Nowadays in view of the growing expectation of qualityurban spaces, planners, architects and developers concern about urban microclimate in the process of urban development. Under this context, the concept of urban climatic map (UCMap) has been introduced. UCMap is a tool for translating climatic knowledge into urban planning process. It can help urban planning professionals to understand and evaluate the effect of urban climatic issues on planning decision.

This paper describes the current Welsh housing stock with a view to assessing the range of existing propertiesin terms of age, construction type and the implicationsfor mechanical heating and cooling of spaces. This work forms part of a larger project that will also involve the development of a series of computer models based on these findings, as well as the design, installation and performance monitoring of a domestic scale solar absorptioncooling system.

This paper describes an educational and experimental tool developed under LabVIEW environment at LASH/DGCB (France) laboratory of ENTPE. The objective of this tool is to make students sensitive with HVAC equipments, measurements, heat recovery, and regulation techniques in order to expand and test heating, cooling and ventilation control strategies. A large room of the Buildings Sciences Laboratory (LASH) is equipped with balanced mechanical ventilation and a global control/data acquisition system.

This paper outlines the need to increase the resilience of hospital buildings in the face of three growing perils, climate change, insecurity of energy supplies and the resulting potential for epidemics and pandemics. It is argued that there has been a trend to poorer building design and construction standards resulting in the increase in fossil fuel use to maintain adequate indoor temperatures. As extreme climate events increase in number and intensity, and are increasingly associated with power failures, the role of buildings becomes more central to our comfortable survival.

PREA is a joint project between four European Universitiesand three African Universities as well as the InternationalSolar Energy Society (ISES), an international NGO, that promotes renewable energy.

In urban canyons where, apartment buildings can be beneficial in terms of their close proximity to offices, shops etc, causing less traffic congestion and pollution, saving fuel costs and bringing people in close proximity to city centres. At the same time trying to accommodate people in city centres, leads to the development of congested and confined narrow deep apartments which have to be mechanically ventilated and artificially lit. To reduce costs, in 1962 designers began building narrow structures with light curtain walls and thin frames to increase daylight and natural ventilation.

The Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) is an importantdeterminant in the comfort and hence productivity of workers in office buildings, and a number of studieshave been undertaken in the Western world which shows this. This paper explores the Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) in six office buildings in Tehran (Iran) with particular attention to thermal comfort.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has estimated that the Mediterranean region could experiencean increase in annual mean temperatures up to 4.5 C by 2080. Within the same time frame the fossil fuel stocks are predicted to diminish resulting in ever increasingfuel prices. Furthermore, there is continuous political pressure to impose greenhouse gas levies and quotas for industries and services alike, thus adding into their operationalexpenditures should they exceed their carbon quotas.

This paper describes some of the thinking behind the thermal comfort provisions of the new European StandardEN15251 (CEN: 2007) which deals with all aspects on the indoor environment. The paper will present the evidence on which its provisions are based (focusing on thermal comfort) and the advantages they present for those concerned to design buildings which use the minimumof energy.

The effect of shading in reducing the energy consumptionof office buildings in Athens is investigated in this article. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the role of shading devices in the improvement of energy efficiencyof urban buildings especially in Southern Europe.The first phase of research consisted of detailed data collection from 10 office buildings in the region of Athens, employing questionnaires, in-situ visits as well as interviews.