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Buildings
Special Issues
Materials and Technologies for Regenerative Built Environments
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Materials and Technologies for Regenerative Built Environments

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 March 2025 | Viewed by 4120

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jorge Fernandes

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Escola de Engenharia,‎ Universidade do Minho, 4800-058 Guimarães‎, Portugal
Interests: bioclimatic architecture; passive strategies; sustainable building; energy efficiency; vernacular architecture; low-carbon materials
Dr. Ricardo Mateus

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Minho, Escola de Engenharia,‎ Guimarães, Portugal
Interests: sustainable construction; life cycle assessment; bio and geo-based construction products; circular economy in the construction sector; vernacular construction
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

During recent years, the building sector has undergone a paradigm shift. The rise of environmental awareness has highlighted several problems regarding energy efficiency and environmental impacts. Thus, the sector is transitioning from a paradigm relying mainly on mechanical systems and high embodied energy materials and less concerned about the climate context and environmental impacts of buildings to a holistic (sustainable) approach. However, the concept “sustainable construction” is no longer sufficient. The most up-to-date challenges and goals require strategies and technologies for restoring and regenerating, thus promoting positive impacts that enable social and ecological systems to maintain a healthy state and to evolve. If sustainability is a complex and branchy tree, a regenerative approach is akin to adding the roots. Buildings are a key sector to implement regenerative criteria, since they represent one of the largest energy and natural resource consumers, responsible for a third of global carbon emissions and other potential life cycle environmental impacts.

Therefore, this Special Issue aims to gather and share the knowledge available on the aforementioned, with the goal of promoting regenerative buildings through integrated design, passive strategies, low-carbon technologies, and materials, among others. The Special Issue is open for papers addressing, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Bioclimatic, climate-responsive, and passive design;
  • Indoor environment quality (air quality and thermal, visual, and acoustic comfort);
  • Active technologies for low-carbon and energy-efficient buildings and communities;
  • Vernacular architecture and construction;
  • Simulation for regenerative buildings and communities;
  • Design and construction of low-carbon buildings;
  • Low-carbon, low-tech, and regenerative materials;
  • Innovative technologies for regenerative buildings;
  • Tools and technologies for regenerative buildings (holistic design);
  • Biophilic design;
  • Policies and regulations for regenerative buildings.

Dr. Jorge Fernandes
Dr. Ricardo Mateus
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 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 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

  • regenerative design
  • low carbon/regenerative materials
  • life cycle assessment
  • integrated design process
  • regenerative construction policies
  • human well-being and comfort
  • water management
  • urban and building energy performance simulation

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  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
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  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 6630 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Design of a Tiny House: Using a Life Cycle Assessment Approach to Compare the Environmental Performance of Industrial and Earth-Based Building Systems
by Letizia Dipasquale, Giada Giuffrida, Natalia Jorquera Silva, Riccardo Maria Pulselli and Rosa Caponetto
Buildings 2025, 15(3), 491; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15030491 - 5 Feb 2025
Viewed by 943
Abstract
The increased concerns about climate change, diminishing natural resources, and environmental degradation call for deep research into new environmentally friendly building systems that use natural or recycled materials. The article presents an assessment of the environmental and climatic benefits associated with the construction [...] Read more.
The increased concerns about climate change, diminishing natural resources, and environmental degradation call for deep research into new environmentally friendly building systems that use natural or recycled materials. The article presents an assessment of the environmental and climatic benefits associated with the construction of a tiny house made of quincha, a building system based on a wooden structure filled with locally sourced earth and straw. The tiny house is located in the Elqui Valley, in the Chilean region of Coquimbo, and it is designed to be compact, functional, comfortable, and efficient. The study uses a life cycle approach to assess the environmental impacts of building construction, maintenance, and end-of-life treatment, comparing the adopted quincha solution with four hypothetical scenarios using industrial, prefabricated, and/or synthetic construction materials currently adopted in the region. The thermal performance of all the analyzed solutions is also included in order to provide insights into the impact of the operational phase. This paper demonstrates that the quincha solution, in the face of lower thermal insulation compared to the other prefabricated solutions (the U-value of the quincha wall is 0.79 W/m2K while the U-value of the best prefabricated wall is 0.26 W/m2K), has higher thermal inertia (time lag (TL) and decrement factor (DF) are, respectively, 6.97 h and 0.60, while other systems have a TL below 4 h and DF higher than 0.81). For a quantitative environmental evaluation, the carbon footprint (global warming potential), water footprint, and embodied energy indicators are assessed through LCA, which takes into account the mass of the materials and their emission factors. The effectiveness of the quincha solution is also reflected in environmental terms; in fact, it is found to have the lowest carbon footprint (2635.47 kgCO2eq) and embodied energy (42.7 GJ) and the second-lowest water footprint (2303.7 m3). Moreover, carbon sequestration values, which are assessed by estimating the carbon contained in building systems using wood and straw, demonstrate that the quincha tiny house is the only solution that can theoretically reach carbon neutrality (with its carbon storage value at −5670.21 kgCO2eq). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Materials and Technologies for Regenerative Built Environments)
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29 pages, 10527 KiB  
Article
The Amazonian Architecture and Challenges Faced in Socio-Spatial Transformation Processes—Shuar and Achuar, Ecuador
by David Eduardo Morocho Jaramillo, Camilla Mileto and Fernando Vegas López-Manzanares
Buildings 2024, 14(3), 842; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14030842 - 20 Mar 2024
Viewed by 2056
Abstract
This article explores the ties between vernacular architecture, culture and identity in a context of sociocultural change in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The text addresses the loss of a collective cultural identity from a historical, socio-spatial and descriptive perspective. Beliefs and traditions act as [...] Read more.
This article explores the ties between vernacular architecture, culture and identity in a context of sociocultural change in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The text addresses the loss of a collective cultural identity from a historical, socio-spatial and descriptive perspective. Beliefs and traditions act as a “social glue“ uniting societies around common values, goals and norms, whose disappearance could cause this society to veer off course or to even become fragmented. Fieldwork carried out further supports these data, showcasing cultural changes which are worsened by globalization and contribute to the erosion of common beliefs. Although challenging, this also provides the opportunity to reassess values in search of new forms of local identity and significance. The article highlights the fragmentation between tradition and the beliefs concerning settlements which had been introduced by colonization through an understanding of construction processes and their spatial logic. The transformation of socio-spatial dynamics highlights the challenges faced by the Amazon, as well as attempts to strike a balance between tradition and progresses, without neglecting environmental culture or integrity due to the pressures of globalization. Therefore, understanding the different relationship systems found within a given ecosystem can provide clues on how to aid their preservation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Materials and Technologies for Regenerative Built Environments)
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