Biophilic Design and Restorative Architecture for Sustainable Urban Environments

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Sustainability aims to bridge the gap between the biophilic design and energy sustainability of cities. Thus far, research has underpinned technical paths to saving energy in urban generative processes; however, true sustainability depends principally upon users valuing their built environments enough to maintain them. The complex factors behind this attachment include biophilic design, in which people unconsciously feel to be part of an environment when it triggers positive-valence unconscious responses. Users accept this state as “belonging” to geometry and built spaces, a result that is not obtainable through usual technocratic design principles. Recent years have brought a wealth of medical data on exactly which environments are restorative; that is, beneficial to our health and wellbeing. While not yet incorporated into mainstream design or education, this new knowledge lays the foundation for how humankind will build in the future—if it is interested in survival. The Special Issue will therefore link previous studies on sustainability to the emotional attachment of human beings with geometry through the evolutionary mechanisms that shape our biology. This crucial aspect of sustainability is currently being neglected in the existing literature.

Prof. Dr. Nikos Salingaros
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. 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.

• biophilia
• biophilic design
• resilience
• restorative environments
• sustainability