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Buildings
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Sustainable Building Environment
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Sustainable Building Environment

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 April 2024) | Viewed by 5385

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Elisa D. Sotelino

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department Of Civil and Environmental Engineering, PUC-Rio, Rio de Janeiro 22451-900, Brazil
Interests: sustainable project development; lean construction; green construction; building information modeling (BIM); lifecycle assessment; building material reuse; building performance analysis; zero energy building (ZEB)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The civil construction industry, which is responsible for the building environment, has a major impact on the social and economic development of a country since it creates jobs and brings in wealth. At the same time, this industry is responsible for almost forty percent of waste generation and carbon dioxide emissions when compared to other industries that have adverse effects on the environment. Thus, the civil construction industry is considered one of the most polluting economies in existence and a major enemy of sustainable development. This negative scenario highlights the need for reforms in terms of work process methodology and demands the use of newly developed techniques and technologies.

Due to the ever-increasing pressure from society and health organizations, sustainability is become an especially important concern within the civil construction industry. Consequently, there is a demand not only for higher quality projects, improved productivity and efficiency, but also for sustainable development. The adoption of new concepts, such as building information modeling (BIM), energy-efficient buildings, lean and green construction, material reuse, life cycle assessment, etc., is growing as processes and technology evolve. The integration of these new concepts and technologies can help in the development of optimized solutions, which are more economic and reduce the negative impact this industry has in the environment.

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

  • Synergy between BIM and lifecycle assessment;
  • New workflows for building design considering sustainability issues;
  • Construction waste material reuse;
  • New processes for decreasing CO2 emissions in the production of construction materials;
  • Energy-efficient materials;
  • New construction methods to reduce waste generation;
  • New systems for green construction;
  • Lean construction;
  • Nearly zero-energy buildings;
  • Energy simulation applied in the building design phase;
  • Social and environmental consequences due to construction activities.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Sustainability.

Dr. Elisa D. Sotelino
Guest Editor

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

  • lean construction
  • green construction
  • building information modeling
  • lifecycle assessment
  • construction waste reuse
  • energy efficient materials
  • energy simulation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 22302 KiB  
Article
Natural and Architectural Convergence: A Model of Nature-Based Strategies in the Architectural Design Domain
by Chra Hunar Ahmed and Hoshyar Qadir Rasul
Buildings 2023, 13(8), 2015; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13082015 - 07 Aug 2023
Viewed by 3572
Abstract
Nature is the major source and basis for architectural design. It is beyond human ability to create the same unlimited changes and dimensions. One of the key actors in minimizing negative impacts on nature and the environment is the architect. Due to the [...] Read more.
Nature is the major source and basis for architectural design. It is beyond human ability to create the same unlimited changes and dimensions. One of the key actors in minimizing negative impacts on nature and the environment is the architect. Due to the different uses of nature in architectural design and the interdisciplinarity between the approaches and aspects of nature, this study aimed to explore the contributions of nature-based strategies to the architectural design domain and identify the comprehensive relationship between nature and architecture. Through using logical argument, the nature-based strategies of architectural design were classified according to four categories of architectural design principles in a predicted model. For testing and validating the model, one strategy, which included nine nature-based approaches of architectural design with 23 aspects, was evaluated, and the scopes of the approaches were identified. VOSviewer was used for data analysis, and the survey questionnaire method was used for the focus group of architects to evaluate Erbil City’s architectural design. In this survey, 328 responses were received, which were ranked using the four-point Likert scale (most of the time, some of the time, seldom, and never), and the t-test from SPSS software was used to compare the approaches of the selected nature-based strategy. The passive design was the only approach with a positive value from the t-test (3.805) with a p-value of 0.000. Among these 23 evaluated aspects, natural ventilation received the highest mean value (1.91). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Building Environment)
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16 pages, 8302 KiB  
Article
Application of Social-Life Cycle Assessment in Urban Settings: Social Impact Assessment of Green Roofs
by Giulia Mazzucco, Maria Canepa and Katia Perini
Buildings 2023, 13(7), 1659; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071659 - 28 Jun 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1339
Abstract
Sustainability brings together three dimensions: environment, economy and society, as according to the Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally, and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, governments, and major groups in every area in which [...] Read more.
Sustainability brings together three dimensions: environment, economy and society, as according to the Agenda 21, a comprehensive plan of action to be taken globally, nationally, and locally by organizations of the United Nations System, governments, and major groups in every area in which humans impact the environment. To define whether an intervention or process is ‘sustainable’, these spheres must co-exist and be equally contemplated. Green roofs have been extensively studied from environmental and economic perspectives, but as far as the social dimension is concerned, the literature is limited. Indeed, to define these interventions as ‘sustainable’, the social dimension must also be investigated. Over time, Social-Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA), an extension of the better-known Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), has become widespread. S-LCA allows assessing the potential impact that a production process, and consequently a product, can have on people. This paper aims to propose a model for analyzing green roofs by identifying the possible categories of stakeholders involved in the implementation process, and the impact categories to be referred to. By defining these elements, it is possible to estimate the positive or negative social impact that interventions cause. The results of the survey offer insights into social issues related to the implementation of green roofs by focusing on the stakeholders involved within the entire life cycle. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Building Environment)
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