A first Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) study on a solar neighborhood in Israel shows there are certain discrepancies between the planner’s intentions and the final outcome. These stem from each specific resident’s acquaintance with the local climate and

This paper reports field investigation of the hygrothermal performance of autoclaved aerated concrete blocks (ACC) compared to other wall construction materials. The study was conducted under the tropical climatic conditions of Thailand where this debatable issue had not been yet seriously investigated. To this end, three small houses were built. The dimensions of each were 2.4 m x 2.4 m x 2.3 m.

Shading provision should be considered as an integral part of fenestration system design for commercial and office buildings, in order to balance daylighting requirements versus the need to reduce solar gains. Utilization of daylight in buildings may result in reduction in electricity consumption for lighting but also in high cooling demand if excessive solar gains are admitted in the working space. Moreover, visual comfort should be ensured especially for perimeter office spaces. Shading devices can control solar gains and simultaneously allow adequate daylight to the interior.

of innovative daylighting systems and passive cooling techniques implemented in a typical commercial building. The main objectives are the application of innovative daylighting and passive cooling systems to obtain energy savings and to provide thermal and luminous comfort conditions for the occupants. The case study building selected for investigation is located in Mexico City.

The fresnel lens concept is suggested for solar control of the building in order to keep the illumination and the interior temperature at the comfort level. The collection of 60%-80% of the transmitted solar radiation through the fresnel lens on linear absorbers leaves the rest amount to be distributed in the interior space for the illumination and thermal building needs. The fresnel lenses can be combined with Thermal, Photovoltaic, or hybrid type Photovoltaic/Thermal small width absorbers to extract the concentrated solar radiation in the form of heat, electricity or both.

The spatial and material configuration of a building, its dimensions, orientation and fabric are crucial for the choice of the environmental retrofitting strategies to be used. These include innovative daylighting, cooling and control systems, as well as different types of space-related ventilation systems, such as transition spaces, stack devices, ventilation shafts and faadeventilation, including double-skin faade.

Solar radiation is an important source of heat gain into the building and plays an important role as far as thermal comfort in a dwelling is concerned. In summer and in hot climate regions, the thermal gain of a building exceeds the thermal comfort level of the inhabitants and cooling is desirable. The high insolation may be utilized to provide the necessary ventilation cheaply.

The main design strategies when dealing with cooling are well known by now. The paper will not present options one by one, but will show how each one has been used as a starting point of design in recent projects.

The aim of this paper is to confront the designers practice knowledge on the behavior of natural ventilation due to wind action in housing buildings with complex internal partitions against experimental analogical airflow visualization. The methodology consisted of a survey with a group of architects, followed by experimental airflow visualization in physical scale models of a housing building, developed with a water table. The results from the survey showed that the architects were divided regarding the best and worst natural ventilation performance among the tested housing units.

Human organism is probably the most perfect example of thermal behavior, adaptation to different climatic conditions, and a way of keeping it’s temperature constant, which is existent in nature. Observing various buildings, their thermal characteristics,