Sana'a city in Yemen is one of the oldest cities in the worlds, which has different forms of building built with different types of materials. In the present work, the old and new forms of building construction and the building materials used in Sana'a, the sources available for the new material, the effects of new material usage on building forms are all presented with the advantages and disadvantages of each material. The old shapes of buildings in Yemen and the classical and modern forms of construction using different types of materials are considered in the study. Survey is used to investigate the building forms and material types in Sana'a. Several conclusions are submitted showing that, the new building material, such as concrete block, is preferred in building comparing with old material, such as stone, which makes it the best choice for the low income people but sometimes the limited resources make old material the only available choice. Several steps needed to develop and encourage the use of new building materials are recommended.

The present study attempted to investigate the behaviour of some projects designed and constructed in China during the last decades from an architectural view point and their compatibility with respect to the relationship between the outer shape and function of the building. The study includes different groups of architectural works including; Culture architecture, Education architecture, Office architecture and Hotel architecture surveying about 60 projects divided into four groups. Four types of relationship were adopted depending on score given to each building. The statistical tools also used to classify and specify accurately the relationship between the buildings and the groups. The study concluded that most of the buildings give good relationship and express the function of the building in addition to aesthetics considerations but the educational architecture give the best representation