Insights

Keeping Cool: From Building Physics to Climate Resilience

RESEARCH PATHWAY: personal reflections on a career in research

Mat Santamouris (University of New South Wales) reflects on a research journey explaining how an early fascination with solar energy and building physics evolved into research on urban overheating, cool materials, and city-scale heat mitigation. The social imperative for research to address now is: Who is most exposed to extreme heat, and what can science do to protect them?

Disaster Reconstruction: Practitioner Insights Improve Outcomes

Pressures on fragile post-disaster supply chains mean practice-based knowledge should be harnessed

Regan Potangaroa (Auckland University of Technology - AUT), Kelvin Zuo (Massey University), Suzanne Wilkinson (AUT) explain why experience-led knowledge from the field, when triangulated with contemporaneous documentation, can constitute evidence for understanding post-disaster reconstruction systems. People working within reconstruction environments (engineers, builders, logisticians and community actors) provide crucial observations about how reconstruction systems function in practice, particularly supply chains, material flows, procurement and governance in post-disaster rebuilding. Integrating this knowledge can lead to better outcomes.

Preparedness for Recovery

Why strong institutional and community capacities need to be developed BEFORE a disaster

Kristen MacAskill (University of Cambridge) and Lianne Dalziel (University of Canterbury) explain capabilities (and the associated capacity) are essential for preparedness. Capacity for both physical infrastructure and organisational / institutional response are necessary. This commentary focuses primarily on institutional capacity for disaster risk management, and the positive (if slow) developments in the value that is being placed on preparedness.

Chronic Climate Risks to Urban Infrastructure

The case is clear for climate adaptation. What frameworks and actions are needed to address climate-related risks?

As the climate is changing, urban areas around the world face multiple risks of both acute and chronic climate hazards. Sarah Greenham & Emma Ferranti (University of Birmingham) consider the impacts on urban infrastructure of these different risks and what kinds of actions are needed to address them.

The Search for Urban Recovery in Lebanon

What lessons can be learned from the repeated cycles of destruction and reconstruction?

Lebanon’s history has been shaped by recurrent cycles of war, disaster, and economic collapse, with each episode leaving enduring imprints on the country’s urban and social fabric. Howayda al-Harithy (American University of Beirut) critically examines Lebanon’s historical cycles of destruction and reconstruction. Recovery involves more than rebuilding buildings; it requires a framework that is people-centered, heritage-led and place-specific together with an emphasis on restoring social relations, cultural identity, community agency while addressing structural inequalities.

Rebuilding Energy Infrastructure after War

Why reconstructing energy infrastructure is a central challenge in post-conflict environments

Marco Nicola Binetti (University of Bremen) argues that energy reconstruction should be understood as a core pillar of post-conflict recovery rather than a narrowly technical undertaking. Restoring electricity and fuel supplies enables essential services, supports economic growth, strengthens state legitimacy, and reduces the likelihood of renewed violence. However, successful reconstruction requires overcoming substantial financial, logistical, institutional, and political obstacles. Reconstruction strategies must also adapt to emerging threats and vulnerabilities created by modern warfare.

Sustainable Buildings and Construction Summit

Key takeaways for policy and practice

Carolien van der Voorden (EPFL) reports on the 2026 Sustainable Buildings and Construction Summit.  This international event focused on practical implementation of the 2024 Déclaration de Chaillot and the Belem Call to Action. It will feed into the Intergovernmental Council on Buildings and Construction (ICBC) and the preparatory processes for COP 31 and 32.

Disaster Reconstruction: Rebuilding Trust in Fragile States

Why do response efforts remain fragmented even when multiple actors mobilise simultaneously?

Tania N. Haddad and Tracy Sakr explain why effective disaster response in fragile institutional environments depends not only on resources but also on governance capacity, coordination mechanisms and institutional trust. The 2020 Beirut Port explosion shows that fragmented governance authority, non-binding coordination arrangements and low public trust resulted in duplicated efforts, uneven aid distribution and limited strategic recovery planning. Institutional reforms can strengthen state capacity, formalise coordination mechanisms between government and civil society, and rebuild trust through transparency and accountability.

New UK National Buildings Database

This is a step-change in the evidence available for analysis of energy demand, decarbonisation and retrofit across the building stock.

The UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has announced the completion of the National Buildings Database, developed for the Department by the UCL Energy Institute. This new database covers all buildings in England, Wales and Scotland, both domestic (houses and flats) and non-domestic (offices, shops, factories, warehouses etc), plus mixtures of the two (e.g. flats over shops).

Reimagining Climate Action, Community Engagement and Professional Responsibility

How can cities achieve higher levels of public support for, and behavioural engagement in, climate mitigation and adaptation?

Climate change poses a plethora of challenges for decision- and policy-making on multiple scales. Adopting a risk perspective can identify multiple kinds of risk that must be addressed if climate action is to be successful. John Robinson and Emily Smit (University of Toronto), Pamela Robinson (Toronto Metropolitan University) and Anne Gloger (Catalysts’ Circle) consider the decision-making risks having to do with whether climate mitigation and adaptation policies and programs are likely to achieve their goals.

Design-Politics: A Long Search to Justify a Hyphen

RESEARCH PATHWAY: personal reflections on a career in research

Lawrence J. Vale (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) explains how his research thinking has evolved over time to consider how politics and design interact at different scales ranging from architectural design to urban design. These ideas have coalesced into new insights that design and politics are co-constitutive and also have significance for designers, planners and the public. A critical question for interrogating any proposal is: who benefits and who loses from development?

Frank Duffy: Researcher and Practitioner

Rob Harris (Ramidus Consulting) reflects on Frank Duffy’s achievements and relevance to the wider research and practice communities.

Dr Francis (Frank) Cuthbert Duffy CBE passed away on 21st February, aged 85, following a long illness. Frank’s extraordinary career had a far-reaching, permanent impact internationally, both on architecture and design, and the wider real estate industry.

Life Cycle Inventories of PV Systems

Emerging insights into the specific environmental footprints of PV systems.

The latest LCA Forum considered key issues in research and recent developments in life cycle assessment and carbon footprinting of electricity generation with various photovoltaic technologies and systems.

2025 Reviewers

Buildings & Cities gratefully acknowledges and thanks our reviewers.

The Editors of Buildings & Cities would like to thank all our reviewers for their contribution and support during 2025. High-quality peer review is essential to the success of this journal. We wish to acknowledge and celebrate the dedication and efforts of all those who have contributed to this.

Our reviewers have invested much thought, time and care to create conceptual, strategic and detailed feedback which have greatly benefitted authors and readers. An enormous THANK YOU to this diverse community of scholars who help to maintain the highest standards for both Buildings & Cities and the wider community.

Routledge Handbook of Degrowth

Edited by Anitra Nelson. Routledge, 2025, ISBN: 9781032650159

Anna Pagani applauds this book for providing readers with the tools to understand degrowth and put it into practice through imagination and collaborative experimentation, thereby prompting activists, researchers, professionals and policymakers in the built environment to question and collectively transform the way we inhabit the world. More

COP30 Report

No further climate ambition, promises for affordable housing

Matti Kuittinen (Aalto University) reflects on his experience of attending the 2025 UN Conference of the Parties in Belém, Brazil. The roadmaps and commitments failed to deliver the objectives of the 2025 Paris Agreement. However, 2 countries - Japan and Senegal - announced they are creating roadmaps to decarbonise their buildings. An international group of government ministers put housing on the agenda - specifying the need for reduced carbon and energy use along with affordability, quality and climate resilience.

Designing Neuroinclusive Workplaces

By Kay Sargent. John Wiley & Sons, 2025, ISBN: 1394309337

Kerstin Sailer commends this book, as it fills an important gap for scholars, the design community and the workplace community. It provides understanding on how people with different sensory profiles can thrive in the work environment and insights for creating inclusive workplaces.

Next Built Conference: Call for Abstracts

Deadline for abstracts: 05 December 2025

The 3rd International Conference "Challenges for the NEXT generation BUILT Environment" (NEXTBUILT 2026) takes place 4-5 June 2026 and is hosted by the University of Bologna and the Next Built Observatory.

Teaching Carbon Neutral Design in North America

Edited by Robin Puttock. Routledge, 2025, ISBN: 9781032692517

Richard Graves highly praises this book, which is not only a must-read for professors and students of architecture committed to a new practice connecting sustainability performance and design excellence, but also for the broader audience of architectural practitioners who would like a window on experiments for future practice.

New Editorial Positions at B&C

We are seeking 2 people to journal our editorial team

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Buildings & Cities journal is looking for 2 Associate Editors to join our outstanding editorial team to support the journal’s mission. The Associate Editors will work in close cooperation with other B&C Editors. The commitment for each would be 3 hours per week. Associate Editors are also required to attend virtual Editorial meetings. These are community service roles that are non-remunerative.