The purpose of this thesis is to find evidence if cult houses existed on Gotland during the Bronze Age. The cult house is a common term in modern Bronze Age archaeology and the general definitions of cult house are discussed and why cult houses seem to be absent on Gotland. In this thesis the cult house are discussed as a phenomenon, and the possibilities to find Bronze Age cult houses on Gotland are evaluated by making comparisons between Gotland houses with already defined cult houses from the Swedish mainland. Some known cult houses are presented in more detail as case studies, together with house remains on Gotland which could have potential to be defined as cult houses..

A passive house in Norra Djurgårdsstaden drawn by Tengbom Arkitekter is going to be built. A shaft for airing is needed for a few apartments in the house.The airing shaft is designed for a few two room apartments in the house, which are not able to achieve satisfactory airing, as their outer walls are facing a single direction. The other apartments on the same floor are corner apartments. These apartments do not have the same difficulty with airing since they have their outer walls in different directions, with different pressures at the facades. The airflow in the airing shaft is supposed to be driven only by natural forces, by the sun. The purpose of natural driven forces is to achieve low energy consumption for the house.In this thesis, a design of the shaft for airing has been developed.Initially an open shaft for all apartments was analyzed.

In this essay I aim to examine how the landscape of Mönsterås might have looked like during the Bronze age in order to get a better understanding of the house urn that C J Ekerot found in a cairn in Fälle. Mönsterås is an area which has a quality of permanence, from Stone Age to Iron Age with its culmination during the Bronze Age. I will discuss the use and symbolic meaning of the house urn. The house as a symbol during the Bronze Age seemed to have had an important place in the cosmology. I will also discuss the importance of cairns, especially in the archipelago areas.

The Swedish building and property management sector are responsible for about 30 % of the total energy use. In order to take environmental consideration, different environmental assessment tools and standards are used. Miljo?byggnad, Svanen, FEBY12 and PHI are some of these. There has been increased interest to certify buildings and therefore it is of interest to evaluate the assessment of the energy field to see if relevant energy aspects are assessed.

The problem with passive farmers has arised as an effect of the European Union´s common agricultural policy (CAP) and the decouplement from production-based payments. Payments to passive farmers contradict the purpose of the single payment scheme and constitute a great cost for the EU. The new contractual period after 2013 has given rise to discussions on the direction of the CAP with a purpose of increasing the efficiency of the single payment scheme, and reducing passive farming. The aim of the study is to increase the knowledge about a few factors? influence on passive farmers? attitudes towards land use and the CAP.

A variety of demands have to be considered in the design of a new opera house in Galärvarvet. All possible viewpoints are important to be aware of, as is the need for the new building to be a contrast to the already existing opera house in Stockholm. The restricted site also makes a multitude of demands on the building's design.By rationalizing the layout and structure and also by making the footprint smaller, the complex building of over 30 000 square meters can be fitted and blended into the existing physical context. Unlike the existing opera house in Stockholm, the new opera house shows the rationality and the advanced technology that lies behind the scenes and becomes the character of the entire building. Through the dynamic façade, the new opera can convey any character it so desires, just like scenes do through different settings.

The company Sol & Energiteknik wanted to examine the possibility to make a standardhouse totally energy independent. Based upon this I have, during the spring of 2007,examined the possibilities available at the market today through litterature studies, contactwith several companies and reading reports at the internet.The first thing to examine has been to determine the energy consumption for a standardhouse, and find out if there are better technologies to be used for energy conservation.My conclusion in this matter is that there are possibilities today for building a house moreenergy efficient.When I had reached the point at which my design for the house was decided, I also hadto choose the different products to use to produce energy as well as to store that energy.To produce heat and electricity to the house I decided to use a wind turbine and a solarwater heater.The most difficult part of designing a house that is energy independent is that theproduced energy must be stored somehow. Storing the heat is relatively easy beacuse theheat can be stored in a large water tank. The electricity is a bigger problem beacuse itmust be stored in batteries, which today are too expensive to be used in a standard house.In the future producing and storing hydrogen might be used to produce electricity, buttoday that technology is both expensive and not tested enough.My final conclusion is that a standard house can not be built to be totally energyindependent today, unless it is very expensive to connect the house to the electricitynetwork. As an alternative solution I came up with a proposal for a house which isconnected to the electricity network and have some amount of own produced energy.This house prooved to be a good investment if you choose to build it today, and it couldbe a very good investment in the long run beacuse energy prices increase every year..

The viscosity of air buildings is a hot topic within the construction performers, which the industry feel they have too little knowledge about. This study is mainly aimed against air density in apartment buildings and airflow measurement. The study consists of a theoretical reference, educational visit, interviews and a survey conducted among construction workers at Magistratshagen in Linkoping.Earlier requirement in terms of air leakage through the climate screen was removed and today there are only energy requirement for a dwelling in Boverkets Building Regulations. The difference between a passive and a typical air tight construction is that the passive house have a maximum requirement of 0.3 l /s m2 of air leakage through the building climate screen. The requirement imposed on passive houses is to minimize the supply of power and energy for heating the building.Air tight constructions have heavy demands on the performance and accuracy of everyone involved with the project. The client must specify their requirements and also be prepared to pay for any additional costs. The architect and building planners have to design the building with regard to air tightness. Finally, the construction workers are required to do a careful work in order to get all the connections in the building air tight.The study suggests that an air tight building is a closed system where no forced ventilation exists. There are no reasons not to build too tight as long as there is a functioning ventilation. In this study the authors ask themselves how an air tight building changes over time. No theoretical information has been found on these changes, but the respondents assume that air density decreases with time. The deterioration is mainly assumed to be caused by construction materials changes over time. The study shows that construction workers knowledge of air tight construction is mixed, which they themselves admit in the survey..

During the Nordic Bronze Age, houses were not exclusively connected with profane contexts, but did also feature in burial places, a peculiar fact when considering the careful separation of settlements and graves. What kind of houses do we find in these sacred contexts? What did these houses stand for? Why was the house symbolism chosen to accompany the dead? And why did the house symbolism flourish during the Nordic Bronze Age? To answer these questions three representatives for the house symbolism in Sweden are discussed in more detail, such as the burial in longhouses, peculiar houses called cult houses and house urns. Further, the phenomenon has been put in its temporal, geographic, social and ideological context, where aspects such as trade and settlement structure are presented. The house symbolism is, however, not confined to northern Europe.

An energy calculation model for Swedish houses   that is fast, flexible and user-friendly has been developed within the   framework of this thesis.  The model   also provides a set of actions which may be investigated in the model based   on savings and payback period. Energy use in a house depends on the technical   conditions, such as building envelope and heating systems, which outdoor   climate the house is exposed to and who lives in the house. Energy use for a   house can be divided into heating, hot water and household electricity. There   are several methods to calculate the energy use of a house. This report   summarizes the methods that may be suitable for a fast and user-friendly   calculation model.

Determinants of Small Housing Prices in Stockholm 1993-2009, is an econometric study. Regression analysis is used to identify and measure the dominant factors that determine small house prices in Stockholm. Economical fundamenta and neo-liberal varaibles are in use to explain nominal overprices in the house market, as well as the steady development of real house prices in the region..

The aim of this report was to investigate the economy of passive houses. The work was focused on economy in total and on the economy of different components such as windows, insulation, heat exchanger and the air tightness of the climate shell. No attention was paid on the comfort factor or to the impacts on the environment.Two houses, aspiring to be passive were chosen; A big one and a small one. Hence, comparisons considering the size of the building have been possible to do as well.The comparisons were made by calculating ?break even? between two concepts; passive and BBR- concept.

A variety of demands have to be considered in the design of a new opera house in Galärvarvet. All possible viewpoints are important to be aware of, as is the need for the new building to be a contrast to the already existing opera house in Stockholm. The restricted site also makes a multitude of demands on the building's design.By rationalizing the layout and structure and also by making the footprint smaller, the complex building of over 30 000 square meters can be fitted and blended into the existing physical context. Unlike the existing opera house in Stockholm, the new opera house shows the rationality and the advanced technology that lies behind the scenes and becomes the character of the entire building. Through the dynamic façade, the new opera can convey any character it so desires, just like scenes do through different settings.

Together with NCC and Sweco we measured the air-flow on a semi-detached house in Jönköping. When a pressure measurement is made, the house gets exposed to over- and under pressure. This is done in order to examine the houses climate shell. The climate shell of the semi-detached house we tested exceeded the required air thickness in BBR-2002, hence, measures have to be taken.This report also displays the importance of building air thick houses and what consequences a non air-thick house can have for the ones residing the house. A discussion of different measures is on for the addressed problems with the flow-measurement and the alternative construction-solutions.Furthermore we have described in this report of how to account for the performance of the air pressure, what kind of equipment we used and how we came up with the results.

The aim of the study was to through empirical studies interpret the relation between three partially investigated house foundations, on an abandoned farm in Langhammars on northern Fårö. This relation focused upon two main questions; the time of use and the spatial distribution of the archaeological finds.Trough comparative analysis two of these houses can establish to have been contemporary, the third one is too roughly examined. A discussion about the hypothec idea of two or three contemporary farms was made with a negative result.In house 1 smaller processing of tools of flint has taken place near the fireplace in the larger room. A concentration of pottery was also visible near the fireplace, likely to be connected to cooking and eating. The smallest room in the northeast part of the house could have functioned as a storeroom and/or held workshop activities.The archaeological finds and the distribution of it, strongly indicates that house 1 mostlikely consisted of a dwelling house and house 2 functioned as a workshop; linked to activities with handicrafts.