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Key Principles

Key Principles

Read our 10 principles that provide the values underpinning our journal. These broadly explain the ethos and aspirations for what we do.

In addition to being a peer-review journal, we provide an intellectual space for engagement between researchers, practitioners and policy makers.

To achieve this, we will:

  1. Seek to publish highest quality research that has been evaluated through a fair, rigorous and robust peer-review process.
  2. Encourage and publish research and ideas that help improve the built environment, not just describe it.
  3. Maintain integrity in all our work with authors and oblige them to undertake and present their work according to ethical research and publishing guidelines.
  4. Make all research articles in the journal freely available (open access).
  5. Translate: make the research accessible not only for academics and researchers, but also for the end-users of research: policymakers, practitioners, clients, teachers and occupants.
  6. Inspire and engage: promote dialogue and greater understanding between authors and the end-users of research, to have greater impact through discussions in virtual and live events.
  7. Create an inclusive and supportive community of authors, and assist those without funding to publish in our journal.
  8. Operate as a not-for-profit, reinvesting any surplus funds into the journal and the research community that we serve.
  9. Be independent: our role and content are independent of the interests of any organisation, institution, company or government.
  10. We are inclusive: we value the different perspectives and experiences of researchers, academics and practitioners from around the world who understand both the content, context and applications of built environment research. We support authors in the Global South.

Latest Peer-Reviewed Journal Content

Journal Content

Urban form metrics for building occupancy modelling: applications and impacts
D Reiter, M Jehling & R Hecht

Retrofit realism: affordable low-carbon policies for existing homes
N Eyre & R Khosla

Inside offsite: everyday dwelling in factory-built apartments
L Dorignon & R Horne

MMC for housing: sectoral perception on governance challenges
J Morgan, C Goodier, R Schmidt-III & K Ayinla

Reorganising specification practice for component reuse: an exploratory study
S Gao, K Jones, J Xu & J Glass

Kitchen retrofits to support food practices and wellbeing
F J Andrews, A Sal Moslehian, E Warner & R Tucker

From strategy to delivery: a comparative analysis of MMC roadmaps
G Goldman, D Sorokine, F Suerich-Gulick, C Carbone & M Jemtrud

Thermal comfort, ventilation and mosquito-borne disease risk in Zanzibar hospitals
O Sloan Wood, J B Knudsen, K L Schiøler, E Lupenza, M Msellem & F Saleh

Reusing precast concrete elements in construction: assessing the economic conditions
O Vigren, H Westerlind & T Malmqvist

Institutional readiness for industrialised social housing in Vietnam
T Q Nguyen, B N Nguyen, T H Q To & Z Aziz

Prefabrication for housing retrofit: governance, innovation and resident experience
E Pikas, K Kuusk, P Pihelo, R Liias, J Pukk & T Kalamees

Reframing heat pump transitions: a care perspective
J van der Haer, R Schelwald & F de Haan

Urban informal settlements in Africa: transforming adaptation governance
K Buyana & H Sseviiri

Reusing concrete products in indoor environments: chemical hazard assessment
K Tähtinen, A Helin, E Parshintsev & H Hovi

Negotiating net-zero carbon: an ANT analysis of two buildings
L Schweber & M Green

Design for disassembly: a review of public policy proposals
O Vorobjev, U Uotila, T Joensuu & A Saari

Retrofitting Norwegian residential buildings: an archetype-based dynamic stock model
L S A Rousseau, S Amini, S Akin & E G Hertwich

Decolonising time: vernacular villages and the politics of heritage temporality
R Al-Rabady

Commutes to alternative workplaces: GHG emissions and physical activity
J Taylor, L Thoen, A Espinosa Mireles De Villafranca, P Anashin, J Vanhatalo, D Milián Bernal & I Okkonen

Nine ‘myths’ about the building stock of Great Britain
S Evans, P Steadman, A Neto-Bradley, D Humphrey, R Liddiard,H Shamsi, J Palmer & G Simons


See all peer reviewed articles

Latest Commentaries

Photos: (c) Michael H. Ramage

At the 2026 Sustainable Buildings and Construction Summit Michael H. Ramage (Manchester School of Architecture, Centre for Natural Material Innovation, Manchester Metropolitan University) explained how new construction can substantially reduce its carbon footprint by using biogenic materials.  These materials lock in carbon during their growth and store it in use as building materials. This provides a significant reduction in CO2 emissions. The premises surrounding an inadequate supply of timber are shown to be false.

Climate protest outside a local library. Many protests forced councils to declare Climate Emergencies. But have the councils delivered on this promise? Photo: (c) Joe Baker (2019)

How can local authorities better anticipate and reduce chronic climate risks in the built environment? With 20 years' experience working in local authorities tackling climate change, Joe Baker considers the challenges facing local authorities to identify and manage climate risks, and asks: How do we get the leadership, skills, capacity and meaningful action needed?

Join Our Community

Join Our Community

The most important part of any journal is our people – readers, authors, reviewers, editorial board members and editors. You are cordially invited to join our community by joining our mailing list. We send out occasional emails about the journal – calls for papers, special issues, events and more.

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