Although most new houses in the Hokuriku region are equipped with air conditioners, some people living in farmhouses still feel that cross ventilation is more desirable. Comparative measurements were made between a new house and a farmhouse. Simplified simulations were also carried out to clarify the effects of thermal insulation and earth floors on cross ventilation in summer. The role of thermal insulation in hot and humid regions is different from that in cold regions, where there is a large difference between outside and inside air temperatures.

In the design of natural ventilation systems, there is a wide range of possibilities with regard to the selection of window type and the positioning of windows in the facade. Each window type has unique characteristics, which affect air flow and thermal comfort conditions in the occupied zone. A combination of various window types and faade locations in a room should be capable of improving thermal comfort and minimising draught risk.

The influence of wind is an important part of the bioclimatic town planning criteria. Ventilating and mechanical action of the wind towards reduction of air pollution in urban areas is becoming increasingly important and must be analyzed along with other factors such as · thermal losses, comfort etc.

The utilization of Hybrid Solar Systems in buildings allowed a rational use of energy required to obtain proper comfort conditions inside the building itself. During some research programmes carried out at !CITE, prototypes of test cells capable of supplying significant information on the energetic behaviour of technologically innovative building envelopes for passive and hybrid solar control, have been designed and built.

In this paper the authors describe in detail the planted circumstances with wind-break effects developed in the isles of Tonaki and Aguni. tens of kilometers off the main island of Okinawa in the East China Sea; both these isles are abundunt in Fukugi, an evergreen, tall and sturdy tree of tropic origin; and the time-honored Fukugi groves have played an all-important role in protecting the people and their properties against the year-round strong winds and casual but frequent typhoons.

This paper deals with the relationship between the characteristics of ventilation and the architectural features on three types of Japanese houses representative of the recent historical evolution in the building of dwellings: a traditional well ventilated house in a rural area, a typical postwar house with a central corridor and a multi-family house of high air-tightness in an urban area. The investigations were carried out based on 3-D numerical air flow simulations with realistic wind conditions.