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Green Buildings in Urban Areas
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Green Buildings in Urban Areas

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 5245

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Bin Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of Applied Physics and Electronics, Umeå University, 90187 Umeå, Sweden
2. School of Energy and Safety Engineering, Tianjin Chengjian University, Tianjin 300383, China
Interests: human thermal comfort; building energy efficiency; low carbon and smart building
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Yingdong He

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Civil Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha 410012, China
Interests: human thermal comfort; energy-efficient technologies; regional energy networks
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Currently, buildings consume more than 40% of total energy and emit more than 30% of the greenhouse gas of human society. The high level of energy consumption and carbon emission by building sections has caused serious problems for both developed and developing countries, including climate change, global warming, resource shortage, energy crisis, and ozone layer deterioration.

Green building, which is also known as sustainable building, has the potential to provide numerous benefits, such as renewable and sustainable energy use, environmental conservation, waste recycling and reuse, carbon emission reduction, human physical and mental health, and so forth. As a result, green building has emerged as one of the most important solutions for mitigating the negative effects of buildings while also achieving human society's long-term development. The development of green buildings requires the active participation and cooperation of governments, designers, architects, engineers, researchers, technology producers, managers, and consumers, which makes it an inter-discipline topic that involves building design, construction, operation, maintenance, management, economics, human health, energy, technology, policy, and more.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcomed. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following ones related to green buildings:

  • Architecture
  • Building design
  • Building energy
  • Building engineering
  • Building intelligence
  • Building management.
  • Building science
  • Building simulation
  • Carbon neutrality
  • City development
  • Clean production of buildings
  • Construction
  • Economics
  • Environmental science
  • Green building materials
  • Human behavior
  • Healthy building
  • HVAC system
  • Indoor environment quality
  • Infrastructure
  • Landscape
  • Public policy
  • Urban planning
  • Waste Reduction

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Bin Yang
Dr. Yingdong He
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • urbanization
  • sustainable development
  • carbon emission
  • green governance
  • healthy building
  • human-centric design
  • building waste
  • building environment
  • sustainable society
  • sustainable building energy

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 6381 KiB  
Article
Enhanced Operation of Ice Storage System for Peak Load Management in Shopping Malls across Diverse Climate Zones
by Fanghan Su, Zhiyuan Wang, Yue Yuan, Chengcheng Song, Kejun Zeng, Yixing Chen and Rongpeng Zhang
Sustainability 2023, 15(20), 14759; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152014759 - 11 Oct 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 881
Abstract
There exists a notable research gap concerning the application of ice storage systems in shopping mall settings at the urban scale. The characteristics of large pedestrian flow, high energy consumption, and high peak loads in shopping malls make their advantages in energy conservation. [...] Read more.
There exists a notable research gap concerning the application of ice storage systems in shopping mall settings at the urban scale. The characteristics of large pedestrian flow, high energy consumption, and high peak loads in shopping malls make their advantages in energy conservation. This study researches sustainable cooling solutions by undertaking an economic analysis of the ice storage systems within shopping malls across 11 distinct cities, each system operating under varied electricity pricing frameworks. The methodology begins with creating baseline mall models using AutoBPS and refining them with OpenStudio. Before starting to adjust the model, measured data were used to verify the accuracy of the baseline model, the coefficient of variation of the root mean square error (CVRMSE) and normalized mean bias error (NMBE) metrics were calculated for the model energy consumption, with CVRMSE values of 8.6% and NMBE values of 1.57% for the electricity consumption, while the metrics for the gas consumption were 12.9% and 1.24%, respectively. The study extends its inquiry to encompass comprehensive economic evaluations based on the unique electricity pricing of each city. This rigorous assessment discerns the relationship between capacity, operational strategies, and economic performance. Particularly striking are the so-called peak-shaving and valley-filling effects verified in regions characterized by lower latitudes and substantial cooling loads. The interaction between ice storage capacity and operational schedules significantly influences both economic viability and cooling efficiency. Based on the temporal dynamics of time-of-use (TOU) power pricing, a finely calibrated operational schedule for the ice storage system is proposed. This operational strategy entails charging during periods of reduced electricity pricing to undertake cooling loads during peak electricity pricing intervals, culminating in substantial reductions in electricity charges of buildings. Moreover, the strategic reallocation of energy, characterized by a reduced chiller capacity and a corresponding elevation in ice storage system capacity, augments cooling efficiency and diminishes cooling-related electricity expenses. This study offers valuable insights for optimizing and deploying ice storage systems in diverse climatic regions, particularly for shopping malls. As a guiding reference, this paper provides stakeholders with a framework to reasonably apply and adjust ice storage systems, ushering in an era of energy-efficient and environmentally conscious cooling solutions tailored to shopping mall environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Buildings in Urban Areas)
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28 pages, 2426 KiB  
Article
Multifunctional Homes: A Sustainable Answer to the Challenges of the Future
by Sonia Vuscan and Radu Muntean
Sustainability 2023, 15(7), 5624; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075624 - 23 Mar 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1583
Abstract
The reason for our research is to seek a valid solution, intended for urban development, among those already materialized or in the form of a concept, which corresponds to the pressing needs of the present and of a future dictated by the realities [...] Read more.
The reason for our research is to seek a valid solution, intended for urban development, among those already materialized or in the form of a concept, which corresponds to the pressing needs of the present and of a future dictated by the realities of such a present. We are aware of societal dictating forces as well as of the validity of certain solutions that, if applied on a large scale, could at least partially remedy the deficient functioning of a society adapting to the economic crisis, the crisis of natural resources, and the political and demographic crises, as it attempts to adjust. In the field of urban development, within such a context, as old as it is new, the solution was offered to us in the form of a concept aiming at restructuring and compartmentalizing interior space, with applicability in both the private and public sector. This concept, simple and predictable, has as its goal the reduction of interior space while significantly increasing its functionality through the mediation of mobile structures. It bases its success on reductionism, multifunctionality and versatility, giving up those constitutive parts with null usability or which, by activating the concept, become null, their function being fulfilled by substitution. A reduction applied to the built environment results in a chance given to urban green space, while by restricting the built environment we gain space for nature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Buildings in Urban Areas)
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25 pages, 9183 KiB  
Article
Intelligent Parametric Optimization of Building Atrium Design: A Case Study for a Sustainable and Comfortable Environment
by Yunzhu Ji, Minghao Xu, Tong Zhang and Yingdong He
Sustainability 2023, 15(5), 4362; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15054362 - 28 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2252
Abstract
Building atrium design is crucial to maintaining a sustainable built environment and providing thermal comfort to occupants. This study proposes a parametric framework to optimize the atrium’s geometry for environmental performance and thermal comfort improvement. It integrates the parametric design, performance simulation, and [...] Read more.
Building atrium design is crucial to maintaining a sustainable built environment and providing thermal comfort to occupants. This study proposes a parametric framework to optimize the atrium’s geometry for environmental performance and thermal comfort improvement. It integrates the parametric design, performance simulation, and multi-objective optimization in the Rhino and Grasshopper platform to realize automatic optimization. The atrium’s well index, shape ratio, volume ratio, position index, and inner interface window-to-wall ratio were set as optimized factors. For the optimization objectives, useful daylight illuminance (UDI), energy use intensity (EUI), and the discomfort time percentage (DTP) were chosen as metrics for the measurement of daylighting, energy use efficiency, and thermal comfort, respectively. Moreover, a geometry mapping method is developed; it can turn atrium shape into rectangular profiles. Thus, the framework can apply to general buildings. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework, an atrium optimization case study is conducted for a villa in Poland. According to the optimization results, the performance of the compared three objectives are improved by 43.20%, 15.52%, and 3.89%, respectively. The running time for the optimization is about 36 s per solution, which greatly reduce the human and time cost compared to the traditional working method. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Green Buildings in Urban Areas)
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