This is the first volume of BUILDING 2000, a pilot project of the Commission's R&D programme 'Solar Energy Applications to Buildings' with the purpose of encouraging the adoption of solar architecture in large buildings. In this first volume the results of the design studies illustrating passive solar architecture in buildings in the European Community are presented in particular for the building categories: SCHOOLS, LABORATORIES AND UNIVERSITIES, and SPORTS AND EDUCATIONAL CENTRES. In a second volume, a similar series of studies is presented for the building categories: OFFICE BUILDINGS, PUBLIC BUILDINGS and HOTELS AND HOLIDAY COMPLEXES. There was an enthousiastic response from project teams responsible for the design of 32 large buildings with a total construction budget of more than 140 million ECU. The willingness to improve their building concepts by collaborating with R&D-experts was encouraging to the Commission's action in this field. These two books reflect the results of the exchange of information between the actual design practitioners and the European R&D-community. Within the BUILDING 2000 programme 'Science and Technology at the Service of Architecture' became reality. This was not only realised by the various support activities initiated by BUILD ING 2000, but also by the active exchange of ideas by architects and design team members with R&D-workers during the various workshops held within the BUILDING 2000 programme. I highly recommend architects and engineers interested in passive solar architecture and modem daylighting approaches to study these final products of the BUILDING 2000 programme.
