Sound is one of the important sources of environmental information. The sensory organ for sound is the ear consisting of the outer-, middle- and inner-ear. Nerve-signals from the ear reach the auditory nervous center of the brain, and there produce the sensation and perception of sound. This article explains the structure and function of this hearing system. Hearing acuity and hearing loss are also explained. Moreover, non-specific response to sound through the reticular formation, hypothalamoautonomic system and limbic system is also described. For further information on the relationship between sound environment and man, psychological consideration of the perception and recognition of sound is needed.

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The elements in controlling and creating a sound environment are quietness, good reverberation and pleasant sound. One of the most important factors in human daily life, apart from sleeping and thinking, is quietness. Good reverberation is a factor in rating the condition and quality of a room. It is important to select good sounds from a confusing environment by listening to our surroundings carefully. The concept of coexistence has to be considered when we research and educate concerning sound problems in the field of architecture, because this field is closely concerned with designing buildings, cities, society and the earth.

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A study was conducted on wearing habits and the management of clothing that may help people protect themselves physically and psychologically from the shock of an emergency such as the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. Now the need for education in risk management and survival skills of clothing, such as daily preservation of underwears, has been suggested.

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One of the characteristics of normal age-related vision losses depends on yellow-intensity (Yintensity) in the lens of the eye. We investigated discrimination between 7 intensities of yellow in 303 Japanese elderly people aged from late 60s to early 90s. The results demonstrated that the failure of vision increases with age, and the loss depends on yellow-intensity. We obtained age-related yellowing levels in investigations, and selected 2 filters (Y46, Y44) corresponding to the middle and profound age- related yellowing vision levels, which each met with the Yellow-Index (YI). A selection study of blue- filters correcting age-related yellowing vision was conducted as follows: 1) We chose 6 kinds of blue-filters setting exactly on the Unique-Blue line in a chromaticity diagram of all marketable blue-filters. 2) We obtained the Yellow-Index from different Y-deepness color charts covering each with these 6 kinds of blue-filters, and selected 2 kinds of blue-filters (B4, B6) of which each Yl zero-point met with 53% or 89% of Y-intensity. 3) We considered that these 2 blue-filters could correct age-related yellowing vision, after colorimetrying 14 yellowing color charts covered by them. Further problems with these selected blue- filters are how to light up dark vision and how to add blue-purple chromatogram to return to each origin al color position.

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The rate of regional sweating from the human body has been measured by the ventilated capsule method as well as by the method which uses filter paper within a capsule. On the other hand, the evaporimeter was introduced as a method for measuring the rate of evaporation from the skin surface under natural conditions in the open air, the use of which, however, has been restricted only to the horizontal plane. The possibility of application of the evaporimeter to the vertical plane was examined in this study with a simple evaporation box. After confirming the validity of applying the evaporimeter to the vertical plane, the influence of posture change on the rate of regional evaporation from the human body was examined with it. Experimental conditions were air temperatures of 28, 34 and 37℃ and 50% relative humidity. The subjects were 10 female students. Postures of the subjects were sitting and supine. The results were summarized as follows: (1)The validity of the application of an evaporimeter to the vertical plane was confirmed by a significantly high coefficient of correlation (r = 0.98) between the weight ioss from an evaporation box and the rate of evaporation measured with the evaporimeter. (2)Rates of evaporation from the human body both in the sitting and supine postures were conspicuously increased with the temperature rise. (3)The distribution of the rate of evaporation was remarkably changed by the posture especially in the sweating zone. In the supine posture, evaporation from the upper parts of the body, forehead, back and loins was supressed and that from the lower extremities was significantly greater than in the sitting posture.

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The recent rapid deterioration in the natural environment in urban areas has changed the human residential environment, and the time people spend in artificial environments is increasing. The elderly seem to be affected more than the young by their living, environment. We conducted an investigation to examine and compare the summer and neutral seasons' indoor environments of the "independent" elderly who are able to live by themselves, and of the "bedridden" elderly in Toshima-ku, Tokyo who have to stay indoors all day and be nursed. The survey showed that the thermal environment of the bedridden elderly was more stable than that of the independent elderly. The indoor air quality of the houses for the elderly which was measured in neutral seasons was generally fine. Although the management of indoor thermal environment was suggested to be important.

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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.

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