In October 2013 in Orange County Great Park in city of Irvine, California, took place the sixth edition of the prestigious international competition of universities U.S. Solar Decathlon 2013. This round took part also Team Czech Republic from the Czech Technical University in Prague, which finished at overall third place. The article describes in detail rules of competition and technical solutions used in the AIR House.

The paper describes the basic division of surface protection systems for concrete, which define standard EN 1504-2. Evaluates various parameters prescribed in relation to the requirements of the usual structures and gives appropriate use of various systems. The following are examples of inspections carried out and assessed defects.

This Article focuses on the significant changes to the Land Register introduced by the New Civil Code and an act no. 256/2013 Coll. The most important change is the strict application of the principle of material publicity – in contrast to the previous legislative regulation the record in the Register is always the decisive factor for determining the existing rights. The recording of real rights proceedings improves the protection of real estate owners from fraud by mandatory informing them about the proposed changes. The real right will not be recorded until 20 days after informing the owner.
The priority principle is strengthened by marking not only days but also hours and minutes of submitting the proposal of real rights record. An existing real right which was not a subject of mandatory record before has to be recorded by January 1, 2018. Neglecting this duty might result in losing the right in favor of an incompatible right recorded later.
The real rights are now recorded uniformly regardless if they originate through a contract, court decision, auction etc. Rights such as lease can also newly be recorded in the Register. The changes also reflect the newly introduced principle in the Civil Code making the ownership of the buildings inseparable from the ownership of the land beneath. This principle does not extend to the buildings and land which had different owners before January 1, 2014, temporary buildings and the buildings built entitled from the right to build.

An overview of the development and standard types of the prefabricated wooden houses, their basic structural materials, basic mechanical timber joints, design practice for loads effects and requirements for structural elements is presented in the five-part series. The first part explains the development and standard types of the prefabricated wooden houses.

This work dealing with problematic about durability of concrete, with use of recycled concrete and addition of silica additions. Predominant for resistance of concrete constructions is surface layer, through which aggressive gases and liquids penetrate from surrounding environment. The most important indicator of concrete durability is ability of surface layer transmissions of aggressive substants. In the next part were defined the actual state of surface layer by normal testing methods. The transmissions of surface layer were tested on concrete cubes. Tests for transmissions of air (method TORRENT), of water (method ISAT), of acid gases (dept of carbonation by quick test in 98% CO₂) were carried out and also strength tests. Assessment of positive or negative influence of additions and amount of cement on durability and mechanical properties of concrete will be discussed in conclusion.

The article describes measuring for a period of 16 years of an experimental masonry object, horizontally prestressed using cables – monostrands. Specific problems od this method of strengthening are mentioned.

The 8th part of the series about doors and windows is focused on the process of acceptance of the work including the assessment of defects and unfinished parts, and their removal. It recommends length of warranty periods and claim application.

New Civil Code enacts special type of solidary obligation to remedy the defects of building constructed under contract for works. All subcontractors (suppliers) of constructor, investor`s technical supervisors or construction project designer are solidary responsible together with the constructor in case the defect can be attributed to the performance they provided. However, these parties need not to be the parties to the contract for works itself (and usually are not) as their obligation arises by law.

The remedies that the investor can claim on these co-debtors, however, are limited to right to demand the repair of the defect. Investor may demand remedy on any of the co-debtors and all the co-debtors are obliged to perform the remedy in full.

The investor has to give notice to the debtor within a reasonable time. The notice can be sent to any of the co-debtors but we advise all investors to give notice always to the constructor first or together with the other co-debtors.

It is presently in construction increasingly seen a return to natural materials. This trend is closely related with the ever increasing demands for improving the energy performance of buildings and also the reduction of environmental burden on the industry to the environment. During application of natural insulation materials, however, still face with two main disadvantages of these materials. It is their moisture sensitivity associated with a porous material structure, and then an adverse reaction to fire. The paper is devoted to the study of the moisture behavior of fibrous thermal insulation materials, fiber-based modified chemical additives in order to improve their moisture sensitivity.

The thesis deals with urban sprawl and suburbanization as the effects of changes in society. It presents the basic historical overview and describes the situation in contemporary Europe. The thesis focuses on description of negative aspects, in connection with formed urban sprawl.
This work presents and describes the historical background of suburbanization in the Czech Republic. It reflects on the causes and presents the facts, leading to their understanding.
The practical part of the thesis is the application of acquired knowledge on the model, which is Brno-Útěchov. One of the peripheral parts of Brno that has grown significantly due to suburbanization in last few years.
Ideological study aims to show an alternative approach to this way of development. The main areas of interest are importance of public and private space, often neglected idea of neighborhood and the importance of privacy in terms of new houses in a face of village itself.

The reflected radiation significantly negatively influences the results of the quantitative infrared thermographic measurement in the exterior. The paper deals the metod of elimination of reflected radiation using appropriate equipment including examples of practical results of measurements.

If you selected a high-quality windows and doors for your construction, the overall success depends only on the quality of installation. The most important is quality of the gap between the window frame and jamb. The basic three parts of this gap are inner and outer seal and thermal insulation.

Asbestos is often mentioned in connection with the construction industry, especially with the school buildings. Wrong way of asbestos removal meant a multimillion cost of cleaning the property. Unfortunately, these cases do not cause a change in legislation that would regulate working with asbestos.

An integral part of a building survey is determining the location of steel reinforcements in building construction elements made of reinforced concrete. In the last decade, GPR came as one of the standard diagnostic methods. However, the equipment used until recently was characterized by its complexity and lengthy measurements, evaluation of which required a considerably professionally knowledgeable staff. The turning point was Hilti PS 1000, a GPR intended for use by common technicians during building surveys. This contribution evaluates the first experience with its use.

Cement-chip boards are construction elements which merge suitable wood and cement properties with the synergic effect designed for all-round use. The disadvantage of these boards remains the relatively high price. The price can be decreased by partially replacing initial raw materials. The paper addresses the option to modify the composition of cement-chip boards using alternative raw materials. Representatives of organic and inorganic materials were used (e.g., hemp, straw, waste products from production of mineral insulations and textile fibres). Alternative materials were used in the production of cement-chip boards under laboratory conditions in two various percentage ratios for the substitution of the wood component. In particular, 100 % and 50 % of wooden chips were replaced in the basic receipt of the boards. Testing bodies were produced using a mechanical press and basic properties were tested after 28 days of maturing. The results of individual board parameters – density, coefficient of elasticity and bending strength were compared with the normative requirements for cement-chip boards which are specified by standard EN 634-2.

Only properly designed windows or doors with matching parameters and their proper building in the construction are a prerequisite for long-term trouble-free operation of them. Building-in of the windows is topic of the sixth part of the series about windows and doors.

The article handles about development of ultra-light concrete with mass density less than 1000 kg/m³. In the article there are described laboratory preparation of specimens and primary mechanical properties of the ULC.

The comparison of different calculation methods for airborne and impact sound insulation between rooms is given in this paper. Theoretical influence of flanking transmission on total sound transmission between rooms is done, based on calculation results for reference set of residential buildings. New simplified methods are also introduced for estimation of corrections for flanking transmission in common cases.

The article is focused on description of behaviour of the sandwich load-bearing panels with polystyrene core and OSB boards from the both faces. The interaction of the each component is provided by glued area connection. The panels are suitable for small and medium spans, walls and roofs. The benefits of the sandwich panels are high bending stiffness, good insulations properties and lightweight. The behaviour of the panel is mainly influenced by reinforcing, which is performed mostly by means of the I-beam ribs or rectangular profile ribs. The most important is the joint between sandwich panels and anchoring of the shear walls. The results of the racking shear wall experiments of the sandwich panels and capacity shear wall, which is significant for design of the timber structures, are presented in this article.

The concrete built in the structure is difficult to determine the static modulus of elasticity. One possibility is to measure the dynamic modulus of elasticity and subsequent conversion to static modulus of elasticity. This paper deals with mutual relationships between static and dynamic modulus of elasticity including practical examples of the determination of reduction factor.