English

The low energy retrofit of the UK existing building stock is an urgent matter after the government’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 80% until 2050.

The present work proposed a method to determine time period of thermal adaption of occupants in naturally ventilated building, based on the relationship between their neutral temperatures and running mean outdoor air temperature. Based on the data of the field investigation, the subjects’ time period of thermal adaption was obtained with the proposed method. The result revealed that the subjects needed to take 4.25 days to fully adapt to a step-change in outdoor air temperature.

This lifelong interaction between the cognitive and physical realms has existed overtime. During the evolution of design solutions inhabitants adapted form and materials to the conditions of nature; working with natural forms and climatic cycles rather than considering forces as obstacles to overcome has hermeneutic and practical values; used by intentional makers. The cultural identity in the inhabitant made the home, and then the process of home-making ‘made’ the inhabitant; a common reward.

Thermal comfort study has been conducted in two Jakarta’s private universities, namely Tarumanagara University (Untar) and Mercu Buana University (UMB). Ninety architecture students involved in this study, collecting 900 thermal votes from various indoor temperature conditions. Comparing to the previous study done in Jakarta in 1993 the result of this study was quite different, subjects were comfortable in much lower temperature. Even when compared with the previous study in Bandung with a lower outdoor temperature, subjects’ comfort temperature in this study was about similar..

Through history; a large body of research has found a relationship between the IEQ and the recovery of patients in healthcare facilities. IEQ factors include natural ventilation, daylighting, acoustics, materials off gassing, etc... This research is to identify the guidelines to healthy daylighting in hospital buildings. Research methods include grounded theory finding through intensive literature review and analysis of successful international examples.

This paper presents a logistic proposal for the research project related to thermal comfort in Rio de Janeiro’s open spaces. Part of the investigation consists of collecting weather data and applying a thermal sensation survey to pedestrians in Rio de Janeiro city’s centre. The weather station used is a Davis-Pro2, composed by a cylindrical module body moulded on plastic and sustained by a central tube attached to a tripod, both in galvanized iron.

The main purpose of this paper is to review the effect of the dynamic aspect of natural air movement on occupants’ thermal comfort. Recent advanced investigations addressed the dynamic aspect of air movement in terms of turbulence intensity, probability distribution and power spectrum. This paper is not only about providing a thorough description and discussion on the underlying physical mechanisms of these factors, it is also about reviewing the effect of these parameters on occupants’ thermal sensation, perception and comfort under different thermal conditions.

The Low Income Group (L.I.G) in Lagos, Nigeria represents about 70% of the 18million population of the state. They are an important part of the economic activities in the state, with the bulk of public transportation and informal trading being undertaken by these groups. Housing, as the second most important human need after food has a profound influence on the health, efficiency, social behaviour, satisfaction and general welfare of the community.

The research presented in this paper was conducted in order to test whether the thermal preferences of occupants in low energy houses are influenced by their environmental values. This was done through a thermal comfort study and Environmental Attitudes Inventory (EAI) of 40 low energy households located within two very different climates, cold temperate and hot humid, in Australia.

While the desire for thermal control in our homes may today appear natural, its provision in the domestic sphere of early twentieth-century Australia was shaped by debates about regional development, household reform and racial acclimatisation. Contemporary publications by experts in tropical medicine highlight how thermal comfort research in Australia was intimately connected to the political objectives of white settlement in the tropical North.