Thermal Behavior and Energy Efficiency of Buildings

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue calls for cutting-edge papers covering aspects of science and technology concerned with the whole life cycle of new and/or existing buildings, which contribute to a transition to a more sustainable built environment. The shortage of some non-renewable energy sources and the noticeable climate changes caused by greenhouse gas emissions are currently a major global concern that calls for the reduction of energy consumption in buildings during the several stages of their lifetime; energy efficiency improvement to guarantee thermal comfort expectations; mitigation of environmental impacts from the early design phase through to construction, operation, maintenance, and end-of-life; search for alternatives to conventional materials, processes, and systems; need for innovation in construction technology; improvement of use of technologies based on renewable energy sources; development of new design approaches; widespread use of validated modeling tools and optimization approaches; and finally, development of transdisciplinary engineering and multidisciplinary studies to evaluate the thermal performance and energy efficiency of buildings during their life span. 

Authors are encouraged to publish their original theoretical and/or experimental research on technology development, improvement, and integration along with system analysis, environmental issues, thermal performance, and energy assessment. Interdisciplinary studies and papers that incorporate more than one topic or more than one methodology (e.g., experimental, modeling, analysis, and optimization) are encouraged. Review papers are also welcomed. This Special Issue’s topics include but are not limited to:

• Assessment of the thermal behavior and energy efficiency of buildings;
• Advances in construction technology towards a low carbon built environment;
• Resilience and adaptation of buildings to climate changes;
• Thermal comfort and indoor environmental quality;
• Thermal performance of historical and cultural heritage buildings;
• Building energy audits, rehabilitation, retrofitting, and refurbishment;
• Building certification, energy, and environmental labels and declarations;
• Transition towards a circular economy in the buildings sector;
• Education for sustainable construction;
• Transdisciplinary engineering, multidisciplinary studies, and holistic approaches;
• Advances in building envelope solutions;
• Advances in building integrated photovoltaics (BIPV);
• Advances in ground-coupled heat exchangers;
• Advances in heat, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems;
• Advances in nearly zero energy buildings and passive houses;
• Environmental impacts and life cycle assessment (LCA);
• Potential of building information modeling (BIM) for sustainable construction.

Dr. Nelson Soares
Dr. Luisa Dias Pereira
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 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

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.