Upgrading of living environments should be considered comprehensively for residents' comfortable lives. This study analyzes the role of supporting organizations in actual upgrading cases. “Community Mortgage Program” in the Philippines provide low interest loans to buy the land for squatter communities. Squatter communities are required to organize themselves, and to prepare community upgrading plans for the future. “Originators” play important roles during the upgrading projects after taking out of the loan. After taking out of the loan of Community Mortgage Program, each household of the projected community upgrades his / her house, and also contributes for upgrading community facilities such as reblocking, water supply, or community halls. Community organizers of NGO originators indirectly support these community activities. Residents themselves organize for upgrading projects, and manage funds for implementations. These originators will not provide specific techniques for upgrading. There shall be other organizations to support in technological aspects, so that residents can choose whom to support them, according to community's preferences. Comparing Japan with the Philippines, it is pointed out that there should be such a system and projects of non-profit based organizations can actively support communities in Japan. In conclusion, a “Originating Organization” is proposed for comprehensive upgrading of living environments. These organization shall support the communities to organize themselves, and to cooperate with specific professional organizations in each field.

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International agencies and a number of foreign countries have offered technical and financial assistance in carrying out the preservation of the Old City of Sana a in Yemen, which was included in the World Heritage List of UNESCO in 1986. Such efforts, however, were undertaken without citizen's participation, and the preservation of historical monuments have preceded the provision of the living environment and infrastructure. This study aims to clarify the historic environment of Sana a through an interdisciplinary study (urban planning, architecture, anthropology, sociology, and public health) of Yemen-Islamic traditional urban structures and tower-type housing, and to propose a method for conservation-based development on the premise that the local social structure and culture of the city should be maintained and passed on to the next generation. The basics of conservation-based development is the improvement of the living environment, and creation of new environment. The main points of the proposal are as follows: 1. Organizing a system for citizen's participation: The residents' opinions and collaboration are essential for the conservation of the historic environment. Although the traditional social system of the Old City has been undergoing change, the status of the akil/uqqal as the chief of harah/harat has been retained. In forming the system for citizens' participation, the harah should be considered as the main body for citizens' participation and the akil its representative. 2. Conservation of the urban fabric : The one-fourth of the Old City of Sana a was a green area which was ruined by modernization. The installation of septic tanks in the mosques makes it possible to reuse the wastewater for maqshama and bustan. The restoration of traditional land use is effective for the conservation of the urban fabric. The conservation and development of the Old City of Sana a is becoming increasingly complex for it involves various issues. The first step is, however, the recognition by those carrying out the conservation plan that the task should be entrusted to the residents, and this may be the key to resolving this problem.

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The Korean Diplomatic Mission dispatched to Japan by Lee-dynasty Korea in the course of Edo Period (17-19th centuries) promoted a tremendous scale of urban planning combined with event-oriented facility planning. A series of diplomatic facilities called “Gochisojo” can be reconstructed based on the existing buildings and historical documents, and will be the core for the future cultural promotion. The purpose of this research is to analyze the historical process of the diplomatic facilities in Japan and the Japanese colony in Pusan called “Wakan” where the representatives of Tsushima-han negotiated with Korea on diplomatic matters including the mission, as well as to give the reconstruction of these facilities from the point of architectural and urban history. In particular the comparative study on both Kaminoseki in Yamaguchi Prefecture and the Wakan in Pusan will clarify the meaning of mutual architectural heritage of Japan and Korea. In Kaminoseki, the Ochaya (villa) was created as a guest house at the beginning of Edo Era to receive the mission , the whole town became a diplomatic center in order to accommodate both Korean and Japanese envoys which exceeded 1,000 people. Iwakuni-han had to renew the planning on each occasion of Korean visits according to the prescription made by Tsushima-han. The Wakan in Pusan was constructed in the second half of the 17th century and provided the Director's Pavilion (Kanshuya), the Market House (Kaiichi Daicho), the Guest House (Daicho) and so on in an extremely vast area. Beyond the stone wall of this colony, Koreans constructed the Guest House (Heksa), the Banqueting Hall (Yondechon) etc. to receive the Japanese Mission. The building type of this Wakan was the mixture of the Japanese samurai-residence type and the Korean guest house type. This unique type was created as a result of the joint operation of Japanese-Korean architects and craftsmen. The reconstruction based on the existing architectural plans and maps led to the fact that these buildings were the fundamental elements to formulate the landscape and townscape. The reuse of these buildings as well as the reconstruction of the lost facilities will contribute to the regional promotion based on this unique and rich architectural heritage.

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The development of modern industrial cities, in 19th century U.K. as well as in 20th century Japan, has brought about the construction of commercial and business areas in the centre and industrial and high-density residential areas in the neighboring zones. In U.K. the concentration of population in the cities started in the beginning of the 19th century. The population growth was absorbed by the construction of high-density terraced houses in the inner urban areas. On the other hand in Japan, especially in Osaka, the concentration of population began early in the 20th century. The population explosion was absorbed by Nagaya houses. Despite the difference of 100 years between Japan and U.K., it becomes clear that the development of cities and the way of living in the inner urban areas have some common points. Subsequently housing problems mainly included sanitary problems resulted from high-density dwellings. Liverpool in U.K. coped with the problem by establishing some bye-laws such as the Liverpool Sanitary Amendment Act. The central government enacted the Public Health Act to support local authorities' methods and improve the problem. In Japan, however, the Building Act and the Urban Planning Act without coping with the sanitary problem was enacted, though the water supply had come into wide use fairly by about 1900. This comparative study between Japan and U.K., especially among Osaka, Liverpool and Birmingham makes it clear that there are the following six differences regarding the construction of inner urban residential areas and the institutionalization of renewal and conservation programs: 1) local government's independence, 2) time of social consensus among fire prevention building materials etc., 3) modernization of the construction industry, 4) encouragement of local housing industries, 5) comprehensiveness of housing improvement and residential area renewal, 6) importance of neighboring relations in the residential area renewal policy. Consequently it is thought that future residential area renewal programs need residents' participations and supports when the plans are made and carried out.

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In traditional Urban Festivals, symbols such as hikiyama and mikoshi are the central objects of presentations. However, streets and the structures on the street sides are also specially presented for the festival rites at the same time. In many cases, distinctive spatial features of the city are well-utilized for the presentation. This research focuses on the spatial presentations for a special day, mainly at Machiya during festival rites and aims to investigate the current situation in detail, revealing how these Machiya and their streets are utilized for the presentations during the festival rites, and how these presentations affect the spatial formations of Machiya and their streets. The research subject is urban festivals which are held in various cities in the western part of Japan. First of all, urban festivals in various cities were explored as much as possible and the street utilizations were investigated. As a result, we found many common elements with the Kyoto Gion Festival we investigated before by this research group in regard to the street presentation, revealing the actual influence. Other than the religious symbol, facades along the streets are decorated with curtains and lanterns and the front sides of the chambers facing the streets are left open and decorated with the folding screens, creating integrated presentations with the streets. Among the exploration subjects, five distinctive districts ( Kameoka and Kurama, Kyoto pref., Otsu and Hino, Shiga pref. and Johana, Toyama pref.) are researched further in details. Other than the district level research such as the structure classification and distributive research on the presentation elements such as decorative curtains, structure level researches such as the survey on the ornaments used at Machiya and clubhouses were conducted. As a result, we found that the spatial presentation for festival rites influences Machiya and their street. For example, traditional public facilities for the festivals are intently preserved in Kameoka, presentations are influenced by renewals of the traditional form of Machiya in Kurama, distinctive forms for the appreciation of hikiyama were seen in Otsu and Hino, Machiya are altered on a large scale for the festival presentation in Johana.

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The aim of this study is to examine the formation and development of municipal housing administrative bodies in the Tokyo Ward Area, of their organization forms and jurisdictions. It is a popular opinion that due to the rapid raise of land price after mid-1980's, the Tokyo Municipal Wards, through formations of housing administrative bodies, executions of their unique housing policy measures and by working-out of their Housing Master Plans to systematize them, had accomplished an establishment of “Municipal Housing Policy”. However, as far as the administrative organization is concerned, the question of how it has come into actualization, and to which extent it has been realized, what are their relationships with neighboring political fields, are still to be examined. That is the reason why we thought as important the investigation of transition of forms and jurisdictions of municipal housing administrative bodies in Tokyo Ward Area. Through inquiries to the Municipalities and studies of administrative documents, we have consequently clarified and systematically illustrated the transitions of housing administrative bodies of the Tokyo Wards. The chief findings are as follows. ①Housing administration bodies in most wards came into existence around 1991; 2 or 3 years before they drew-up Housing Master Plans. ②There were differences in formations of organizations among the wards according to their housing situations. ③The common duties of housing administration bodies are Housing Master Plans, constructions and managements of public housing, housing benefits and recruiting of residents for Metropolitan Government Operated Housing. ④Nearly half of the wards had extended the role of the housing administration bodies. ⑤Despite the current pressure for the administrative reform, few wards had enforced reduction in housing organizations.

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Jinaimachi was a self-governing city planned intentionally as the center part around the Shinshu temple. It formed at the end of the medieval period in Japan. Jinaimachi had many variations in its development, and now, new ideas to understand Jinaimachi are needed. In this study, based on “the Tenbun-nikki”, the diary of Shonyo, extracts the areas which related to the Honganji in the medieval period, explain the organization and the transition of those areas as well as the restoration to its original form. Every area was an important part of the Honganji and helped the town of Honganji develop economically. But after medieval period, there were differences between the development of the city among the areas. Comparing the areas developed in medieval period and formed the cities, Jinaimachi, a difference is seen in the scheme of city planning. The city planned square was built in the Edo period. Medieval cities did not always develop directly into the modern style. The square shaped planning appeared in Jinaimachi in the Edo period. That suggests some intention acted to the formation of the city. The intention made the difference in the shape of the town. Jinaimachi, which developed into the urban community, formed the square sections of the town. And other areas without changed into a modem villages judging from the geographical features, the transportation by the roads and the sea. They used various methods to change the form of the cities as seen in the complex cities Jinaimachi, road based cities and post towns.

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Edogawa Apartment House was built with the aim at an ideal urban housing complex. The residents highly appreciate the progressive ideas that shaped the housing complex for their experiences. Various ideas and architectural devices can be seen throughout the complex that contributes to developing this community. This study aims to understand some important factors from the experiences of Dojun-kai Edogawa Apartment House that can be inherited and applied to urban housing complexes in the next century. For this purpose, we examined the concept of the original plan, the process of forming the community, actual activities of the community, consciousness of the residents, and transformation of dwelling styles. Through this study process, we found a number of architectural documents and newspaper published by community activities. We also organized these old records. The major conclusions are: 1) In the layout of the units and the masterplan, merits of both Japanese and Western living style were considered. Rational use of limited space as well as the design and proportion of the building was emphasized. 2) A collective radio and operator assisted telephone which could also be used to alert residents in case of emergency, a central heating system, and elevators as well as other facilities were important factors that supported the community. 3) Efforts to achieve ventilation, especially during the hot and humid summers, can be seen in each units. The locations and types of windows were determined taking into consideration the flow of the wind from courtyard. Glass roofs and louvers as well as other devices were used at the top of the staircases to enhance ventilation. 4) Families were able to reside in there housing complex over long terms by moving to different types of units or inhabiting additional units over a short or extended period to meet their changing needs. Communal spaces such as a meeting room, a common bath house, dining hall, barber shop, and the courtyard were significant in shaping the community. It is difficult to understand throughout the critical elements in our living environment. Therefore, it is necessary to record and analyze long-term dwelling experiences, and continue these efforts.

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The present study intends to prove the hypothesis that the evaluation of “restfulness” of a room depends on how it looks closer to observer's schemata. The scheme for a certain room in this study is defined as a preoccupied image of the room which is created by one's own experience, knowledge and cultural background. It serves as a guide for getting information from the environment. It is not constant but changes according to new experiences. We are accustomed to a new environment by changing our schemata. We conducted an experiment, in which 28 subjects were asked to evaluate 35 photographs of various home interior spaces according to its “restfulness” and to judge their similarity to one's own image of one of such rooms as living rooms, dining rooms, Japanese style rooms, bedrooms and bathrooms. Two kinds of modified stimuli (line drawing and color palettes) produced from the photographs were also used for the similar experiment. An analysis of the individual subject's responses revealed that the hypothesis was generally supported: the subjective “restfulness” of a room depended on how it looked closer to observer's image, and even if the score of evaluation differs among the subjects, each subject evaluated the interior space according to one's own schemata. It was also noted that the schemata for a certain room were more shared than the others.

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This study has two objectives. The first objective is to find out the spatial factors related to bedroom selections at each of the three main stages of family growth, analyze the order of priority among these clarified spatial factors. To achieve this objective, the following steps are used: ①The bedroom selection reasons were obtained by means of questionnaires to those households who have bedrooms of at most eight mats or smaller each are analyzed to find out the main reasons for selecting their bedrooms at each of the three stages of family growth. ②The main reasons for selecting their bedrooms found out by the bedroom selection reasons are verified with the actual conditions of bedroom selections, and thereby the three main reasons for their bedroom selections at each of the three stages of family growth are examined. ③From the actual conditions of two-dimensional bedroom selections, where only either of two factors is allowed to be selected, the order of priority among the verified bedroom selection factors is clarified. To brief the results, it is clarified that three to four factors out of six factors of “Japanese-style room,” “south-facing,” “o area,” “adjoining (bedrooms of parents and children adjoining to each other),” “separated (bedrooms of parents and children separated from each other),” and “k area, regarded as important at each of the three stages of family growth. The second objective of this study is to examine the relation between the “bedroom selections according to family growth” and the areas of various bedroom-related rooms, and thereby a “size calculation method for various bedroom-related rooms” is proposed. To brief the results, bedrooms of children are determined by positions of the bedrooms of their parents, but the relation between the “bedroom selection according to family growth” and the area of bedroom-related rooms is yet to be clarified. However, it is clarified that the room sizes of eight mats of the bedrooms of their parents are not decisive factors and when it exceeds eight mats (when it is within a range of 9 to 14.5 mats according to the investigated cases), the size largely affects their bedroom selection.

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So far now public housing renewal has been promoted by stocking high quality houses, efficient land usages in urban areas and living environmental consolidations. The renewal projects, however, have brought up the following questions. KODAN houses are mostly occupied by the lower income residents who are meant to live in KOEI houses, so that they consequently become not able to afford the rent rise due to the renewal. On the other hand, KOEI houses are occupied by the residents who earn higher than the regulation and adequate replacement houses fit to them are not prepared. The new compound renewal project, which covers KODAN and KOEI, is carrying on so that both KOEI and KODAN will be able to hold residents fit to the classes. This study, which was made based on surveys of two housing renewal projects, defines continuous residencies, residents aptitude and rental problems, and also examines future communities with residents from various social levels. In the Hiyoshi-Danchi, KOEI houses shows high resident stability rate while KODAN houses does exceedingly low stability rate, due to a heavy burden of rent because of the rent rise. It is foreseen that some residents may become difficult to continue to live in their houses due to the step-by-step increase of the rent. During the renewal, the residents participate in the project through a union (which they organized) and at the moment the union is only the one union representing both KODAN houses and KOEI houses. From this it is foreseen that a mixed social-class-community can be formed. Toukaichiba-Danchi residents were mostly elders, so that it is effective to have annexed KODAN houses in order to form a generation mixed community. The high stability and high satisfaction rates are considered to come from a proper environmental consideration that is adequate for the elderly after the renewal. The Affordability Policy will be able to set various levels of rent (from the KOEI level to the KODAN level) and remove the barrier between KOEI and KODAN. As compound KODAN houses increase, people with higher economic level than the KOEI regulation will become easier to move to KODAN, which will be able to hold fit to those residents and thus it can be said that a new community will be formed according to housings fit to residents economic levels.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate living and housing demands of the residents in the temporary housings and life support service and care for them. The temporary housings without care and with care were provided after the Hanshin-Awaji great earthquake. We carry out a further examination of the management and life support service in consideration of time of these temporary housings. We took surveys in Amagasaki, Nishinomiya, Ashiya, Kobe, Akashi, Kakogawa cities in Japan. The findings of our research surveys are as follows. (1) A variety of the demands of the residents for living and housing were found. ①housing and living environment ②repair ③change ( e.g. light and bulb ) ④life support service ( household functions such as cleaning, meal, shopping ) ⑤ housing problems ⑥housing adaptation (2) There are several problems. The points such as the management, life support service and care of the temporary housings are not specified in the Disaster Saving Law. When it comes to a long-term management, therefore the law will never satisfy the residents, because the community, the number of the residents, housing conditions, etc. in temporary housings are changing day by day. Organizing the Carenet Systems by either formal or informal sectors can be effective. (3) Life Support Advisers in the temporary housings have developed a new support system which is beyond the limits of works of the silver housing. In additions to the works in the silver housing, it is important to make various life support service and care types. (4) Temporary housings with care also offer semi-public spaces that can be shared by small resident groups. The LSA is especially appreciated by residents of the temporary housings.

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One of the morals to be learned from the Hyogoken Nanbu Earthquake is that the local community is something that cannot be done without for the lives of the elderly. Actually, with regard to the temporary housing with care services, it became apparent that living together not just within family units was effective, and many important experiences about living together built-up. In the present living environment where each household is losing relationships with the neighborhood community and the local community, it is becoming a common concept that developments of communities and living environment are needed, where residents' communications and mutual assistances are made full use of as informal latent properties of the local community. The object of this study was to look at the group living systemization of the housing for the elderly in the process of the recovery after the Hyogoken Nanbu Earthquake, and to clarify the conditions and problems at the present time. In detail, the following was carried out. 1) Consideration of the outline and the characteristics of the housing for the elderly and the area care system in the Hyogoken Nanbu Earthquake restoration plans 2) Survey of the people and how they were living in disaster restoration collective housing 3) Analysis of the work of the LSA (life support advisors) for the elderly housing, and what should be expected of them in the future 4) Consideration of an example of the development of the community in the disaster restoration public apartment housing including the elderly housing 5) Questionnaire survey of the housing improvement system in Hyogo Prefecture, particularly the Housing Improvement Fund system Furthermore, it became apparent that it was necessary to give “local community”development further consideration, along with what to do when people became weak and infirm in the collective housing, the LSA specialization and the physical community development.

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This study aims to identify the role of public body in managing and regenerating existing estates through comparisons of practices in UK and Japan. Through examinations on historical contexts of the changing role of public housing sectors, the study focuses on the review of Housing Action Trusts (HAT). HAT is the temporal non-departmental organization which takes over most run-down existing council housing estates to regenerate through holistic approaches. The holistic approaches include not only physical rehabilitations but also reconstructions of community through the higher degree of tenants' participations. The research team made case study about Tower Hamlets Housing Action Trust in east London. The case study identified, through field surveys, the organization structure of HAT, the scope of holistic activities by involving tenants, and the process of regenerations. In addition, it investigates on the procedure of finding permanent landlords of the estates under the need of introducing private finances due to the lack of public subsidy from the government. The case study suggests the potential of the higher level of tenants' participations would improve sustainability of existing public housing estates from the aspect of physical rehabilitations and from community regenerations. It implies that the expected role of public housing sectors has been changing from a ‘service provider’ to an enabler' . These empirical knowledges can be represented by the idea of ‘RSL (Registered Social Landlord)’ and by ‘LHC (Local Housing Company)’ . RSL and LHC are allowed to receive public funds and private finances. In this context, ‘public’ means neutral' , ‘non-profit’, and ‘representing body of regional common interests’ together with the ‘receiver of public funds’ . The study made a comparison of process of regenerating existing public housing estates in Japan and in HAT, by identifying three major parties of projects; Tenants, consultants and public bodies as project owners and as landlords. The comparison proves that there are similarity in the benefit of tenants' participations. However, even in progressed Japanese projects, tenants' participations are not formalized and owe to personal efforts by officers. It is expected that the lessons obtained in this study would contribute to the formalization and the systematization of users' participations in the managements of existing housing estates in Japan.

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The purposes of this research are to establish a model of the support system and to clarify the issues to promote House Adaptation (HA) in terms of Individual Educational Program (IEP) for children with multiple and physical disabilities. 33 pupils of 5 Yokohama Municipal Special Schools for the Physically Disabled were investigated . It was studied to investigate the hypotheses of implementation on HA was established on the base from the results of investigation on environmental conditions in children's homes and schools. IEP, Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) and Individualized Transition Plan (ITP) in USA were referred to make an assumption of HA Support Model Plan in Japan. Interview with the parents in their homes showed that there were the high needs of HA for providing assistance of 24 hours medical care and keeping security for locomotion, toileting and taking a bath. Through the observation of movements of 16 students and teachers in the schools, analyzing the condition of arrangement of educational instrument and recording of temperature and humidity in the classrooms, it was clarified that it was needed the environmental control for children with chronically high and low temperature and active usage of some welfare equipment. However, classroom has not enough space for general activities and feeding school meals. Equipment for welfare (etc. apparatus for positioning or lifter) was used in an inconsistent way, not systematically. It was realized that there was the high needs on reduction of difficulties for teachers, etc. from removing children with their hands to removing them by using a lifter. Using a lifter can make possible individual teaching and western style living activities on the floor. A lifter attached to the ceiling was introduced in a heated pool for the experiment. It showed that introduction of a lifter made possible not only relieving teachers work load and keeping securities but also improving teaching and specialization of teachers' works. The investigation on the environmental condition of temperature and humidity in the classrooms showed that it was enough for ordinary children. Since just under 40% of all students have the problem of controlling body temperature, it is necessary of the individualized control of environmental condition for them. In order to establish HA support system, teachers in special schools need to playing roles for data-base function and coordinate function.

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The aim of this paper is to study about conditions of housing environments for people with congenital upper limb disabilities, focusing on pains and burdens that have been happened to their bodies when they manage activities of daily lives in pre-built environments for able-body people. The subject of this study is people with Thalidomide-induced upper limb disabilities both in Japan and Sweden. From the results of this study, it is become clear that 8 Japanese subjects hold some pains with their bodies, on the other hand, all subjects of 6 Swedish hold pains with their neck and back, however only 1 subject has some aches. Furthermore, the pains when they deal with daily activities divide into 4 types as follows, ①pains with feet, ② pains with back, ③ pains and numbnesses with hands and fingers and ④pains with neck and back of neck. In Japan, frequencies of occurrence of pains with feet, back, hands and fingers are high. Though those frequencies are low in Sweden, pains with neck and back of neck happen to their bodies frequently. About house adaptations, Swedish subjects use technical aid services and developed housing arrangements to make up with upper limb disabilities, however, a few Japanese subjects reform their houses and they devise the contents of adaptations and pay money by themselves. From above-mentioned results, after this we would like to make concrete conditions of housing arrangements for people with upper limb disabilities, and also consider about technical aid systems that people with disabilities could introduce easily, referring to the examples of foreign countries including Sweden.

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Congregate meals which are held several times a week are very effective for the elderly, because food supports and social supports can be provided at the same time. However, congregate meals, that are held frequently, have not been popular in Japan. In this study, we investigated the actual situation of congregate meals that the elderly usually use once a week or more by means of the questionnaire for all cities which have more than 50,000 population in Japan. From these questionnaires, we picked up some minor cases and performed hearings to them. The effects and the problems of congregate meals are discussed from the points of service providers. Another investigation have been performed for 6 months to study various aspects, such as physical effects, mental effects, social effects and Quality of Life, for clients who used the service for the first time. The purpose of this study is to clarify the actual situation, the effects and problems of congregate meals which are hold frequently. The results of this study are as follows: 1) Congregate meals are provided in the only 10% of all the cities more than 50,000 population. 2) Congregate meals are effective to connect persons to persons and younger generations to elderly generations. There are some problems of not only hard wears and soft wears but also mental resistances of service providers. 3) Congregate meals are found to be physically, mentally, socially effective for the clients. The encouraging of life and the increasing of social supports with friends are statistically recognized.

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Purpose : It is becoming recognized the potential benefits of maintaining houses in a safe condition, and of optimizing their longevity. This study aims to create a culture where this is realized in Japan. In the U.S.A. and Australia, the market for `used' houses is active. Pre-purchase home inspections are rapidly becoming common as a means for checking on the quality of these `used' houses, prior to resale. These inspections identify possible defects or major costs for maintaining the safety and longevity of the homes. This study clarifies the process of Pre-purchase home inspections, and considers how their effectiveness is established. From the study, we aim to find out the social role and responsibility of owners/occupiers of detached houses and the conditions which support them. The purpose of the study then, is to establish useful guidelines for increasing used housing stock in good condition, in Japan. Method : This study firstly analyses the processes of pre-purchase home inspections from the buyers point of view, and clarifies the effectiveness of this process. Secondly, it analyses the usage housing information for buyers and how this information is being offered. We performed six data collection activities in the two locations of Brisbane (Australia) and Fresno (U.S.A.) from August to December of 1997. These were: 1) Interviews with Realtors and officials in city and state government; 2) telephone surveys of pre-purchase-home-inspection offices, banks, and insurance companies; 3) questionnaires to consumers(Australia — 291 samples; U.S.A. — 100samples); 4) case studies of the pre-purchase home inspection process (7samples); 5) participation in D.I.Y. (Do it Yourself) workshops; and 6)collection of inspection reports and of materials on housing information. Conclusion : Pre-purchase home inspections are typically utilized by home buyers to evaluate the land, the house, the utilities and appliances, visually using simple tools. The comprehensive inspection details features such as defects, improvements and makes recommendations for repairs. It offers information which assists with decision making by the potential buyer, giving the right to withdraw, or to negotiate the cost of repairs with the seller. By performing this inspection, potential problems related to buying and selling aspects of the contract can be avoided, and buyers are informed about the condition of the house. Therefore, pre-purchase home inspection has utility in maintaining the quality of `used' housing stock.

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Significant air temperature rising in urban areas is well recognized as so-called Heat Island phenomenon in a global scale. It is qualitatively grasped that an increase of anthropologic heat and an alternation of land usage are regarded as its main reasons. To analyze quantitatively on factors of the significant air temperature rising, a predicting methodology combined with simultaneous solutions for Architecture-Urban-Soil system was proposed. In the presented procedure authors proposed, a simplified numerical calculation method for evaporation rate from soil was considered with building air conditioning load calculations and a 1-dimensional heat balance model for an urban atmosphere. First of all, using realistic input data assumed a typical urban area, which is Tokyo, during summer season, a fundamental solution was obtained and an effectiveness of the proposed method was confirmed. As the next stage of this study, in order to analyze factors of the significant air temperature rising, a series of numerical experiments were performed based on the Architecture-Urban-Soil simultaneous simulation model proposed in the former report. By a preliminary experiment based on so-called a variation study method, 6 primary factors were picked up. They have significant effects on the urban temperature and the thermal comfort in an urban-human space respectively. For a main numerical experiment the design of an experiment theory based on the orthogonal array was adopted to obtain quantitative and statistically significant results. Results indicate that the factors regarding the energy consumption density in an urban area and the mechanical performance of air conditioning system influence significantly on the air temperature rising in an urban area. In addition, MRT and SET* in a street canyon are affected by the earth's surface condition.

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The objective of this study is to research and develop a passive solar house with an airflow system in brick walls. First, we conducted the investigation on indoor thermal environment of an imported brick house and pointed out a few problems of a traditional brick house in the summer season. Second, we examined the influence of the difference between wooden and brick walls upon the indoor thermal environment and the air-conditioning loads of a one-storied house with two rooms. As a result, some guidelines were shown on the moisture prevention for thermal insulated brick walls. Third, we simulated the air-conditioning load of a passive solar house with Trombe's wall and an air-circulation system. In accordance with this simulation, we built a test house with these suggested systems and measured thermal performance of this house under cold and hot weather conditions. Finally, we designed a prototype of a passive brick house with solar greenhouse and airflow wall system and studied how to make a comfortable and energy saving house. The results of this study are as follows. (1) The room temperature of the imported brick house was too high to be comfortable from the noon till the evening. And, there was no condensation on the back of the plasterboards. (2) It is important that we secure the hollow spaces in the walls and no moisture-proof films on the back of the plaster boards not to be caused the damages by humidity in the insulating brick walls. (3) The room temperature of the Passive Solar House with the Airflow System in Brick Walls was about 10 degrees higher than the outdoor temperature and hard to lower at night in winter. To take in an outside air helped heat emissions in summer. (4) The simulations from the experimental building proved that the Passive Solar House with Airflow System in Brick Walls made an indoor thermal environment much better and that the load of the air-conditioning could be cut down. (5) The brick house is effective to make the indoor thermal environment better in winter, but it is necessary to shield direct sunlight and emit the heat and to promote the draft by day and night. The test house was built by dry masonry building construction system so there were a lot of infiltration between the bricks. To make the brick walls more airtight is indispensable to control the flow of air.

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In the third Session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting, it has been decided that Japan must reduce the greenhouse gas 6 per cent below the 1990 level during the commitment period 2008 to 2012. In this study, the present condition and the trend of CO2 emissions from housings of all prefectures have been estimated. As the life of Japanese buildings are shorter than Western countries, and a large quantity of greenhouse gas is discharged from the housing construction, LCCO2 has been used as an evaluation method. CO2 emissions from dwelling process were calculated by using the annual report on the family income and expenditure survey, and CO2 emissions from construction process were calculated by using the housing construction statistics. Also the increase of CO2 emission in the 1995 level (average from 1993 to 1995) compared with the 1990 level which is the standard year of protocol has been analyzed. It has been cleared that the increase of the LCCO2 has been enormouse, and there was a great difference between CO2 emissions from both dwelling processes and construction processes. Specially, CO2 emissions from dwelling processes are great in quantity, and it had relations with the climate. And, the primary factor of the increase was the consumption of the electricity used for lightings and electric appliances. In the whole country, less than half of CO2 emissions from construction processes are caused by wooden houses recently, and CO2 emissions from rebuild are getting more than from new buildings. Though the market of housings has been low and the CO2 emissions from construction processes is decreasing by that, LCCO2 has not been decreasing. Other basic informations to examine the measure to protecting the global climate have been prepared.

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This paper describes a stochastic model for predicting the wind-induced damage to residential houses in Tohoku District due to typhoons. First, an investigation was made of the damage to residential houses due to Typhoon No.19 in 1991 (Typhoon 9119), which struck the Tohoku District and caused severe wind damage. The results indicate that most damage was caused to cladding, in particular to roofing materials. Then, a stochastic model for predicting the typhoon wind damage to cladding has been developed. The model consists of ‘typhoon model’, ‘local pressure model’and‘wind resistance model’ . For constructing the‘typhoon model’, the statistical characteristics of the atmospheric pressure patterns of 68 typhoons, which struck the Tohoku District during the period of 1954 to 1996, were analyzed and specified. The time change of the typhoon parameters, which specify the pressure pattern, between lat.37 to 42° N were represented by simple functions of time. Based on a computer simulation (typhoon simulation) using this‘typhoon model’, the statistical characteristics of strong winds due to typhoons can be understood quantitatively. The effects of topographic factors on wind speeds were investigated by using a multivariate regression analysis. In the‘local pressure model’, the roof geometry is classified into two groups, i.e. gable and hip roofs, and the local pressure coefficient is specified for each group, based on the results of the previous wind tunnel experiments. The value of the peak pressure is assumed to be predicted by a quasi-steady approach. Therefore, the probability density function of the local peak pressures is obtained by combining this model with the results of the typhoon simulation. In the‘wind resistance model’ of cladding, the probability density function of the strength of cladding is assumed to be represented by the log-normal distribution; the mean was predicted from the damage rate of cladding due to Typhoon 9119. Finally, the results of a damage simulation made for Hirosaki City are presented and the characteristics of the wind damage to roof are discussed.

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The load tests and analyses were conducted for the application of non-linear dynamic response analyses to timber structures in order to estimate the possibilities of wooden houses collapse. A full-sized 2-story Japanese conventional wood frame house was subjected to static lateral load tests and summarized as: 1) The contribution of displacement in each wall line had a correlation to the eccentricities of shear wall layouts roughly. However, the specimen with the same eccentricity occasionally had a different distribution of displacement, so that the eccentricity couldn't evaluate the displacement distribution exactly. 2) The shear walls below the lean-to roofs were effective against the load applied to the roof level and were not effective against the load applied to the 2nd floor level. So, it was clarified that the stiffness of lean-to roof as a diaphragm was low. 3) The addition of a floor diaphragm significantly made the unbalanced deformation distribution relax. However, raising the stiffness of the floor diaphragm made the differences slightly smaller. This is the reason why the stiffness of the floor diaphragm is relatively low. 4) The shear walls perpendicular to the load direction made the stiffness and the allowance shear forces high. Full-sized braced shear walls were subjected to the dynamic fracture tests on the shaking table and summarized as: 5) All of braced shear walls tested in this report did not collapse but failed in braces or columns with pull-out by approximately 1.5-2 kN lateral force. 6) In all tested walls, the shear deformations with the compression stress in the brace were smaller than those with the tension stress in the brace, in spite of the brace with buckling . So, the walls failed in the direction of the tension stress in the brace. 7) The bottoms of columns and braces didn't give priority to pull out rather than the top of them. 8) The brace angle depending on the wall length had a possibility to change the fracture position and behavior. 9) Fatigue failures of metal fasteners were not seldom seen under static loads. However, they occurred in these dynamic tests.

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