The examination of the "Young-am House", a traditional folk house located in the middle region of the Korean peninsula, aims to analyze and to inform the bio-climatic design of the building and interior spaces based in the traditional architecture of Korea. As a consequence of the examination, it was evident that bioclimatic design performed an important part in creating a natural environment for comfortable living by taking consideration of the changing local climatic conditions.

A bioclimatic house for Tamare, Venezuela, designed to provide psychological, physical and social well being through improved comfort and less energy consumption is explained. Digital and analog models were built to analyze sunlight and shadow behavior and computer simulations to predict thermal performance. Assuming a maximum comfort temperature of 30° C we achieve<! 95% of satisfaction when we ventilated at night and closed the building during daytime.

The paper presents a bioclimatic house in the Negev Desert, lsrael, as a case study through which it attempts to present a comprehensive and critical view of bioclimatic architecture, design support tools, and appropriate details vis-a-vis common construction technologies and practices, assessing their relative impact and limitations. A number of topics are examined from different aspects, such as insulation and thermal mass, window systems incorporating double glazing, insulated shutters and window screens, vis-a-vis solar gains.lr ventilation and infiltration.

Confronting the high density of town planning, architects and towr1 planners are led to design mall outdoor places which are inserted into the city but offer specified properties: serenity, calmness, unusual surrounding ... Within the framework of the CERMA laboratory, we are looking for reference architectural examples likely to meet such needs and transposable into a contemporary architectural project.

ln the past, passive solar buildings were specifically designed with respect to energy and thermal comfort requirements. Within this framework a fa9ade able to collect solar energy and bring indoor suitable conditions for occupants was thought of as an optimal building device. On the contrary, little attention was paid to their acoustic behaviour.

Passive solar buildings are expected to provide their intended functions, safely and without adverse health effects, and at substantial energy savings compared to conventional buildings. Moreover, passive solar buildings are frequently considered as appropriate technology in parts of the world where the incidence rates of diseases associated with indoor exposures may be the highest.

The objective of this study is to propose a simplified characterization of thermal inertia, as part of the installation of a system of summer refreshment by means of nighttime cooling ventilation. On the basis of a previous study, conducted by relying upon a modal analysis, the interactions between the thermal inertia of a building and the variation of the air exchange rate have been explained.