Alternative Cooling Techniques for Buildings

The present paper presents the recent progress on the field of passive cooling technologies for buildings. Given the very rapid penetration of air conditioning all around the world and the important energy and environmental impact it causes, alternative cooling techniques have received a very important attention and important developments have been achieved. The paper discusses some of the actual progress on techniques to improve urban microclimate, heat and solar control, thermal comfort and heat inertia techniques as well as heat dissipation methods.