People spend most of their time indoors and mostly in the dwelling. It is therefore important to investigate associations between indoor exposure in dwellings and health. Symptoms that may be related to the indoor environment are sometimes referred to as the "sick building syndrome" (SBS). SBS involves symptoms such as eye, skin and upper airway irritation, headache and fatigue. Three longitudinal studies and one prevalence study on personal and environmental risk factors for SBS in adults were performed. The prevalence study included measurements of indoor exposures in the dwellings. The longitudinal studies, with 8-10 years follow-up time, showed that smoking and indoor paint emissions were risk factors for SBS. Moreover, building dampness and moulds in dwellings were risk factors for onset (incidence) of general symptoms, skin symptoms and mucosal symptoms. In addition subjects living in damp dwellings have a lower remission of general symptoms and skin symptoms. Hay fever was a risk factor for onset of skin symptoms and mucosal symptoms, and asthma was a risk factor for onset of general and mucosal symptoms. Biomarkers of allergy and inflammation (bronchial reactivity, total IgE, ECP and eosinophil count) were predictors of onset of SBS symptoms, in particular mucosal symptoms. In the prevalence study, any SBS-symptom was associated with some individual volatile organic compounds of possible microbial origin (MVOC) e.g. 2-pentanol, 2-hexanon, 2-pentylfuran and 1-octen-3ol. Moreover, there were associations between indoor levels of formaldehyde and the plasticizer Texanol and any SBS. The result from the study indicates that individual MVOC are better indicators of SBS than the total value of MVOC. A final conclusion is that smoking, dampness and moulds and emissions from indoor painting may increase the onset of SBS. The indoor environment in dwellings over time has improved, but there is still a need for further improvements of the indoor environment in dwellings. More longitudinal SBS studies are needed.

In his “Letter on Humanism,” Martin Heidegger conveys the importance he attributes to poetry when he states: “Language is the house of being” (“Letter” 239). In response to his early Jesuit education, he developed a secular alternative to theology with his existential phenomenology. Theology, poetry, and phenomenology share the basic concern of explaining the foundations of being. For Heidegger, ownership characterizes being in a fundamental way; in Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning), he establishes the “Ereignis” (“event of appropriation”) as the foundation of being. Ownership lies at the core of being in his thinking following Being and Time. Yet his philosophy ignores the material circumstances of ownership. By way of a materialist critique of Heidegger’s Idealist phenomenology, I expose how property-relations are encoded in the modern poetry and philosophy of dwelling with the question: who owns the house of being? The answer lies in “self-possession,” which represents historical subjectivity as the struggle for the means of production. Paul Celan, T. S. Eliot, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Paul Valéry are all poets who address the relationship between being and ownership in expressing what Marx and Engels call the “language of real life” in The German Ideology (26). In 1927, Eliot converted to Anglicanism and found solace in the realm of faith; by opting for the theology of dispossession, he surrendered his historical subjectivity. Rilke thought that he could find refuge from the marketplace in aesthetic beauty and pure philosophy but eventually disabused himself of his illusion. Similarly, Valéry sought refuge in the space of thought; basing reality in the mind, he forsook the social realm as the site of contestation for gaining ownership over being. As a poet who distinguished himself from the Idealism of his predecessors, Celan developed a structure of dialogue based upon shared exchange on common ground. A materialist approach to the poetry and philosophy of dwelling exposes property-relations as the foundation of the house of being.

In his “Letter on Humanism,” Martin Heidegger conveys the importance he attributes to poetry when he states: “Language is the house of being” (“Letter” 239). In response to his early Jesuit education, he developed a secular alternative to theology with his existential phenomenology. Theology, poetry, and phenomenology share the basic concern of explaining the foundations of being. For Heidegger, ownership characterizes being in a fundamental way; in Contributions to Philosophy (From Enowning), he establishes the “Ereignis” (“event of appropriation”) as the foundation of being. Ownership lies at the core of being in his thinking following Being and Time. Yet his philosophy ignores the material circumstances of ownership. By way of a materialist critique of Heidegger’s Idealist phenomenology, I expose how property-relations are encoded in the modern poetry and philosophy of dwelling with the question: who owns the house of being? The answer lies in “self-possession,” which represents historical subjectivity as the struggle for the means of production. Paul Celan, T. S. Eliot, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Paul Valéry are all poets who address the relationship between being and ownership in expressing what Marx and Engels call the “language of real life” in The German Ideology (26). In 1927, Eliot converted to Anglicanism and found solace in the realm of faith; by opting for the theology of dispossession, he surrendered his historical subjectivity. Rilke thought that he could find refuge from the marketplace in aesthetic beauty and pure philosophy but eventually disabused himself of his illusion. Similarly, Valéry sought refuge in the space of thought; basing reality in the mind, he forsook the social realm as the site of contestation for gaining ownership over being. As a poet who distinguished himself from the Idealism of his predecessors, Celan developed a structure of dialogue based upon shared exchange on common ground. A materialist approach to the poetry and philosophy of dwelling exposes property-relations as the foundation of the house of being.

The purpose of the present dissertation is to examine the placing of the housing question on the agenda of social policy, the implications of housing for society, and the possibilities for simple shelter to be transformed into real family homes. The debate emphasizing the dwelling as the smallest social component and the home as the most important place for the raising of citizens has been studied. The dissertation consists of four essays, each of which can be seen as a separate study yet at the same time as interrelated due to the overall theme of the dissertation, housing and the home. The period under investigation is 1889-1929 and the place is Stockholm. The first section deals with philanthropic building activities, described through four representative examples: Föreningen för Välgörenhetens Ordnande, Stockholms Arbetarehem, Govenii Minne and Ella Heckscher's home for tubercular female workers. This section opens with two introductory chapters treating the philanthropic attitude toward housing and the relation of the family to the housing question, respectively. The theme of the second section is the significance of aesthetics for the home. This section also opens with two introductory chapters, whereof the first describes the aesthetic ideals of the epoch and the second presents the so-called "aesthetic educators". A number of pamphlets written about the home are discussed, as well as a selection from the home exhibitions of the day. In a closing chapter, the entrance of the architects into the housing-question arena is presented. The third study deals with politics in the broad sense of the term. The interest of social reformers for the housing question is traced by examining organizations like Studenter och Arbetare and Centralförbundet för Socialt Arbete. The second chapter deals with the contributions of academics to the housing question. The social democratic women belonging to the Stockholm's Women's Club are heard from, and the engagement of women in this question is further delineated through studying periodicals like Morgonbris and Tidevarvet. In the closing chapter, the establishment and treatment of the housing question within the municipal council of Stockholm is discussed. The fourth and final section treats the HSB. First, the origins of the HSB in 1923 via the tenant's movement and guild socialism are discussed. Thereafter the organization and membership of the HSB is described. A brief biography of Sven Wallander, the leading figure of the HSB is provided, followed by a chapter on the periodical Vår Bostad. The final two chapters discuss the materialized ideas themselves: the buildings built by the HSB and the homes which were set up in them, stimulated by the actual physical buildings and discussions about the right way of living in them. The story of the home has solid empirical grounding. This study has been conducted from different perspectives in order that a more nuanced knowledge might be acquired. Vision and practice have proven to be so closely interwoven that it is not always possible to distinguish between them. / digitalisering@umu

År 1987 trädde en ny byggnadslag i kraft, Plan- och bygglagen(PBL). I och med den nya lagen minskade kommunens och byggnadsnämndens kontroll av projekteringshandlingar och besiktningar ute på arbetsplatsen. Efter lagändringen beror den slutgiltiga kvaliteten på en byggnad i större utsträckning på byggherrens och entreprenörernas egenkontroll. P.g.a. olika intressekonflikter inom kommunen, och att det kan förekomma starka kopplingar mellan byggherre och entreprenör, är det inte alltid självklart att kommunens tillsyn vid nybyggnation gällande till exempel egenskapskrav på energihushållning och värmeisolering utförs tillfredsställande.Med ovanstående i åtanke undersökte vi fyra flerbostadshus, två i Värnamo kommun samt två i Kristianstad. Vi undersökte om husen uppfyller de ställda värmeisoleringskraven enligt BBR(Boverkets Byggregler) 9 Kap. samt vilka krav som fanns med i respektive projekts kontrollplan. Endast ett av de fyra husen uppfyllde de ställda kraven. I kommunens kontrollplaner för de undersökta objekten ställs krav på värmeisoleringsberäkningar men några beräkningar på detta finns ej arkiverade hos kommunerna. / In 1987, a new law of building became effective, Plan- och bygglagen(PBL). The building committees' inspection of construction sites and documents decreased. The final quality of the buildings now depended in greater extent on the property developers and the contractors internal control. Due to different interests within the municipality and because of strong connections between property developers and contractors, it is not always a matter of course that e.g. the inspection of thermal insulation and energy housekeeping is executed in a satifactory fashion. With the above in mind we examined four multi-dwelling buildings, two in municipality of Värnamo and two in Kristianstad. We examined if the buildings comply with the thermal insulation requirement according to BBR (the swedish building code) and which requirements that were stated in the different projects documents of inspection.Only one out of the four buildings complies with the requirements according to BBR. In the municipality documents there are requirements of thermal insulation calculations but there are no documents that verifies that such calculations have been executed.

<p>År 1987 trädde en ny byggnadslag i kraft, Plan- och bygglagen(PBL). I och med den nya lagen minskade kommunens och byggnadsnämndens kontroll av projekteringshandlingar och besiktningar ute på arbetsplatsen. Efter lagändringen beror den slutgiltiga kvaliteten på en byggnad i större utsträckning på byggherrens och entreprenörernas egenkontroll. P.g.a. olika intressekonflikter inom kommunen, och att det kan förekomma starka kopplingar mellan byggherre och entreprenör, är det inte alltid självklart att kommunens tillsyn vid nybyggnation gällande till exempel egenskapskrav på energihushållning och värmeisolering utförs tillfredsställande.Med ovanstående i åtanke undersökte vi fyra flerbostadshus, två i Värnamo kommun samt två i Kristianstad. Vi undersökte om husen uppfyller de ställda värmeisoleringskraven enligt BBR(Boverkets Byggregler) 9 Kap. samt vilka krav som fanns med i respektive projekts kontrollplan. Endast ett av de fyra husen uppfyllde de ställda kraven. I kommunens kontrollplaner för de undersökta objekten ställs krav på värmeisoleringsberäkningar men några beräkningar på detta finns ej arkiverade hos kommunerna.</p> / <p>In 1987, a new law of building became effective, Plan- och bygglagen(PBL). The building committees' inspection of construction sites and documents decreased. The final quality of the buildings now depended in greater extent on the property developers and the contractors internal control. Due to different interests within the municipality and because of strong connections between property developers and contractors, it is not always a matter of course that e.g. the inspection of thermal insulation and energy housekeeping is executed in a satifactory fashion. With the above in mind we examined four multi-dwelling buildings, two in municipality of Värnamo and two in Kristianstad. We examined if the buildings comply with the thermal insulation requirement according to BBR (the swedish building code) and which requirements that were stated in the different projects documents of inspection.Only one out of the four buildings complies with the requirements according to BBR. In the municipality documents there are requirements of thermal insulation calculations but there are no documents that verifies that such calculations have been executed.</p>

This text aims to place nonhuman animals at the core of urban space and history to provide an insight into the life and materiality of dogs in Stockholm 1824-1920. The theoretical possibilities of more-than-human enquiries into history are discussed along with non-human animals as historical beings together with humans creating a common history (Ingold 2000, Whatmore 2002). Moreover nonhuman animals are discussed and incorporated in an exploration into using what is here discussed as a multispecies narrative and used as an analytical tool to try to avoid the pitfalls of representationalism. It is also introduced as a possible new methodology to approaching the urban landscape within the field of environmental history. The main empirical material of dogs in nineteenth century Stockholm are records from the city dog pound along with records of dog tax and rabies. Other than archive material a wide range of material contemporary to the research period such as art, photography and literature is used as part of a broad exploration of nonhuman animals as integral in materiality of Stockholm and as historical beings. Findings of the study confirm that dogs and other nonhuman animals hugely impacted both the spatial structure and social space of Stockholm and that this impact transformed over the research period defined by societal changes. More specifically the study shows that dogs played an important role as free roaming scavengers and were for this reason accepted as an integral part of the city in the nineteenth century in Stockholm. Later in the research period when the city became more regulated this role started to change and dogs were not accepted loose on the streets to the same degree and transformed into pets and symbols of social mobility and class. Regarding the use of a multispecies narrative the conclusion that can be drawn form this thesis is that is opens up for discussions on the materiality of urban space and history.

Design is the meeting of the processes that one employs and the intentions that one brings. Exploring an inductive methodology situates the design environmentally. The inherent dynamic and constructive processes, which arise from the qualities of methodological inquiries, are the basis for the inhabitation within place. An inductive process began by exploring the role of aural perception prior to contextual and design intentions. This resulted in a strong emphasis on experience and presence. Research into analogous disciplines resulted in an exploration of methods that facilitate the inductive operations of media, particularly noise. The provision of a contextual framework for observations provided order to method. A strategy was posited, where the development of constructs that addressed the entire range of environmental dimensions, from site to structure, could supply integrity to the situation of contextual forces; their tension and release. Hence, a general theory for the constructive inhabitation of place.

Wetlands are defined by New Zealand's Resource Management Act 1991 as "includ[ing] permanently or intermittently wet areas, shallow water and land water margins that support a natural ecosystem of plants and animals that are adapted to wet conditions" (RMA 1991). Over ninety per cent of New Zealand wetlands have been lost or modified. Several conservation groups composed of volunteers have formed to protect the few remaining areas. These wetlands and their conservators serve as an interesting study into human-nature relationships because of the precarious state of the ecosystems and the dedicated, local volunteer groups that form around them. I explored the relationship between the two through the 'soft systems tradition', which places importance on a human constructed "system of interest" (Oreszczyn 2000, p.109) in order to answer three research questions: How can the relationship between members of the wetland conservation groups and the wetlands they preserve be described; What 'triggers' people's participation and involvement in local environmental groups dedicated to wetland preservation and restoration; How do the groups advocate for wetlands and does the government play a role in this advocacy? Using cultural models (Kempton et al. 1995), I argued that definitions and representations of nature are contested. Notions of place and dwelling, of actor-network theory (Cloke and Jones 2002), and of enclosure/restoration (Watts 2004, Elliot 1986), help to explain how people form their representations of nature within wetlands. Social capital theory (Putnam 2000) helped explain participants' involvement in wetland groups. Participants were involved in the wetland protection groups in order to express personal values, skills and identity through the group (Bishop and Hoggett 1986). Most individuals had a high sense of agency, and joined a wetland protection group because they believed that collective action is more effective than individual action (Taylor 2000, Horvath 1999). Groups that meet regularly and frequently, such as the Travis Wetland Trust, have more cohesive inter-personal bonds and individuals are more committed to the group than groups that meet infrequently (Lawler et al. 2000, Lawler 2001, 2002). This connection between group activities and positive emotion (Lawler 2002) explains why most members of the Travis Wetland Trust identified group involvement as the most important aspect of their involvement. In contrast, Otipua Wetland groups' members, who are divided between the Otipua Wetland Charitable Trust Board and the Friends of the Otipua Wetland, were more likely to name restoration or service as their primary reason for involvement in the group. Advocacy was considered part of group action, although it was not officially included in either group's objectives. Individuals believed they advocated in three ways: through education activities, communication regarding the wetland and through the restoration of the work itself. Individual advocacy translates into group advocacy, since the groups are viewed as vehicles for furthering individual concerns, and acting as a group gives a better chance of achieving results (Horvath 1999). The government played a role in both groups, and all parties maintained a positive working relationship with local government. A cooperative relationship with governments is essential for increasing public awareness of wetlands (Horvath 1999).

Vacuum glazing is a vital development in the move to more energy efficient buildings. In vacuum glazing, an evacuated cavity supresses gaseous conduction and convection to provide high thermal resistance. A high vacuum pressure (less than 0.1 Pa) is required and must be maintained by a hermetic seal around the periphery, currently formed with either indium (i.e. low temperature sealing method) or solder glass (i.e. high temperature sealing method). This thesis reports the results of an experimental and theoretical investigation into the development of new low temperature (less than 200°C) and novel high temperature (up to 450°C) glass edge seals. A new low temperature composite edge seal was developed in which double and triple vacuum glazings each of dimensions 300x300mm were fabricated with measured vacuum pressures of 4.6x10-2Pa and 4.8x10-2Pa achieved respectively. A three dimensional finite element model of the fabricated design of composite edge sealed triple vacuum glazing was developed.