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.

Some techniques aimed at the evaluation of microclimatic parameters through the measurement of other indoor physical quantities are critically reviewed. Particularly, the appraisal of the air velocity from the predicted mean vote and the determination of air change from the decay of the C02 indoor concentration are analysed. Important warnings for the use of these methods are underlined and the limits of applicability are pointed out.

The wish to improve the energy performance of a building as well as to improve indoor climate can be mentioned as one of the main driving forces behind the introduction of so called 'double facades'. Various types of double facades can be distinguished; the number of possible double facade variants is large. This raises the question in what way the performance of double facades can be predicted during the design process and how well-considered design decisions can be made.

A method of assessing building passive thermal performance for houses in Europe is described. The method is intended to provide the user with a means of understanding the factors effecting the thermal characteristics of the building, while giving figures that will allow the best use to be made of available passive energy techniques. The development and use of this method is outlined, and a description is given of how Genetic Programming will be used in this process.

This short paper demonstrates the existence of an error in instantaneous heat loss calculations due to errors inherent in the input data. By implication, these errors will also be present in thermal simulation programs.

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.

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.

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.

This paper describes the measurements and evaluation of the indoor thermal environments in a large domed stadium. This stadium was built mainly for professional baseball games, but it has a lot of other purposes. It will be used not only for many sport games but also for various entertainment events. To satisfy such purposes, various intelligent mechanical systems were equipped to control and create a suitable space and environment without consuming excessive energy.