions, this paper attempts to trace the synergetic effects of different activities within the context of Israel, and in particular that of the Israeli desert.

This paper describes part of an EC funded Joule project in which computer simulation has been used to investigate the viability of applying passive downdraught evaporative cooling (PDEC) to non-domestic buildings in hot dry climates. Using analytical techniques, CFO and thermal simulation, the performance-driven anatomy of PDEC buildings has been elucidated and engineering sizing methods have been developed. It is concluded that PDEC should formulate part of an holistic and carefully integrated solution.

The detailed urban plan of Kanjiza beside the two existing hotels at the grounds assigned for the development of the Institute of Special Medical Rehabilitation "Kanji"a Spa" comprises a plan to build a third hotel. An urbanistic solution of the complex was found, (positioning of the hotel) based on a bioclimatic study in which bioclimatic elements both in the analysis of the location and in the architectural design were taken into account. The bioclimatic study started by considering the elements of climate and the conditions of the location.

In many countries, besides the hot dry climate, the lack of energy resources is one of the brakes to the development: without air conditioning, it is not yet possible to give good conditions of working inside offices; air movements, dust, pollution are not consistent with cleanliness, controlled atmosphere and calm air. Furlhermore, sanitary spaces as hospitals and laboratories, and cultural ones as museums and libraries are interested in passive solutions to cooling in a closed atmosphere, ie: without any air movement, except controlled-filtered ventilation.

The building may be seen as a "container" of a conditioned environment where man comfortably carries out a number of activities. The achievement of acceptable indoor environmental conditions depends on the way such a container is realized. In other words, the whole building, which is designed to create a space in which man can suitably carry out certain activities, contributes with all its parts to controlling the desired environmental conditions.

A course which implemented a computer tool •As/CL/MA", as an aid in passive solar design, was taught in the School of Architecture of the University of Zulia, in Maracaibo, Venezuela. AS/CL/MA was designed by the author and used by students for the simulation of thermal conditions inside buildings. The students applied their creativity to generate ideas and the computer program to evaluate them, with the benefit of increased speed and precision over manual methods.

In order to confirm the effectiveness of the indoor climate control system adopted in the experimental house, the indoor climate in summer was evaluated for the experimental house and two other buildings in Nanning city and a comparison was made. Two vernacular buildings which have natural indoor and semi-outdoor cooling systems were selected for the study The majority of the measurements were taken using the spherical thermography system. The results showed that the quality of the indoor thermal environment of each building is approximately the same.

Sustainable building design has received increased attention over recent years and the use of natural ventilation in non-domestic buildings has been integral to this forward-looking issue. Natural ventilation design has been assisted by the availability of computer-based simulation techniques capable of predicting aspects of building design such as thermal comfort and air quality.

Although Saudi Arabia empowers the world with energy, the country is faced with unprecedented demand on electric energy. The issue, however, is neither affordability nor shortage but the exponential growth of demand on electricity, which reached an annual rate of 17% [Ministry of Industry and Electricity (MIE), 1995). This figure indicates that we need to double the number of our power generation plants within few years in order to meet the kingdom's present and near future demand.

Visual DOE is a Windows interface version of the DOE2 simulation program. Its purpose is to help save time in writing BDL input for the simulation. As its calculation engine is the same as DOE2 in the DOS version, DOE should result in the same output as the DOS version. However, difficulties arise in identifying the building's configurations, materials and construction and systems in the two input versions. While modeling a simple one-story Hpassive H building, it was difficult to get a good match in the simulation results in the two versions.