Boas alternativas nas escolhas de materiais construtivos em um projeto arquitetônico possibilitam de forma mais assertiva os aspectos de conforto térmico em habitações de interesse social. A existência de normas que determinem alguns parâmetros de conforto térmico não significa que a unidade habitacional esteja dentro dos parâmetros ideais, já que dependem de bons projetos, correta execução da obra e estarem adequadas às restrições econômicas dos usuários. Esta pesquisa teve como motivação revelar as reclamações dos usuários referentes ao conforto térmico no interior das unidades habitacionais do BNH de Santos, construído em 1969, identificando quais eram os principais problemas térmicos ocorridos nestas unidades habitacionais. O objetivo desta pesquisa é verificar se os usuários encontram-se dentro dos padrões de conforto térmico estabelecidos por normas existentes e recomendar possíveis soluções que colaborem para que os apartamentos estejam dentro dos parâmetros de conforto térmico adequados. Através de relatos dos usuários, foi proposta uma medição no local cuja finalidade era identificar se havia compatibilidade entre os resultados obtidos na APO aplicada com os resultados medidos e identificar se estas compatibilidades aplicavam-se as normas de conforto térmico existentes. Simulações no software energyplus foram realizadas com a finalidade de propor melhorias projetuais nos apartamentos que estivessem em desconforto térmico. Os resultados mostram que a maioria dos usuários entende que, ao longo do ano, os apartamentos possuem temperaturas elevadas, gerando desconforto térmico. Estes desconfortos ocorrem possivelmente à ocupação de cada apartamento, além da influência da radiação solar direta que cada apartamento recebe ao longo do dia. / The current wide range of alternatives in building materials makes it possible for architects to have greater control over aspects affecting thermal comfort in their designs for social dwelling. The existence of rules governing thermal comfort parameters does not mean that dwelling units are always constructed within the optimal parameters, as this depends on the quality of projects, the correct execution of construction work, and the economic constraints of users. This study was motivated by user complaints relating to thermal comfort inside the BNH Santos dwelling units, which were built in 1969. These complaints identify the main thermal problems occurring in the dwellings units. The objective of this research is to verify whether users live within the existing standards for thermal comfort, and to recommend possible solutions so that the apartments can all be within proper thermal comfort parameters. Based on reports from users, measurements were taken on site to determine whether there was compatibility between the results obtained in the POE and the measured results, and to identify whether any compatibilities applied to existing standards of thermal comfort. Energyplus software simulations were carried out, in order to determine proposed improvements to apartments whose inhabitants were experiencing thermal discomfort. The results show that most users understand that, during the year, the apartments have high temperatures that generate thermal discomfort. This discomfort may occur as a result of the occupation of each apartment, and may go beyond the influence of the direct sunlight that each apartment receives throughout the day.

Published Article / The paper presents a critique of passive and active thermal comfort strategies. Extensive review of literature on passive thermal comfort energy efficiency interventions and their benefits was under taken. The paper explains the correlation between climatic comfort and energy efficiency. The applicability of the energy management process in ensuring energy efficiency is presented. Passive thermal comfort energy efficiency interventions have been seen to provide thermal comfort as well as energy efficiency. Their major shortcoming is their disability to work in all kinds of weather, heating in the winter and cooling in the summer. There is need to optimize passive thermal comfort energy efficiency interventions so that they provide heating in the winter and cooling in the summer.

This research is based on the challenge in the field of thermal comfort between the steady state and adaptive comfort theories. It challenges the concept of standard ‘comfort zone’ and investigates the application of ‘adaptive opportunity’ in the workplace. The research question is: ‘Does thermal control improve user satisfaction in cellular and open plan offices? Norwegian vs. British practices’. Currently, centrally controlled thermal systems are replacing individual thermal control in the workplace (Bordass et al., 1993, Roaf et al., 2004) and modern open plan offices are replacing traditional cellular plan offices in Scandinavia (Axéll and Warnander, 2005). However, users complaint about the lack of individual thermal control (Van der Voordt, 2003), which is predicted as an important asset to the workplace in the future (Leaman and Bordass, 2005). This research seeks users’ opinion on improving their satisfaction, comfort and health in two environments with high and low levels of thermal control, respectively the Norwegian and British workplace contexts. Two air conditioned Norwegian cellular plan offices which provide every user with control over a window, blinds, door and the ability to adjust the temperature are compared against two naturally and mechanically ventilated British open plan offices with limited thermal control over the windows and blinds for occupants seated around the perimeter of the building. Complimentary quantitative and qualitative methodologies are applied, with a particular emphasis on grounded theory, on which basis the research plan is formulated through a process of pilot studies. Occupants’ perception of their thermal environment within the building is recorded through a questionnaire and empirical building performance through thermal measurements. These traditional techniques are further reinforced with semi-structured interviews to investigate thermal control. A visual recording technique is introduced to analyse the collected information qualitatively regarding the context and meaning. The ASHRAE Standard 55-2010 and its basis do not apply to the case study buildings in this research. This thesis suggests that thermal comfort is dynamic rather than fixed. Occupants are more likely to prefer different thermal settings at different times, which is in contrast with providing a steady thermal condition according to the standard ‘comfort zone’. Furthermore, the occupants of the Norwegian cellular plan offices in this research report up to 30% higher satisfaction, comfort and health levels compared to the British open plan offices, suggesting the impact of the availability of individual thermal control. This research suggests that rather than providing a uniform thermal condition according to the standard ‘comfort zone’, office buildings are recommended to provide a degree of flexibility to allow users to find their own comfort by adjusting their thermal environment according to their immediate requirements.

No description available.

Conventional pattern construction and pattern making methods typically require the size measurements of a range of standard mannequins or human bodies in order to construct the varying pattern blocks for garment design. These various methods and skills, in the fashion industry, factory or studio are performed by pattern makers or producers, and are refined through the garment sampling and wearer trial system (an uneconomical trial and error) used on woven garments or on woven stretch garments to produce varying garment designs. This is particularly true when fabric stretch and recovery properties and values are encountered. There is a strong alliance with the heuristic knowledge. The aim of the present work is to investigate the influence of woven stretch fabric properties on pattern construction. The stretch and recovery properties of woven stretch fabrics will be taken account for pattern reduction and alteration for the development of a suitable garment pattern to fit the body shape and to meet the comfort requirement during the body movement. The relationship between the degree of alteration and reduction and the relevant fabric stretch properties is to be established. In this thesis, the stretch and recovery properties of various woven stretch fabrics have been measured. The conventional pattern is reduced and altered based on the comfort requirement for body movement, fit to body shape and the extension and recovery properties of the woven stretch fabric. Wearer trial test of the altered garment pattern of woven stretch fabrics is carried out for subjective and objective evaluation in the reference of the traditional woven garment pattern. Their comfort and garment appearances are evaluated by a panel of judges and the wearer. The size and shape stability of garments after the wearing tests are assessed. The results demonstrated that the new pattern method was significantly better for woven stretch fabric. The garment pattern for fit and comfort can be predicated and produced according to the extension and recovery properties of fabrics.

This paper explores the artistic theories of social practice and examines the artwork of Michael Rakowitz, Carmen Loch and Ernesto Neto to observe the ways artists can expand traditional understandings of art. Looking at art therapy and the ways that participation in art can make art more accessible and functional, this paper also outlines a project which functions to bring comfort to participants and expand boundaries of art through individually shaped personal experiences.

This project investigates the experience of physiological discomfort during travel through an urban environment such as London or New York in winter. The over and underground networks that lace a current metropolis, form vital passages that lead the traveller though a multitude of spaces each defined by unique temperature, humidity and activity level. It is impossible to predict possible eventualities and consequently accommodate in a selection of clothing to ensure physiological comfort. Modular clothing assemblies are currently employed for the management of physiological comfort to adjust the insulation and ventilation properties of a clothing system and rely on combinations of behavioural methods and textile properties. This method is compromised by factors such as limited availability of space and wearer’s ability to detect and respond to the onset of discomfort sensations. Current smart systems rely on temperature as a stimulus for actuation. Experimental work suggests that humidity is a more suitable trigger. Botanical mechanisms that employ hygroscopic expansion/contraction for seed and spore deployment were identified as paradigms for the development of a smart textile system. Biomimetic analysis of these natural mechanisms inspired the design of a textile prototype able to adapt its water vapour resistance in response to humidity changes in the microclimate of the clothing system. The resulting structure decreases its permeability to air by 20% gradually as relative humidity increases from 60% to 90%.

Wong Pui Lam. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 80-89). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgments --- p.i / Abstract --- p.iii / Chinese Abstract --- p.v / Table of Contents --- p.vii / List of figures --- p.ix / List of tables --- p.xi / Introduction --- p.1 / Background of the Study --- p.1 / Statement of the Problem --- p.4 / Research Questions --- p.4 / Significance of the Study --- p.4 / Hypotheses --- p.5 / Assumptions --- p.6 / Delimitations --- p.6 / Limitations --- p.7 / Operational Definitions --- p.7 / Review of Literature --- p.8 / Introduction of Literature Review --- p.8 / Literature Review on Soccer --- p.9 / Introduction --- p.9 / Movements in Soccer --- p.9 / Soccer Injury --- p.9 / Design of Soccer Shoe --- p.15 / Playing Surface of Soccer --- p.18 / Summary --- p.19 / Literature Review on Perceived Comfort --- p.20 / Introduction --- p.20 / Perceived Comfort --- p.21 / Assessment of Perceived Comfort --- p.23 / Summary --- p.25 / Literature Review on Plantar Pressure --- p.26 / Introduction --- p.26 / Plantar Pressure --- p.26 / Assessment of Plantar Pressure --- p.27 / Summary --- p.31 / Summary of Literature Review --- p.32 / Methodology --- p.34 / Subject --- p.34 / Shoe --- p.34 / Experimental Design --- p.36 / Instrumentation --- p.40 / Procedures --- p.41 / Parameters --- p.44 / Data Reduction --- p.44 / Data Analysis --- p.46 / Results --- p.49 / Perceived Comfort Rating (Experiment 1) --- p.49 / Perceived Comfort Rating (Experiment 2) --- p.52 / Plantar Pressure (Experiment 2) --- p.55 / Relationship between Perceived Comfort Rating and Plantar Pressure (Experiment 2) --- p.63 / Discussion --- p.68 / Perceived Comfort Rating (Experiment 1 and Experiment 2) --- p.68 / Plantar Pressure (Experiment 2) --- p.71 / Relationship between Perceived Comfort Rating and Plantar Pressure (Experiment 2) --- p.75 / Limitations and Recommendations --- p.76 / Conclusion --- p.78 / References --- p.80 / Appendix A --- p.90 / Appendix B --- p.91 / Appendix C --- p.92 / Appendix D --- p.93 / Appendix E --- p.94 / Appendix F --- p.96 / Appendix G --- p.97 / Appendix H --- p.98 / Appendix I --- p.102 / Appendix J --- p.106 / Appendix K --- p.109

This dissertation problematizes the ways in which the experiences of the survivors of the "comfort system," the Japanese military's Asia Pacific War/World War II system of sexual slavery, have been articulated and narrativized, with particular attention to texts by and about the Filipino comfort system survivors, or "Lolas." The juridical contexts in which the former comfort women have so frequently been asked to speak of their experiences have resulted in a paradigmatic comfort women narrative, one that is inherently problematic, despite having proven expedient and politically useful in the short term for generating public interest and support for the cause. This juridical unconscious, whose influence extends to extrajudicial contexts, has reduced the survivors' stories to spectacles of broken, violated bodies, and the survivors themselves to figures of eternal victimhood--representations that ultimately replicate the sexist, racist, and imperialist attitudes that led to the institutionalization of sexual violence during that war. I argue, however, that the comfort women's stories resist total containment; outside the paradigm of redress these narratives are rich sites of knowledge and remembrance whose meanings extend beyond the pursuit of reparations and the promise of closure. This is evident in the texts I examine here, texts by and about Filipinas, whose specific experiences of military sexual enslavement have often been overlooked in international public discourses on the comfort women issue. In the autobiographies Comfort Woman: Slave of Destiny, by Maria Rosa Henson, and The Hidden Battle of Leyte: The Picture Diary of a Girl Taken by the Japanese Military, by Remedios Felias, the survivors/authors flesh out the familial, cultural, and political contexts that inflected their sexual enslavement during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. Both authors also employ multiple languages, including the visual, as they chip away at the limitations of the paradigmatic narrative, re-membering their traumatic pasts and reconstructing socially legitimate identities. In the aftermath of a different kind of wartime sexual violence, the Lolas of Women of Mapanique: Untold Crimes of War, by Nena Gajudo, Gina Alunan, and Susan Macabuag, adopt and adapt the rhetoric of the comfort women redress movement in order to make their own voices heard. In so doing, they reveal difficult truths about the limits of our ability to comprehend and act upon sexual violence against men during wartime. Finally, I discuss three poems: Ruth Elynia S. Mabanglo's "Balada ni Lola Amonita" ("The Ballad of Lola Amonita"), Joi Barrios' "Inasawa ng Hapon" ("Taken to Wife"), and Bino A. Realuyo's "Pantoum: Comfort Woman." I find that by drawing upon the signs, symbols, and rituals of precolonial indigenous and religious Filipino culture, and by superimposing the metaphorical landscape of memory onto the literal landscape of the archipelago, these poems can offer what the paradigmatic comfort women cannot. The opportunity to break out of our voyeuristic consumption of trauma and share cultural space with the victims and survivors, and the chance to see the Lolas' collective experience as an indelible part the nation's past, present, and future.

Office buildings in hot humid Singapore appear to be designed for stable and uniform indoor conditions. It is proposed in this thesis that this is unnecessary, as occupant comfort expectations do not warrant it and energy is wasted as a result. A comfort-based approach to design is advocated, as a means of balancing user needs with the objective of energy conservation.This issue of how perception of comfort is linked with indoor stability emerged from the question, 'why do office buildings, despite Bioclimatic prescriptions for hot humid conditions, continue to be predominantly climate rejecting and active-run?' The literature was found to be polarised by arguments for architectural solutions that are climatically responsive and present lower energy costs, and those for engineered solutions that deliver greater, more consistent comfort, albeit through reliance on electro-mechanical systems.It is argued that comprehending the gaps in the literature, and between theory and application, requires a better understanding of occupant comfort. This would be an inside-out view of comfort and climate, predicated on how the occupant is affected by the building and the cognitive nature of comfort itself.Relying on a sample of office buildings, the thesis set out to establish the following:Prevalence of the climate-based approach, specifically Yeang's Bioclimatic ModelPrevalence of uniformity and stability of the indoor environmentOccupant perception of indoor comfort, both thermal and visual, particularly with regard to variability of ambient conditionsOccupant perception of various operational modes: passive, mixed and activeThese goals were addressed through observations of form, envelope and layout, occupant surveys and the monitoring of buildings in passive and active modes.It was found that the Bioclimatic approach is non-existent in the context of the Singapore office ++ / building. In the case of two Bioclimatic buildings in Malaysia, the Model is not consistently applied. This disparity appears partly due to conflicting priorities, in particular style, cost and client pressures, and partly due to assumptions about occupant comfort.The Singapore office building was found to be predominantly active-run, operating within a narrow bandwidth of temperatures across most spaces. Occupant perception of variability outside the primary workplace, however, is one of acceptance, even preference. It was found through analysis of user feedback that the office building, on the basis of comfort expectations, could be divided into three activity zones: Work, Support and Transit.This 3-tiered structure was subsequently tested through a large-scale, longitudinal survey carried out across three spaces, each representing an activity zone, within a single building. The survey was accompanied by adjustments to the building's temperature settings to test the limits of acceptance in each zone. Findings from this exercise support the notion of a three-zoned office building, in which thermal conditions for each zone could be varied without affecting comfort. Energy figures that were monitored before and after the resetting showed drops of 7.1 % in chiller consumption and 2.9% in overall consumption.These findings led to a comfort-based, tri-modal proposal for office buildings in hot humid conditions, defined as the Psychoclimatic Model for its basis in comfort expectations and the interaction between climate, building and the occupant.The implications of the thesis outcome on regulatory control in Singapore and thermal comfort theory are discussed. Recommendations are made for future research into other building types and national context, plus a parametric study into the full energy-saving potential of the Psychoclimatic Model.