Abstract
The objective of this paper is to clarify the meaning of "Thermal Comfort" in daily living environments and to apply the thermal comfort condition to environmental design by using passive methods in Japan. Two traditional essays were analysed in order to reveral the meaning and usage of words related to the thermal environment. The thermal comfort of ancient Japanese differs from the western concept of thermal comfort which means neither hot nor cold and satisfaction with the environment. On the other hand, existing thermal comfort zones were compared with each other. Most of them were based on psychological and physiological responses in the laboratory tests or psychological responses in the field surveys. There are few studies on the thermal comfort concept of Japanese and on occupants' thermal comfort in the daily living environment. It is necessary for the researchers studying thermal comfort to investigate the value concept of the living environment and design criteria for real thermal comfort.
