In many countries, besides the hot dry climate, the lack of energy resources is one of the brakes to the development: without air conditioning, it is not yet possible to give good conditions of working inside offices; air movements, dust, pollution are not consistent with cleanliness, controlled atmosphere and calm air. Furlhermore, sanitary spaces as hospitals and laboratories, and cultural ones as museums and libraries are interested in passive solutions to cooling in a closed atmosphere, ie: without any air movement, except controlled-filtered ventilation.

A study by the Australian Institute of Tropical Architecture was undertaken using the energy rating software BERS to determine the influence of using low absorptance paint on the thermal performance of uninsulated houses in the warm humid tropics of Australia. It was found that using such paints reduced the cooling energy load in airconditioned houses and the number of degree hours naturally ventilated houses were outside a preset comfort zone.

The typical passive design suggested for residential buildings in tropical hothumid climates is a lightweight building with many openings on the north and south walls to allow continuous natural ventilation, shaded by wide overhangs. In reality most people no longer favour this design approach for several reasons: building durability, noise problems. privacy, and social status. The work presented in this paper challenges the typical design suggestions and shows other alternatives that are more suitable for this climatic region.

For a house to be habitable it needs to be comfortable. In the warm humid climates interiors need to be cool for most of the year in order to be comfortable vis a vis habitable. There are many factors that contribute to the comfortable part of the overall habitability of a house particularly its aspects of design. The paper analyses the thermal conditions in ten different houses in Dhaka, Bangladeshi in representative days of the three main seasons and tries to identify design aspects that make some houses more comfortable hence habitable than others

The construction of dwellings for people with low incomes in developing countries encompasses a broad range of issues starting from the choice of the building site, to the construction phase and finally to the evaluation of the building itself. For tropical climates, the thermal evaluation of low-cost dwellings should be primarily related to the optimization of internal comfort conditions. Nevertheless, from the financial point of view, the improvement of thermal comfort conditions in low-cost housing should not result in a substantial increase in the final building costs.

The paper compares the design and measured performance of the relatively conventional Autonomous House and the earth-sheltered Hockerton Housing Project, both in Nottinghamshire, England. These are both attempts by the authors at making houses for the United Kingdom climate that need no non-renewable energy inputs, but are comparable in cost with conventional houses. The conclusion is that high thermal mass combined with superinsulation is effective in giving "zero heating" performance, but it makes sense only if the house is designed for an extremely long life.

The SUNH and SHINE European Commission THERMIE 1996 Targeted Projects aim to demonstrate for European urban housing sector the relevance of a serie of innovative technologies (applied on 10 new 1;onstructions within SUNH and 6 retrofrtting projects within SHINE) to reduce C02 emissions through the implementation of different RUE & RES techniques. After the general presentation of SUNH and SHINE made during the PLEA conference of Lisbon, this paper aims to give a detailed presentation of the most advanced projects using slides and video.

This paper presents the findings of two recent studies on the thermal preferences of householders in upland and coastal tropical environments. The aim of the studies was to investigate those behavioural factors that influence a householder's appreciation of an indoor environment. The studies involved 159 households in Kampala, Uganda, and 104 households in Surabaya, Indonesia. The studies indicated that householders made choices regarding their indoor environments based not on comfort sensation alone, but on "real-world factors".

In buildings with passive downdraught evaporative cooling (PDEC), occupants are subjected to environmental conditions which might be characterised by elevated relative humidities, increased air speeds, and time-varying internal conditions. A new physiological model which describes the human thermophysical system, and the active control exercised on it, has been produced. The model predicts skin and core temperatures, sweat rates, etc. on different parts of a seated, standing or exercising human.

In the mid 1990's the 'need' to mechanically air condition school buildings became a political issue in North Queensland. Research suggests that school children are susceptible to heat stress, acclimatisation or cultural factors aside. Cooling strategies are also desirable to protect capital investment in building fabric, resources and electronic equipment. Community expectations suggest that air conditioning in the tropics is a 'necessity' to maintain an acceptable 'standard of living'.