Pre-school facilities are considered to be specific buildings in the matter of construction and renovation. Space-planning features in design for pre-school facilities create special conditions for solar power use to ensure heat and power supply. The article deals with estimation of incoming solar power in reference to the surfaces oriented in different cardinal directions under the weather conditions of the city of Saint-Petersburg (Russia) and the city of Nish (Serbia). A model of how to ensure power supply for a kindergarten of the city of Nish is presented on the basis of the calculations analysis. The cases with regard to completed projects designed to use renewable energy sources in order to supply pre-school facilities with energy in other weather conditions are given herein.

Spatial aspectsof children'sactivities, which meeta lot of needsand within which children haveendless opportunitiesto act, have a great importance and diversity. In this context,the following fields may be perceived as basic fieldsofchildren'sactivities:nature, outdoor and indoorpublic areasandfamily environment-house (Tanic, Kondic&Kostic, 2010, p. 346). In addition to these, preschool facilities offer spatialopportunitiesforchildren'shabitation, upbringing and educational accommodation. Many researches have shownthatearly childhood developmentis in accordancewiththe characteristics ofthe environment inwhich children reside. In his researches, Jean Piaget has defineddevelopment as aunityof the processof assimilationof the organism, whichvariesaccording to thecharacteristics ofthe environment

Changes in the existing urban structures that result in obsolescence and abandonment of buildings, open up the opportunities for an alternative use of the existing building fund which would be in line with the current needs and aspirations of today. Conversion of obsolete buildings to residential buildings might be an optimal solution for the social and demographic changes that continuously influence and intensify the demands for new housing. The paper points out the quality of this approach and explores the extent to which conversion of obsolete buildings for residential uses may be a valid tool in sustainable development strategy.

Architecture and its natural environment have always been inextricably intertwined throughout the centuries-old history of civil engineering development. Nowadays, when rapid development and accelerated technological innovations take place and the planet becomes everyday endangered as the result of human activities, nature is a main theme and support, in the focus of architectural creation more than ever. Biophilia in architecture represents an innovational method of architectural designing, in which the accent is on the role of nature in the quality of living and working in built areas. An architecture created based on this principle represents the architecture of the future. This architecture is imagined and created as a healthy and productive environment for a modern man, both in terms of indoor space and in the planning of local communities as active and sociable neighborhoods. By using an analytical descriptive methodology and research references, this paper focuses on contemporary experiences and analyzes selected case studies, in order to establish the elements of a possible model for architectural practice in Serbia.