Overview of the programme, covers opportunities for solar energy in the 21st century, advancing solar building technologies, solar low energy buildings, and the future.

The paper discusses the suitability of the sunken courtyard concept in the desert climate using Kuwait as a case study. It investigates three issues related to the concept: its ability to modify the harsh climate and to reduce the energy consumption, its  constrnction costs compared to aboveground building, and the occupants' attitude towards living underground. The results are shown to be all positive and will be significant to the policy-makers, designers, and homeowners.

A field study of the thermal comfort of workers in natural ventilated office buildings in Oxford and Aberdeen, UK, was carried out which included information about use of building controls. The data were analysed to explore that what effect the outdoor temperature has on the indoor temperature and how this is affected by occupants' use of environmental controls during the peak summer (June-August). The proportion of subjects using a control was related to indoor and outdoor temperatures to demonstrate the size of the effect.

Perceived air quality, Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) symptoms and productivity were studied in an existing office in which the air pollution level could be modified by introducing or removing a pollution source. This reversible intervention allowed the space to be classified as either non-low-polluting or low-polluting, as specified in the new European design criteria ·for the indoor environment CEN CR 1752 (1998). The pollution source was a 20-year-old used carpet which was introduced on a rack behind a screen so that it was invisible to the occupants.