OBJECTIVE To investigate the relationships between sick building syndrome and mold in newly-built dwellings. METHODS Symptoms of 61 residents in 18 dwellings were surveyed by standardized questionnaires. Mold sampling was done by gravity sampling using an open Petri dish. Potato dextrose agar (PDA) and dichloran-18% glycerol agar (DG-18) were used as the culture medium. RESULTS There were 6...

The unique architectural style of traditional “Yinzi” dwellings in Western Hunan, China, needs to be protected and their natural ventilation of patio space should also be promoted. Therefore, this study aimed at finding out the natural ventilation values and limitations of “Yinzi” dwellings as well as designing an optimum ventilation strategy for such dwellings. In this work, the thermal enviro...

In a context of risk of forest fire, the development of actions concerning wildfire prevention and land management is necessary and essential particularly in wildland urban interfaces (WUI). The term ‘WUI’ always includes components such as human presence and wildland vegetation. Both the hazard (probability of fire outbreak, distribution) and the vulnerability of urban areas can be characteriz...

This paper presents evidence that the sustainable dwelling involves the collective use of spaces and services at home. By exploring the possibility of sharing spaces and services and establishing a common use, we will save space and energy, increase the economic efficiency of dwellings, and gain new forms of socialization between users. In order to find these new forms of socialization that sat...

In 1995 and 1996 radon concentrations and effective air flows were measured in approximately 1500 Dutch dwellings built between 1985 and 1993. The goal of this investigation was to describe the trend in the average radon concentration by supplementing the first survey on dwellings built up to 1984 and to quantify the contributions of the most important sources of radon. In the living room of ne...

Background: Radon, an invisible, odorless, heaviest (nine times heavier than air) and radioactive gas is an aberration (the only gas in the long decay chain of heavy metal elements). It is ubiquitously present in dwellings and in the environment. Humans receive the greatest radiation dose in their homes. That's where they spend most time - typically 70%, more for small children. Recent worldwid...

introduction nowadays, the vulnerability of human’s dwellings to the natural disasters has been steadily increasing as the results of the population centralisation. economic activities in vast and dense regions and disorganised and irregular conditions of dwellings in which the low-income dwellers of urban and rural areas live. the scale of damage caused by a crisis is not only related to its d...