English

The performance of natural, mechanical and hybrid ventilation systems was monitored, using the tracer gas decay method, in three typical apartment buildings located in two street canyons, during summer period 2002 in Athens. The multi-zone methodology has been adopted based on the mass balance of two tracer gases (N2O and SF6) to define the air change rates. The air-exchange efficiency was determined for different ventilation systems, on the basis of the room mean age of air.

In order to perform detailed evaluation on the applicability of local dynamic similarity concept, which is described in Part 1, wind tunnel experiment was conducted under some conditions where the opening positions and the arrangement of buildings were changed in more complicated manner. As a result, it has been found that the discharge coefficient Cd can be predicted accurately from PR* for the most of opening positions, even if the approaching flow angle is varied or another building is standing near the opening.

This paper presents some results of the research project "Domestic Violence and Architectural Space", sponsored by several Mexican Governmental Offices and Citizen Organizations. One of the purposes of this project was to find the probable correlation between several physical characteristics of houses and violent behavior of their inhabitants. In this paper we report the results of the indoor climate exclusively.

Two approaches have been tested for cooling oil in a given location to temperatures well below the "normal" temperatures in that location. The first approach has been tested in Sde Boqer Campus, in the Israeli Negev desert. The soil was covered with a layer of pebbles, about 10. cm. thick, and watered in the mornings. The second approach was tested at A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. Temperature measurements were taken of moist soil under a wooden shack on stilts, about 60 cm above the ground. Thus the soil under it was permanently shaded.

The architectural decisions for building that use natural ventilation should be taken in the initial stages of design when little information is available. A new approach is to compare the potential natural ventilation of known buildings in a new site and to adapt the design of the known example. The potential of natural ventilation may be changed by the barriers to its application: reduced wind velocity, higher temperatures, noise and pollution. Simple models, constructed on measurements, give an indication of the influence of these barriers.

This paper is a synopsis of the results of a research on form of wind towers. Wind tower is an architectural element in traditional architecture of Iran. It can be seen in cities with hot-dry and hot-humid climates. This analysis demonstrates wind towers' characteristics with emphasis on their morphology.

A method is proposed to assess the natural ventilation potential by taking into account the most comprehensive set of factors involved in natural ventilation. These factors are either driving forces, such as wind pressure and stack effect, or constraints, like noise pollution and atmospheric pollution. The process considers these factors in an ordinal qualitative scale and gives its result in this same scale. This bypasses the problem of the inaccuracy of some parameters, which can be very high, especially in urban environment and in the predesign phase of a construction project.

The microclimate and dispersion in urban street canyons has become a subject of intense scientific research in recent years since complex flow patterns evolve leading many times to bad comfort conditions for the pedestrians and the habitants. Within that frame, the main aim of this study is the creation of a semi-empirical algorithm for accurate wind speed computation inside street canyons. A big experimental campaign took place in Athens in the summer of 2001 where measurements were taken in five different urban street canyons in the framework of the Urbvent European Research project.

This document focuses on the building envelope of office spaces in the UK climate. Analyses a case study typical office to explore strategies and design solutions for thermal and daylight comfort and energy savings. Detailed thermal simulation has highlighted an effective solution for providing thermal comfort, in terms of glazing and solid ratios of the faade. Daylight level analysis was also carried out in order to determine the effectiveness of the proposed faade and identify possible improvements.

The present paper describes a process for designing and applying several techniques based on bioclimatic architecture criteria and energy conservation principles in order to improve the microclimate in an outdoor space located in the greater Athens area. The thermal comfort conditions were used as an indicator for the microclimatic improvements in the tested area. For that reason, the thermal comfort conditions in twelve different outdoor space points have been calculated using two different thermal comfort bioclimatic indices developed to be used for outdoor spaces.