In Europe, the building sector accounts for 40% of energy consumption which has a strong influence on greenhouse gas emissions. The book deals with efficient methodologies aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector. This includes analyses of the building envelopes, the heating systems, the use of solar energy and the assessment of the environmental and energy sustainability of the proposed solutions. After a brief introduction to the physical fundamentals involved in the study, results are presented to support cost-effective technical strategies to promote actions for energy saving, in the most critical fields and with the most economic advantage.

This book aims at capitalizing and transmitting know-how about the design of Augmented Environments (AE) from some of the most prominent laboratories in the field worldwide. The authors belong to the RUFAE network (Research on User- Friendly Augmented Environments, founded in 2002) who meet in research seminars to share experience; Writing this book was perceived as an opportunity to look back over the last few years to sum up important findings; and formalize their approach and experience, which they never had the time or opportunity to do. Although the authors of this book have very different backgrounds, striking similarities emerge in their approach and design principles: never-endingness, activity-orientedness, continuous design, realism are some of the pillars of this approach; enabling to deal with the complex, heterogeneous, multi-user and mul- purpose constructions which AE designers have to face. The book illustrates how these principles enabled them to construct robust, ef- cient, and user-friendly Augmented Environments in spite of the many challenges to make these operational. We hope their experience will help the reader. Primary audience: Academics, Students and Professionals involved in the CHI, CSCW, Ubicomp, Cooperative Building communities. Computer Scientists int- ested by end-users and applications, Social Scientists operating in the IT domain, IT & Organization Consultants. Secondary audience: Developers of office and conferencing applications or middleware, Architects of office buildings, Space Planners, Designers; Facility Managers; IT, furniture & building Business Communities.

Visitors from across the country and around the world flock to U.S. national parks to explore their beauty. Little do they know that the National Park Service (NPS) has been guiding and enhancing their experience for more than 100 years. The NPS's mission is to protect and preserve important places. Learn how the NPS proves time and again that it is up to the job. Created in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution, this Spanish book builds students' literacy skills while fostering curiosity, creativity, and innovation. The hands-on STEAM challenge is ideal for makerspace activities, and guides students through every stage of the engineering design process. This Spanish book features: Real-world examples provide insight into how the engineering design process is used to solve real-world problems; Content that highlights every component of STEAM: science, technology, engineering, the arts, and math; Career advice from Smithsonian employees working in STEAM fields; Dynamic images and text features enhance the reading experience and build visual literacy.

Masonry is a traditional, highly durable mode of construction; many heritage masonry structures, built at various historical periods, have survived, to a lesser or greater extent, adverse environmental conditions, which have reduced, sometimes considerably, their integrity, strength and durability. Due to the cultural significance of heritage architecture, resources are today allocated towards their restoration and conservation. This volume comprises distinguished contributions from the Transactions of the Wessex Institute describing research efforts towards achieving these objectives. Topics covered include: Understanding of constituent materials, modes of construction and overall mechanical behaviour; Dynamic behaviour; Sonic pulse velocity tests; Micro-vibration measurements; Failure mechanisms; Structural strength assessment; Binding material mixtures; Composition and properties of ancient mortars; Contemporary repair material; Infra-red thermography measurements; Mortars, plasters, renders and grouts. The various issues mentioned above are addressed by the present collection of scientific papers with considerable insight and thoroughness.It is thus hoped that this volume will fill a gap in the literature as a valuable source of information and guidance to researchers and engineers working in the area of restoration and conservation of heritage masonry structures.

This is an annotated translation of what is perhaps the most important Ottoman literary source for the architectural monuments and urban form of the Ottoman capital, Istanbul: Hafiz Huseyin bin Ismail Ayvansarayi's Hadikat al-Cevami (The Garden of Mosques). There are also separate descriptions of each of Istanbul's more than 800 mosques, plus accounts of its medreses, tombs, tekkes and other pious foundations.

This book advocates a fresh approach to planning that anticipates, rather than reacts to, the changes in climate currently in process. Today's spatial planning procedures rely on historical evidence instead of preparing for factors that by definition lie in the future, yet which are relatively uncontroversial: shortages of water, sea level rise and rises in average temperatures being but three examples. Arguing for more flexibility, the contributors view 'complexity' as the key to transforming the way we plan in order to better equip us to face uncertainties about our future environment.

"House Rating Schemes" provides information to students, architects and researchers in the field of the built environment. It reviews current House Rating Schemes (HRS) used in different countries and investigates how these schemes assess the thermal performance of a house. It challenges the way that these schemes assess building energy efficiency and their inability to evaluate free running buildings which do not need an energy load for heating and cooling indoor environments. Finally, the book proposes a new index and method for HRS in which the efficiency of a house design can be evaluated with reference to its thermal performance in both free running and conditioned operation modes. The book deals with various approaches and methods for rating buildings on the basis of different indexes, with implications for both energy efficiency and thermal comfort. It also guides readers through a computer simulation program for developing a rating system that evaluates and ranks building energy efficiency.

This book examines the work of the Preservation Movement, focusing on the complex battle that pitched tradition-bound Yankees not only against immigrants and radicals but against the "fakery" of machined Colonial Revival forms. It looks into the meaning of preserved artefacts and sites, and links their preservation to campaigns that were aimed at Americanizing immigrants and establishing cultural order. Through its particular focus, this book explores many of the driving forces that shaped New England during the Progressive Era.

In his book " Hope Town: Reality of a Dream" Richard L. Seaberg explores through a fictitious story, historical facts and his own ink drawings the architectural development of a special place called Hope Town in the Bahamas. In Part 1 of the book "Sarah and The Goat," the reader is brought back to the late 1700's when the Islands of the Bahamas were first settled by Loyalists and relives a way of life that may even be similar to our present day. In Part 2 of the book, "Older Houses of Hope Town," the dreams of building a new life are connected with the building of houses that created a community appropriately named Hope Town. The "Reality of a Dream" has been realized by many in search of a new life in Hope Town from the time it was originally settled until the present. "The tropical setting of swaying palm trees and inspiring blue green waters is like living on the untouched edge of the world." Richard L. Seaberg

This book focuses on spearheading the integration of maintainability, starting right from the design stage. To enable such integration, improving the knowledge of maintainability and setting maintainability benchmarks are two key issues. These objectives are fulfilled with the development of a comprehensive defect library, a material manual and a maintainability scoring system. These tools serve to define acceptable standards in design and construction practices, thus enhancing long-term maintainability of facilities.Maintainability of Facilities: For Building Professionals aims to improve the standard and quality of design, construction and maintenance practices to produce efficient facilities that require minimum maintenance. The text covers technical issues related to maintainability of major components of a facility, and discusses the implications and selection of materials for high maintainability.The target readers are practitioners and students in architecture, engineering, building, real estate, construction, project management, facilities management, quantity and building surveying.