Large migration from rural areas to urban areas like Kuala Lumpur has led to some implications for economic, social and cultural development. This high population has placed enormous demand on the existing housing stocks, especially for low-income groups. However, some issues arise, one of which is overheated indoor air temperature. This problem contributes to the high-energy usage that forces huge sums of money to be spent on cooling the house by using mechanical equipment. Therefore, this study focuses on thermal comfort in social housing, and incorporates traditional values into its design to achieve a certain measurement of natural ventilation in a house. From the study, the carbon emission and energy consumption for an air-conditioned house is 67%, 66% higher than a naturally ventilated house. Therefore, this research has come up with a new typology design, which has a large exposed wall area and full-length openings on the opposite walls to increase cross ventilation. At the end of this research, the measurement of thermal comfort for a naturally ventilated building called ‘Air House’ has been identified.

The pressure to provide social housing in a fast and economic way, as well as outdated regulations, constrain the design of these buildings, having serious implications for the comfort of occupants and the environment. This becomes more critical in hot-humid climates, such as Malaysia, with uniformly high temperature and humidity and low wind speeds. In its capital, Kuala Lumpur, an extensive program of construction for high-rise social housing is being carried out, however, shortly after the flats are occupied, or as soon as they can afford it, the residents fit wall mounted air conditioning units. This research started by looking at Malay vernacular architecture and the traditional strategies for ventilation and cooling. After a review of current building regulations and green tools employed in the country, two campaigns of fieldwork were carried out to assess the actual indoor and outdoor thermal and air quality conditions in the buildings, which were found to be inadequate for both the local regulations and international recommendations. The fieldwork also allowed the identification of the critical design issues to address. A ventilation and filtering ceiling system has been identified as one of the possible solutions for the current situation and has been tested through physical and computer models. The system improves comfort by reducing the air temperature, humidity, and amount of airborne particles and gases, as well as constantly providing an adequate airflow rate. It is the first attempt to develop what we have named the ‘airhouse’ standard for tropical countries.

Visual inspection assisted by well-structured forms allows experts to collect homogeneous data in order to report typical damage/vulnerabilities of structures. This is the basis for deriving vulnerability factors to predict failure mechanisms and identify urgent interventions. A database model with an associated structured form for the assessment of historic timber roof structures has been developed during a two-week Short Term Scientific Mission (STSM) in May 2015 at CNR IVALSA Institute in San Michele All’Adige (Italy). The aim is to assist during inspection in recording all the necessary information and later in analysing data from several inspections, allowing to identify typical damage and its causes. The database model, starting from the work of COST Action FP 1101 and further developed and digitalised during the STSM, has been initially populated with data previously collected by the University of Strathclyde through visual assessment of 29 historic timber roofs in Scotland.

This chapter presents a study which assessed the feasibility of applying a new methodology for the survey and assessment of historic buildings based on applying state-of-the-art image processing. This has the potential to facilitate frequent surveys with minimal disruption to the general public in cities. The paper also presents the results of a collaborative and cross-disciplinary research project aiming to automate data capture and analysis techniques for conservation of stone facades. Image processing techniques have been implemented in a wide range of areas such as medicine, automation, security and defence. The chapter aims to develop new image processing techniques to support automated analysis of stone masonry facades while identifying the different materials used as well as pathologies. In order to explore the possibility of applying state-of- the-art image processing to the challenge of surveying historic buildings, one case study was selected and surveyed using two different methods.

The book is a collection of essays with a variety of views, cases, and experiences, compiled by the editors over a four-year research project supported by the Heidelberg University’s Cluster of Exc...