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Buildings
Special Issues
Inspection, Maintenance and Retrofitting of Existing Buildings
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Inspection, Maintenance and Retrofitting of Existing Buildings

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Materials, and Repair & Renovation".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2025 | Viewed by 7664

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Michael Sing

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Building and Real Estate, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 11 Yuk Choi Rd, Hung Hom, Hong Kong, China
Interests: project performance; evaluation; decision makings; adaptation and conversion; sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Joseph Lai

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China
Interests: building services design and construction; operation and maintenance for buildings; facilities economics and contract management; performance benchmarking and assessment; legislative controls on built facilities
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. David J. Edwards

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Department of the Built Environment, Birmingham City University, Birmingham B4 7XG, UK
2. CIDB Centre of Excellence, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg 2092, South Africa
Interests: construction management; plant and machinery management; digital technologies; health and safety; pedagogical research in higher education; business management
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Nayanthara De Silva

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Architecture, Department of Facilities Management, University of Moratuwa, Moratuwa 10400, Sri Lanka
Interests: building maintainability; risk analysis; facilities management; health and safety; construction performance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Maintaining and inspecting existing buildings is crucial in meeting the societal goals of sustainable city development. Existing buildings make up a large segment of the built environment and always pose a danger to the general public if not properly maintained. For reasons such as poor quality of construction, poor design detailing, poor design concerns over exposure conditions, low awareness of proper maintenance obligations, and so on, many of the buildings have suffered from early deterioration. As a result, the maintenance and inspection techniques applied to existing buildings have become more demanding regarding accuracy and reliability. Moreover, existing building stocks consume significant amounts of energy worldwide. Most greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are emitted from those existing buildings that are without energy-efficient design and/or construction and operation. Therefore, sustainable building retrofitting has emerged as a significant urban rehabilitation theme and provides vast palpable opportunities for improving the performance of the existing building stock. Hence, calls to develop advanced computer-aided analysis methods and decision-making modelling are often made to support retrofitting strategies for existing building stock management.

In light of the above, the objective of this Special Issue is to cover the following topics that are relevant to improving knowledge of the maintenance, inspection, and sustainable retrofitting of existing buildings:

  • Advanced inspection techniques and maintenance technology
  • Digital modelling of the existing building stock
  • Application of building information modelling
  • Sustainability and maintainability in the existing building stock
  • Greening/energy retrofitting of the existing building stock
  • Maintenance strategies for existing buildings
  • Decision-making models to support building maintenance management
  • Governance, e.g., legislation and policy

Dr. Michael Sing
Prof. Dr. Joseph Lai
Prof. Dr. David Edwards
Prof. Dr. Nayanthara De Silva
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. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2600 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

  • existing building
  • inspection and maintenance techniques
  • decision-making model
  • building stock
  • sustainable retrofitting
  • governance

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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16 pages, 5965 KiB  
Article
Building Condition Auditing (BCA)—Improving Auditability—Reducing Ambiguity
by Jye West, Milind Siddhpura, Ana Evangelista and Assed Haddad
Buildings 2024, 14(11), 3645; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14113645 - 16 Nov 2024
Viewed by 420
Abstract
BCA methodically assesses the state of a building’s deterioration to support Maintenance, Safety, Function, and Compliance purposes. Originally used to assist in identifying urgent repair requirements, it has evolved and become one of the most used tools for assessing a building’s outstanding maintenance [...] Read more.
BCA methodically assesses the state of a building’s deterioration to support Maintenance, Safety, Function, and Compliance purposes. Originally used to assist in identifying urgent repair requirements, it has evolved and become one of the most used tools for assessing a building’s outstanding maintenance liability when a building is transacted or acquired. Nevertheless, current practices involve several conflicts; for example, high costs are associated with inspections, inconsistent building component registers, and ambiguity and consistency regarding reporting parameters, all of which lead to compounding errors that reduce reliability. To address these gaps, the current research, involving one hundred and eighteen (118) active facilities managers and asset inspectors, suggests the development of an extension of the deterioration scale (0–7) and methodologies to reduce errors and ambiguity. Furthermore, it suggests using weighted indices to focus on crucial building components, thus improving condition assessment. As was found, these tools improve the accuracy of BCA, facilitate better management of the asset’s life cycle, and provide support in decision-making. This study adds consistency, limits subjectivity, and provides a framework applicable to different building types, assisting future management for sustainability. It, therefore, stands to serve the field by providing detailed and concise best practices for conducting condition audits on built assets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inspection, Maintenance and Retrofitting of Existing Buildings)
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24 pages, 10501 KiB  
Article
Research on Diagnosis and Assessment Processes and Methods for Existing Residential Buildings Based on Intelligent Assistance Models
by Chang Liu, Qiong Zhang, Yue Fan, Guanfeng Lin and Zhengyao Huang
Buildings 2024, 14(10), 3062; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14103062 - 25 Sep 2024
Viewed by 906
Abstract
As renovating existing residential buildings shifts towards more detailed methodologies, conducting comprehensive diagnostic assessments before renovation is crucial for achieving successful outcomes. This research introduces an innovative large-scale diagnostic assessment method for existing residential buildings, addressing the inefficiencies, redundancies, and subjective biases present [...] Read more.
As renovating existing residential buildings shifts towards more detailed methodologies, conducting comprehensive diagnostic assessments before renovation is crucial for achieving successful outcomes. This research introduces an innovative large-scale diagnostic assessment method for existing residential buildings, addressing the inefficiencies, redundancies, and subjective biases present in traditional diagnostic processes through intelligent assistance modeling. The proposed method focuses on five key elements: construction year, exterior walls, windows, balconies, and shading devices, categorizing assessment levels into four grades (A, B, C, D) based on varying renovation intensities. Evaluation criteria are established for service life, thermal performance, degradation, and aesthetic quality. An intelligent assistance model, constructed using training datasets, enables rapid large-scale assessments, significantly reducing the evaluation time while maintaining an accuracy rate of over 95%. Empirical testing on residential buildings in Shenzhen confirmed the model’s effectiveness, demonstrating its superior accuracy and efficiency compared to traditional methods. A weighted analysis revealed that the impact of each factor on the building’s condition was as follows: exterior wall thickness (0.38), exterior finish deterioration (0.35), window deterioration (0.29), balcony deterioration (0.28), and construction year (0.23). Additionally, an interactive software application integrating the intelligent assessment model was developed. This study employed an interdisciplinary approach, combining machine learning and big data, offering a new perspective on building assessment and providing significant reference value for future residential renovation and urban planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inspection, Maintenance and Retrofitting of Existing Buildings)
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27 pages, 15470 KiB  
Article
Energetic and Functional Rehabilitation of Residential Buildings in Europe: Analysis and Cataloguing of the Strategies Used
by Paula Martin-Goñi, Jaume Avellaneda and Josep María González
Buildings 2024, 14(2), 525; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14020525 - 16 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1462
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to explore the rehabilitation strategies for multi-family dwellings on the level of function and techniques. The study employs its own methods of analysis using a sample of selected cases as a reference. Nearly 20% of EU buildings [...] Read more.
The aim of this paper is to explore the rehabilitation strategies for multi-family dwellings on the level of function and techniques. The study employs its own methods of analysis using a sample of selected cases as a reference. Nearly 20% of EU buildings will have to be renovated by 2023, as almost 40% of the existing houses were built before 1980. The environmental impact of construction is among the highest among industrial activities due to the high consumption of resources and the generation of low-value waste at the construction and demolition stages. One way to reduce the environmental impact in this sector is to intervene in the building process, optimising the use of resources and waste generation. The principal objective of refurbishments is to reduce household energy consumption. However, the renovations in the housing sector should not be limited to energy considerations; the functional and technical aspects should also be considered. A new refurbishment model is necessary to focus on providing and improving the habitability of the housing stock and reducing the environmental impact by optimising the use of resources and waste generation. To achieve this, the renovations should be carefully monitored. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inspection, Maintenance and Retrofitting of Existing Buildings)
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29 pages, 5278 KiB  
Article
Quest for an Innovative Methodology for Retrofitting Urban Built Heritage: An Assessment of Some Historic Buildings in Kano Metropolis, Nigeria
by Danjuma Abdu Yusuf, Abubakar Ahmed, Jie Zhu, Abdullahi M. Usman, Musa S. Gajale, Shihao Zhang, Jiang Jialong, Jamila U. Hussain, Abdullahi T. Zakari and Abdulfatah Abdu Yusuf
Buildings 2023, 13(8), 1899; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13081899 - 26 Jul 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2248
Abstract
Historical buildings have inhabited every epoch of history. Some of these built legacies are now in ruins and dying whilst others are somewhat undamaged. Knowledge of conservation techniques available today has allowed us to understand more innovative ways of conserving the built heritage. [...] Read more.
Historical buildings have inhabited every epoch of history. Some of these built legacies are now in ruins and dying whilst others are somewhat undamaged. Knowledge of conservation techniques available today has allowed us to understand more innovative ways of conserving the built heritage. Such techniques are, however, incompatible with the building materials available in our historical epoch and environment. People seek to reclaim the forgotten cultural heritage in the midst of the heritage conservation era while bearing in mind that previous work seldom takes into account the inventive preservation methods of today. This study aims to explore the innovative built heritage conservation practice in the Kano metropolis, to detect deterioration and incorporate traditional wisdom and contemporary innovation according to modern urban development. The study adopted qualitative research with a descriptive approach. The descriptive research explains, examines, and interprets prevailing practices, existing situations, attitudes, reasons, and on-going processes, while the qualitative research approach uses spatial analysis methods (direct assessment of physical characteristics of the selected buildings) and focus group discussion (FGD) sessions with the custodians, prominent elderly persons, or ward head (Mai Unguwa) from each of the selected buildings. In this work, we found it necessary to survey 29 historical buildings of which three of the historic buildings from pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial architecture were purposively sampled for inclusion. This is on the basis of their value formation, processes, phenomena, and typology. The findings reveal that deterioration is due to decaying plaster and paint, moist walls, deformed openings, sagging roofs, wall cracks, roof leakages, exit spouts, stains, and corrosion. Other factors include microbes and termite attacks, inappropriate use and neglect, civilization, and inappropriate funding. Conservation was performed to avert the amount of decay while the techniques in practice are documentation methods and treatment interventions with no implementation of diagnostic methods. It further unveils the potential benefits of local treatment, as evidenced by the intervention at the Dorayi palace segment, the use of “makuba” (milled locust bean pod) to stabilize the geotechnical performance of “tubali” (local mud bricks) to improve its potency. This milled locust bean pod also serves as the water repellent consolidant in “laso” (local) plaster, which has proven to be eco-friendly, non-toxic, and effective in wall rendering. The need for immediate implementation of diagnosis techniques in the conservation of architectural heritage in the municipality and elsewhere in Nigeria and beyond is eminent. Intervention and implementation of policies, appropriate funding, and mobilization, raising awareness and sensitization on the value, significance, and state of affairs of our cultural heritage is also paramount. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inspection, Maintenance and Retrofitting of Existing Buildings)
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Review

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24 pages, 1189 KiB  
Review
Building Energy Governance: Statutes and Guides on Retro-Commissioning in China and the United States
by Savannah Y. T. Lai, Joseph H. K. Lai, Philip Y. L. Wong and David Edwards
Buildings 2024, 14(3), 585; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14030585 - 22 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1531
Abstract
Reducing building energy use, a linchpin of climate change mitigation, is a daunting challenge across the world. Gaining increasing attention, retro-commissioning (RCx) is a systematic process that can improve building energy performance. Using a techno-legal lens to review statutes and guides on RCx, [...] Read more.
Reducing building energy use, a linchpin of climate change mitigation, is a daunting challenge across the world. Gaining increasing attention, retro-commissioning (RCx) is a systematic process that can improve building energy performance. Using a techno-legal lens to review statutes and guides on RCx, this study reveals that in China, a national standard on building commissioning has taken effect yet RCx statutes are hitherto not found. The United States has RCx statutes enacted over 14 states; scrutinizing the statutes of five cities unveils similarities and differences in their scope of control and compliance requirements. In the absence of a specific RCx statute, the guide of Hong Kong, China provides detailed guidance for energy saving practices. While these findings can serve as reference for other places planning to formulate laws or guidance on RCx, the need to further study the effectiveness of mandating RCx for reducing building energy use is highlighted. A conceptual analysis of cost variation with statutory control, which could help policymakers consider from an economic perspective whether or to what extent statutory RCx requirements should be imposed, is also illustrated. This not only contributes insights to the pursuit of an optimal balance between statutory control and voluntary action for energy reduction but also adds to the debate on building energy policies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Inspection, Maintenance and Retrofitting of Existing Buildings)
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