Thermal mass can be used in buildings toreduce the need for and dependence onmechanical heating and cooling systems whilstmaintaining environmental comfort. Activethermal mass strategies further enhance theperformance of thermal mass throughintegration with the Heating, Ventilation andAir Conditioning (HVAC) systems. For thedesign of new buildings to include activethermal mass strategies, experience fromoperational projects and design guidelines arenormally used by engineers.

Thermal mass activation (TMA) can assure, incertain cases, thermal comfort conditionswithout the need of air conditioning systems.Even if other cooling systems have to be used,night ventilation significantly reduces theduration of the working time of additionalcooling systems.The desired night ventilation rate (NVR),could be achieved using either mechanicalventilation, natural ventilation or a combinationof these two methods (hybrid ventilationsystem).In this paper, we will investigate thefeasibility of night cooling using naturalventilation for a residential building in a hotregion of Fran

Subtask B of the IEA-ECBS Annex 44"Integrating Environmentally ResponsiveElements in Buildings" deals with thedevelopment and the optimisation of integratedbuilding elements. The results of two modelbuildings exemplify the impact of buildingconcepts and user behaviour on the operation ofthe building. The analysis shows that innovativebuilding concepts and elements, which to someextent are being realised at the moment, need totake into account system integration andintelligent planning in order to achievesatisfactory results.

Misawa Homes have developed a homeaiming a zero annual energy balance, definedas the energy consumption over production byusing solar energy, in 1997. According to oursurvey, energy balances of what we call ZeroEnergy Hoines built in Tokyo or southern areaof Japan were actually zero but it was not thecase in those homes built in northern areaAs one of the top housing distributors, werealize that it is our responsibility to developand provide environmentally friendly homesto prevent global warming.

Building services create customised, user-oriented and controlled conditions for thevarious activities taking place on real estatesand related premises.This paper presents an outlool< of buildingservices trends in Finland. The outlook of thefuture development of building services ispresented in the form of technology roadmaps.Overall, the building services roadmap consistsof six separate roadmaps.

Tall buildings have traditionally been sealed andmechanical ventilated. In recent years advanceshave been made allowing the natural ventilationof tall buildings for a part of the year. Themotivation has been both energy savings andoccupant comfort. The projects realized thus farwork on the mixed mode principle. Naturalventilation is employed for a proportion of theannual period. However under certain wind andexternal temperature conditions mechanicalsystems take over.

There is an obvious and indisputable need for anincrease in the efficiency of energy utilization inbuildings. Heating, cooling and lightingappliances in buildings account for more thanone third of the world's primary energy demand.In turn, building stock is a major contributor toenergy-related environmental problems.

The decision makers in urban planning facevery often a dilemma whether to demolish orretrofit old buildings. Such a dileninia had to besolved during the reconstruction of the campusof the Faculty of Information Technologies atthe Brno University of Technology. One of thebuildings on the campus (a building that used tobe a brewery) was in a really bad shape and thequestion was whether to demolish it and build anew building instead or to put effort andresources into its retrofit.

The evaluation of the effectiveness ofcogenerations in energy saving is dependent onthe profile of electricity demand and heatdemand as many experts know. Those demandsdepend on the use and the energy efficiency ofappliances, on the envelope performancereflecting upon the heatinglcooling loads, on theclimatic conditions such as outdoor temperatureand city water temperature, etc.

This paper shows the experimental evaluation of thermal comfort of people moving from outdoors to indoors in summer. It also shows a building example which makes positive use of environmental changes to improve thermal comfort in the destination, with evaluation by field experiments in summer. A performing arts center based on a Grand Hall was analyzed in this study. The visitors pass thorough several spaces as they move from the outdoor environment to the Grand Hall, and they experience several different indoor environments.