As a low concentration concentrator with a larger acceptance angle and without a tracking requirement, compound parabolic concentrator is regarded as an attractive solution to improve the system performance and reduce the cost of photovoltaic (PV) system, solar thermal system, daylighting and lighting systems, etc. As a typical type of three-dimensional compound parabolic concentrator (CPC), dielectric crossed compound parabolic concentrator (dCCPC) has drawn a significant research attention in these years to explore its angular characteristics in solar collection for concentrating photovoltaics and daylighting control in buildings. This thesis provides a comprehensive study on dCCPC in aspect of daylighting control. The work starts from a general review that provides a detailed introduction of the background of CPC applications in solar energy. Then the fundamental property of dCCPC when it is utilized as skylights for daylighting control is investigated, and the performance of dCCPC is also compared to other types of CPC. With the consideration of actual application, the dCCPC panel should be designed as small as possible to reduce its weight and maintain the optical characters simultaneously. Several criteria relating to the dimension of dCCPC panel are proposed and investigated about their effects on the optical performance of dCCPC, followed by the experiments that are taken for validation. As ray-tracing simulation is the most common way to determine the optical performance of dCCPC which provides accurate result but requires long time to run, the multiple nonlinear regression model and artificial neural network model are put forward in the beginning of the second half of this thesis. The coefficients of determination of these models could reach 0.99 which imply the high accuracy of them. The optical performance of dCCPC can be calculated rapidly by knowing the sun position and sky condition. Afterwards, because the performance of dCCPC can be calculated easily for any time and any location with the mathematical model, a case study was taken to investigate the dCCPC effects on building energy consumption, indoor visual environment and economic benefits. This research proves the potential of dCCPC in terms of daylighting control. As a stationary skylight, the transmittance of it is adjusted automatically depending the sky condition and sun position. It also provides outstanding performance in indoor illuminance distribution. The dCCPC is suggested to be used in the locations with long hot seasons for the purpose of energy saving, and it is suggested for all locations with a view to glare control. For further work, more related criteria are encouraged to be added into the prediction models. The method of manufacturing dCCPC is suggested to be improved. Finally, the asymmetric dCCPC is expected to have high potential in daylighting control as vertical building facade, which is worth to be investigated.

With increasing concerns about the implications of climate change and urbanisation, there has been an increased public interest in the quality of urban open spaces in many countries because of its importance for daily people’s lives and urban environment. Recent studies in this field have shown that the microclimatic conditions are very important for people’s comfort in urban open spaces and, therefore, for the use of these spaces. Studying microclimate and thermal conditions in urban open spaces has been increased in the past years. The relationship between the microclimate, thermal comfort and the built urban form is still not understood very well. Further research in this aspect is needed. The courtyard is one of the open space types widely used in the countries of North Africa, Middle East and South Europe. The courtyard is often referred to in literature as a microclimate modifier. Because of this, many studies have been conducted in order to investigate its thermal environment. The majority of these studies dealt with the courtyard as a private space as a part of a building that can contribute to improve the indoor thermal conditions of the surrounding covered areas (its main function is to provide daylight and ventilation into the covered spaces). This study focuses on a particular type of courtyard. It deals with public enclosed courtyards which combine the features of the courtyards and public squares. This type of courtyard is not limited to provide only natural ventilation and natural daylight for the surrounding buildings, but it is mainly designed to offer a public place to perform a variety of activities for people such as social interactions, culture events, recreation, playing, business and many other activities. To the best of my knowledge, there have been no studies done on the microclimate and thermal comfort of courtyards with similar designs (function), particularly in hot dry regions. This study is conducted in Libya where the courtyard is the most common architectural pattern in its cities through all periods of the history. It is conducted in Libya where there is no published research on outdoor thermal comfort. This study investigated the microclimate, thermal comfort and the relationship with the built urban form of public enclosed courtyards in Tripoli city. The general purpose of this study was to develop a database of the thermal environment and subjective responses of people in existing public open spaces in a hot dry climate. The methodology used for this purpose was field studies. Two short-term field surveys were conducted in the two extreme seasons in Libya, one in the cool season day-time and the other one in the hot season day-time. A further field survey was performed during the hot season night-time, where no such study has been conducted in courtyards at this time in the past. In these field studies, extensive environmental measurements have been carried out in parallel to questionnaire surveys with the users of the selected case study sites. Six varied public enclosed courtyards representing three different architecture and urban-built forms of Tripoli city (old city, colonial city, and post-colonial city), were selected for the purpose of this study. The results showed that during both seasons, the microclimatic conditions in the studied courtyards were varied depending mainly on the amount of solar radiation received by their surfaces. Spatial characteristics (architectural form, geometry and surface materials and colours) had important roles in shaping the microclimates of the studied sites during both seasons. The results also showed that the distribution of thermal sensation votes, overall comfort votes and thermal preference votes were different for both seasons, as well as for the sites. Air temperature and then wind speed were found to be the most important determinants of people comfort. The findings of the study also revealed that summer night-time is considered to be of concern for urban thermal comfort in outdoor environments in Tripoli. In general, the findings confirmed a strong relationship between the built urban form (spatial characteristics of the sites), the microclimatic conditions and people’s comfort.

The thesis is an appraisal of various design aspects of new and extended primary schools in Essex built between 1973 and 1993. The investigation method included a review of primary school design literature and County Council archives, interviews with Officers concerned with the design and operation of primary schools, visits to schools, analysis of user comment by questionnaire, and investigative essays. The appraisal contains three parts:- part one a review of primary education since 1973; part two strategic aspects of primary school design, including, planning, constructional systems, aesthetics, environmental design, engineering services, interior and exterior design; part three detailed requirements of today's primary school room by room; plus conclusions promulgating lessons for the future. Main conclusions of the study are :- - Economic and political pressures have reduced quality and space standards, encouraged traditional teaching methods, and reduced community use. - The County Architect and Education department's influence diminished as power was delegated to individual schools. - Limited generic plans, including the paired classbase, have developed which are a useful precedent for future design teams. - System building produced stereotype deep plan buildings, with austere architecture which failed to respect their setting or delight users. Current traditional pitched roof designs are more successful, but relatively uninspired. - Despite environmental design and engineering attempting to balance conflicting factors and reduce energy consumption by using alternative fuels and solar passive methods, users prefer locally controlled traditional heating and ventilation systems. - Interiors are high quality with a domestic ambience, whereas exteriors are poor quality with windswept wastelands without enclosure or facilities for outside teaching. - Users believe 1980s schools are too small, sufficient classbase space is a priority, and demand better quality exteriors. This thesis should provide a clear view of the clients' requirements, past precedent, and critical relationships and will help future multi-disciplinary design teams, working under difficult conditions, produce better primary schools for Essex.

Though no comprehensive study has been made of them previously, the post-war Hertfordshire Schools are well known for progressive design and for pioneering prefabrication on a large scale. In Part 1 the background to Hertfordshire's building programme is examined in the light of the 1944 Education Act and post-war population growth coupled with severe shortages of conventional building materials and labour. Part 2 explores Hertfordshire's response to this challenge: rejecting the use of war-time hutting for new primary schools, construction offering more permanency, and freedom to design a proper teaching environment was sought. A prototype was built and a vital process of "development," informing both construction and design, emerges as the key to progress. The process is shown to have begun with the adoption of a set of novel, but existing, building components; continuing analysis, modification and selective substitution led to the evolution of an integrated constructional system. Close collaboration with both clients and manufacturers ensured that optimum fitness-for-purpose in relation to cost was achieved. The interest created by this new type of architecture is discussed before turning, in Part 3, to its extension to the more complex needs of secondary schools and colleges. It is shown that once the approach was established the main challenge was organisational; alternative materials and modules, together with internal questionings of its validity in changing conditions, were all absorbed by the development process. The approach was emulated by others who introduced the consortium idea to ensure economical component manufacture; the period reviewed ends with the formation of the South Eastern Architects Collaboration (SEAC). It is strikingly clear that the influence of modernist architectural precepts, per se, was negligible. Yet by a remorseless objectivity of design the schools achieved, perhaps uniquely, the fullest realisation of Modern Movement principles, a matter of significance to architectural history.

The UK Government has set ambitious targets for reducing energy use in buildings, including the target for all new homes to be zero-carbon by 2016. In addition, the government is committed to promote Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) as a solution for the shortage in housing that the country has been experiencing for a number of years. MMC have the potential to meet the new stricter building regulations and produce better quality homes that may use less energy for space heating but may also create homes that are more susceptible to overheating. Hence the paradox lies on the fact that a rising demand for cooling may be a result of the effort to reduce energy demand for heating. This innovative research evaluates eight different construction methods built to meet the proposed targets and demonstrates by means of computer simulations and field monitoring that overheating in British homes may be a serious current issue if it is not accounted for during the design and construction of houses and that it will be a major problem in the future, when most of the houses built now will still be in use. It also shows that traditional heavyweight thermal mass integrated in a dwelling envelope may help overcome the issue but it presents limited benefits in highly insulated buildings and its integration may jeopardise some of the benefits of MMC constructions. Therefore the use of solutions such as Phase Change Materials (PCM) and Earth-Air Heat Exchangers (EAHE) may become of more importance in the near future. These strategies have been assessed by means of computer simulation, laboratory and field experimental work and have been shown effective. Two real life applications where these strategies are combined, the Stoneguard House and the BASF House, both part of the Creative Energy Homes project, have been investigated. The houses were appraised not just in today's climate but also in the future, taking into account some of the potential effects of climate change. In addition, a novel type of low-energy space conditioning system has been proposed by the author and tested with positive results. The hybrid system integrates PCMs and EAHEs aiming to overcome the limitations of both strategies and to provide occupants with a pleasant alternative to the conventional air-condition systems.

The outcome of an emergency is largely determined by the behaviour of the people involved. To improve the safety of buildings and to increase the effectiveness of response procedures and training programmes it is often necessary to predict human behaviour in emergency situations. There are several approaches which can be used to make these predictions, but not all had previously been systematically analysed and therefore their appropriateness for any given application was unknown. This thesis describes an analysis of approaches for predicting human behaviour in emergencies. The research focussed on approaches which could be used by human factors professionals to extend the contribution this systems-oriented and user-focussed discipline can make to managing risks and reducing danger. The investigated approaches were evaluated against criteria for judging their quality, including validity, reliability, resources, sensitivity and ethics. In research conducted to test the approaches, fire drills, virtual environments (VEs) and a new talk-through approach, in which participants describe the hypothetical actions they would take in an emergency scenario, demonstrated potential for predicting behaviour in emergency situations. These approaches were subsequently evaluated in a standardised comparison, in which each one was applied to analyse the behaviour demonstrated during an evacuation from a university building. The observed frequencies of behaviour produced by each approach were significantly correlated, as were the sequences of behaviour. All of the approaches demonstrated replicability. The resources required to apply each approach were relatively low, especially for the talk-through approach. Based on the findings from this research, and drawing upon previous work from the scientific literature, guidance was provided for selecting approaches and methods for behavioural prediction in emergency situations. The talk-through approach is suitable for use during the concept phase of a design as it is quick to implement and requires low resources. VEs and simulation tools are more appropriate for design activities when detailed CAD models become available. Fire drills can provide useful measures of human behaviour in evacuation scenarios, but require a physical representation of the building or environment under investigation. Fire drills, VEs and simulation tools can be used to inform emergency response procedures. Predictions from all of the aforementioned approaches can support the development of training programmes. This guidance was previously unavailable to human factors professionals and now serves both to inform design work and support the evaluation of existing evacuation procedures and protocols.

A key objective of this research was to carry out a Post Occupancy Evaluation on a sustainable home recently built in the United Kingdom (UK) (code level 4, UK-CSH) through first person research in order to produce evidence that shows that the assessment process and the certification obtained are not enough to secure targets, given that the inclusion of occupants and its complexity have not been fully considered. Furthermore, the research reveals that the occupants of sustainable homes are not fully aware of the lifestyle implications of such homes. The inhabitants’ experience of living and the performance in the experimental sustainable home produced qualitative data that was integrated with the quantitative data generated and collected by several different tools to measure them. Among the tools the main one was the 48-sensors monitoring system installed in the house, the other tools were a tracking device system to analyse individual used of energy and room permanence, diary of home events, walk through, observations and photographs for architecture analysis, extended and short length questionnaires and face to face interviews were applied. The techniques to process and analyse the obtained data ranged from simple Excel spreadsheets to the use of software packages, such as SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) and NVivo (for verbatim interviews). And, one of the main differences between this POE study and those usually undertaken is the fact that this was a first-person research. ‘Hands on’ experience makes it possible to identify, select and verify real and direct problems that affect the expected performance of a sustainable home. So, when the research process is re-applied to a similar condition, it facilitates the procedure and techniques, potentially avoiding the production of excessive data and over-sophisticated measuring systems and reducing the time taken to obtain robust results. This procedure should especially be applied to social housing which is industrialised and has similar specifications. In the drive to make homes sustainable, energy efficiency measures are moving at a pace far in excess of the preparedness of home users and their culture. The results of this research provide evidence of the importance of this issue and the lesson learned from the first person research, as a tool for post occupancy evaluation, is that certain problems can easily be solved while others require more profound revision. Instead of just being a new home for exhibition purposes, demonstration homes present an opportunity for implementing a First Home Occupant POE procedure, especially on new massive sustainable “social housing” developments, as they can be built quickly and inhabited by any prospective tenant willing to contribute to sustainable living, before other new owners or tenants move in.

Pneumatic clear foil cushion systems, notably as ETFE foil cushions have been developed as an alternative technology to large-scale glass glazing systems for wide-span buildings. The systems display better thermal performance and have advantages of extremely low dead-weight constructions compared to conventional glazing systems, and thereby the increasing popularity of foil cushion cladding systems have been witnessed in the last decades. However due to their lightweight and thinness, the thermal behaviour of architectural foil membranes exhibits a high responsiveness to variations in external conditions. For this reason, it is argued that the reliable prediction of the thermal environment experienced in a space enclosed by a tensile membrane skin construction would require a bespoke modelling of the dynamic thermal behaviour of such a construction at first. Building envelopes clad with such cushions, such as the famous Eden project in the UK, need a dynamic system to control overheating in summer. A cooling liquid layer constructed within a clear multi-layer toil cushion envelope is proposed in this thesis. It enables rapid cooling effects on the building envelope. The system is based on an evaporative cooling mechanism and is integrated with the inflated cushion to provide desired cooling effect eco-friendly. The implications of the forms and configurations of clear foil cushion constructions with and without a cooling liquid layer in the overheating control were evaluated in this research project. Data were collected from a series of experiments to ascertain the effects of the additional cooling water layer on heat transfer processes within the foil skin construction. The results demonstrated that the thermal behaviour of a foil penal depended mainly on surface convection and radiation heat transfer and the cooling performance of the water layer within the foil skin constructions was evident. The initial experimental outcomes were valuable for the design of such novel dynamic cooling systems. In order to assess the effect that different pneumatic foil skin constructions with a water layer might have on thermal conditions inside the enclosed space, the thermal behaviour of full-scale indoor double-layer foil cushion enclosure and triple-layer foil skin construction, with varying evaporative cooling integrative ways and foil skin constructions, were tested during the course of this research. The test datasets were compared according to the research objectives and with the environmental control strategy proposed at the initial design stages. The investigated thermal behaviour of the foil skin constructions incorporating a water layer serves as a reference basis for the analytic modelling of the tested double and triple-layer foil skin constructions in order to predict their surface temperatures and the solar radiation directed into the space they enclose. The approach is based on a detailed modelling of the radiative and convective heat transfer processes affecting the membrane surfaces. These prediction results derived from the model were compared against the environmental data obtained on the test rigs. The developed analytical model is only tentative, as some thermal transfer processes, such as long wave radiation exchanges between the foil sheets, have not been accounted for in this model. Further work is required to develop this model in order to appreciate the thermal performance of such novel foil cushion constructions more precisely and extend their building applications.

The focus of this thesis is on wayfinding within buildings from an evacuation/circulation modelling perspective. Majority of the existing evacuation models simplify the process of wayfinding by assigning the shortest path to all agents. This is not a realistic representation of the actual route choices made by people in circulation/evacuation conditions. Wayfinding is a dynamic process and cannot be modelled as a static process by assigning pre-determined routes to the agents. Wayfinding is thus a very important aspect to be modelled accurately within evacuation/circulation models to simulate more realistic human behaviour. The main goal of this thesis is to develop an agent based wayfinding model for the buildingEXODUS evacuation/circulation model. There were four major problems to be solved: spatial representation of the environment, implementation of graph search algorithms to generate choice set of routes for the agents to choose from, determination of factors that influence people‟s wayfinding behaviour and the development/integration of the agent based wayfinding model within the buildingEXODUS evacuation/circulation model. The existing spatial representation technique in buildingEXODUS was modified to best suit the requirement of the wayfinding model. Various graph search algorithms such as A*, Dijkstra and Yen‟s algorithm were studied. Alternate algorithms were developed to quickly generate routes and were compared with the performance of the Yen‟s algorithm. Two surveys were then developed and published on line. A total of 1200 participants from various countries took the survey. The survey results were statistically analysed and was utilised to model the decision making behaviour of the agents in the wayfinding model. An agent based wayfinding model was then developed incorporating features such as: spatial representation in terms of a graph, application of route choice set generating algorithms, agents with their individual attributes using multi criteria decision analysis methods to choose routes and changing routes dynamically on encountering congestion or gaining new exit knowledge. This wayfinding model was then integrated within the buildingEXODUS model. The buildingEXODUS model passes spatial information and agent location to the wayfinding model at the start of the simulation. The wayfinding model applies the graph search algorithms to generate routes and assigns routes (a set of target locations) to the agents. The buildingEXODUS model generates events under certain circumstances: when agents reach a target location, encounter congestion or learn the location of a new exit. The wayfinding model listens to these events and assigns a new route to the agents if an alternate route is more favourable than the initially chosen one. Therefore, there is constant communication between the fine node buildingEXODUS and the coarse node wayfinding models, with the latter being responsible for assigning routes to the agents and the former being responsible for navigating the agents from one target location to the next. Thus, a sophisticated wayfinding model incorporating data from surveys has been developed using C++ and has been integrated into the buildingEXODUS evacuation model. The introduction of the wayfinding model brought about significant changes to the evacuation statistics produced by the buildingEXODUS model. The difference was more significant in buildings where there was more than one path to an exit. The default option of the existing evacuation models is to assign the shortest path to all the agents in the simulation whereas with the wayfinding model, agents choose alternative paths based on other wayfinding criteria as well such as time, number of turns, etc.

Over the past two decades, more than 30 evacuation models have been developed to reproduce people’s movement patterns in evacuation. However, evacuation models cannot assess whether one building is better than another in regards to evacuation wayfinding. There exist techniques that attempt to compare different buildings for evacuation complexity. However, these graph measures are primarily used to measure the relative accessibility of different locations in a spatial system and were not generated for the purpose of comparing the complexity of different buildings. Currently only one method exists, Donegan’s method [DT98] [PD96] [DT99], which can be applied to compare building for evacuation ability. However, this technique is severely limited to specific building layouts and only considers connectivity. Taking the Donegan’s method as a first step, this thesis extends this algorithm to obtain a new Distance Graph Method, which considers travel distance as well as being able to be applied to graphs with circuits. Then a further building complexity measures is presented, the Global Complexity (PAT) method. This is shown to be a valid measure which considers additional important factors such as wayfinding time, travel distance and the areas of compartments. The Distance Graph Method and Global Complexity (PAT) methods are based on a room graph representation which does not have the descriptive power to describe the actual routes taken during the wayfinding process. To resolve this drawback a further method is presented which utilises a ‘route-based graph’ that has the ability to represent the real route that an evacuee will take during the wayfinding process. Furthermore the Distance Graph Method and Global Complexity (PAT) methods assume a “worst state” calculation for the nodal information. This means for buildings with more than one exit these methods calculate a global building complexity according to a mathematical formula, which considers all exits separately. To address these problems, the final method, Complexity Time Measure, is presented, which is based around a number of wayfinding behaviour rules over a ‘route-based graph’ representation. This addresses the question: ‘If an occupant is positioned at a random location within a building, on average how long does the occupant need to spend to find an available exit?’ Hence, provides a means to compare complex buildings, with circuits, in relation to evacuation capability.