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Saudi society is undergoing dramatic social transformation, brought about by rapid industrialisation and massive urbanisation. In this period of haste, home environments have experienced significant changes. There was a strong temptation by architects to pick Western houses designs off-the-shelf and by occupants to furnish their houses with modern imported furniture. A surplus economy made such 'shopping' possible. But while the Saudi society was transforming it would be an over simplification to term it `Westernising'. The new home environment leads us to question: how does modern furniture relate to the present-day Saudi family? Does modern furniture hinder or support Saudis' cultural values and identity? The aim of this study is to identify the influence of the use and meaning of modern furniture on the home environment in Jeddah. The study examines the home environment as a system within which constituents communicate continuously to reach different stages of compatibility. People communicate to furniture by using it and shaping its form, and furniture communicates to people by conveying how it is used and what it stands for (meaning). A model of nine stages has been developed to identify the possible relationships between form, use and meaning. The model is then used to analyse r, the relationship between occupants and furniture in both the traditional and contemporary home environment. The methodology of the study is qualitative. The data collection includes in-depth interviews with older women who lived in the traditional houses of Jeddah and housewives in contemporary houses, house floor plans, site and museums visits, a literature review, statistical data of furniture and appliances imported to Saudi Arabia, and other data related to social changes in Saudi Arabia. It has been found that traditional furniture was highly compatible with use, values and occupants' expression of identity. Modern furniture was introduced mainly for its meaning function and was incompatible with cultural values. Because cultural values have resisted change, some traditional furniture is still used and new local furniture was developed. This has led to an increase in the number of rooms, as some are used to express identity while others are used to maintain activities driven by traditional values.

Like many developing country cities, rapid growth and urbanisation over the last few years has resulted in air pollution becoming a major cause for concern in Delhi. The levels of suspended particulate matter pollution recorded in Delhi are amongst the highest in the urbanised world. Research in developed countries has associated respirable suspended particulate matter with increases in mortality and morbidity in cities at daily ambient average concentrations, which often are an order of magnitude less than in Delhi. However, extrapolation of results from research conducted in the developed world to a city like Delhi are confounded by differences in various factors, including relationships between ambient concentration and personal exposure, time-activity patterns, and the baseline health status of the population. This study aims to estimate the magnitude of chronic and acute respiratory health damage which may be related to particulate air pollution, amongst the urban middle-class population in Delhi. In the winter (November - March) of 1994-95 a cross-sectional survey of about 3000 residents was conducted in three study areas that differed in long-term suspended particulate air pollution, as well as in land-use pattern. A Questionnaire was used to collect information on time-activity pattern, respiratory health, personal habits, and socio-economic status. A limited amount of monitoring for respirable particulates was also conducted, with additional data on air quality acquired from the National Ambient Air Quality Monitoring Network. The overall average indoor and ambient respirable particulate concentrations during the study period were 185 /ig/m3 and 275 /xg/A respectively. The average respirable particulate concentration in travel modes (508 /¿g/m3) was much higher than indoors and ambient, with three-wheelers recording significantly higher levels than in cars and buses. However, measured indoor and ambient respirable particulate concentrations did not differ significantly between the study areas. Although chronic respiratory symptom prevalence did not vary systematically between the three areas, the overall crude prevalence was in excess of 40% for housewives, and 50% for office workers. Travel modes and time-activity pattern showed a strong association with chronic symptoms, with time-activity pattern also modifying the relationship between area of residence and symptom prevalence. Acute respiratory symptoms showed a strong temporal association with RSPM concentration, after adjusting for the effect of weather variables. A 10 /ig/m3 increase in estimated bi-weekly moving average respirable particulate concentration was found to increase the odds of reporting dry/wet cough by 2.1% and 2.5% for housewives and office workers respectively. Although subject to certain methodological and analytical limitations, this study shows that there is likely to be a significant health effect of particulate air pollution in Delhi. In conclusions, areas for further research are identified and policy implications discussed within the context of future urbanisation and development.