During Covid-19 pandemic office buildings are no longer the places where people spend half their waking time.
Chiara Tagliaro explains how the workplace is changing due to the shift to working from home. Key questions and challenges are posed for researchers, practitioners and facility managers: to create a strong evidence base and define appropriate new practices for a range of circumstances and individuals.
Is the current situation an opportunity to undertake fundamental changes in the building regulatory process in order to ensure safe and healthy buildings?
David Eisenberg (Development Center for Appropriate Technology) and Rick Diamond (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) consider the opportunities and challenges of building regulatory reform in the post-pandemic period.
Wastewater systems in tall buildings are a transmission pathway for pathogens. Despite robust evidence (and clear solutions), standards, codes and regulations have failed to respond and present a public health risk.
Michael Gormley (Heriot Watt University) explains a neglected area of public health and building design: the plumbing systems for wastewater. What can building designers and regulators can do to reduce the hazard of disease transmission in tall buildings?
Disasters are not natural occurrences. The design of cities and buildings can exacerbate or eliminate most disasters.
Ilan Kelman (University College London & University of Agder) explains why disasters are caused by humans – disasters come from a society’s decisions and actions, not nature. Many disasters can be eliminated through design, regulation and social practices. Built environment professionals have a significant role in tackling disasters involving risk identification, assessment, and management. Vulnerability takes a long time to create or eliminate due to the slow evolution of most cities.
The built environment has a fundamental role in maintaining public health. What lessons has Hong Kong applied to reduce the spread of contagion?
An important function of the built environment
is providing a safe place for its inhabitants.
Edward Ng (Chinese University of Hong Kong) recalls the spread of SARS in Hong Kong and reflects on the public health lessons for the built environment. A process of preparation and management is vital for
reducing present and future health risks. This is becoming evident in Hong Kong’s
recent codes and regulations for urban design and buildings . Other cities can learn from this process.
The present format of scientific conferences is outdated and needs to rapidly change. How we can reconfigure conferences to better suit the needs of researchers?
The COVID-19 outbreak has cancelled or postponed conferences, shifting others to virtual meetings. This presents an opportunity to reflect on the questions about the purpose of scientific conferences and ways to improve them: how can they function more effectively, how are they organised, who are the major beneficiaries, should their number be reduced, and how to limit their environmental impacts (especially from air travel)? Buildings & Cities' Richard Lorch argues for the urgent need to change scientific conferences.
What role does the built environment have in addressing climate injustices?
This community-led initiative provides a practical approach to addressing climate injustices, specifically those experienced by Black and brown communities and low-income residents in Portland, Oregon. Rev. E.D. Mondainé and Mandy Lee present a pioneering approach that embraces both climate (mitigation and adaptation) and inequality issues to improve community resilience and wellbeing. A climate justice approach is better than attempting to solve one issue at a time.
Architect Peter Clegg of Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios considers the ‘Architects Declare’ movement and what it means for designers to put these ideas into practice.
Architect Peter Clegg (Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios) describes the ‘Architects Declare’ movement, which was established in response to the climate emergency. He explores how the principles of 'Architects Declare' can be put into action, particularly through considering both operational energy and embodied carbon during the design of buildings.
Robert Crawford (The University of Melbourne) explains the importance of research to create a radical, informed shift in the way we design and construct our buildings and cities.
Robert Crawford (The University of Melbourne) explains the importance of research for making a radical, informed shift in the way we design and construct our buildings and cities. A database on the embodied environmental aspects of construction materials shows how researchers, the construction industry and government can develop a much more environmentally responsive approach to our built environment.
Martin Mayfield (University of Sheffield) explains the importance of Urban Scale Digital Twins.
Urban infrastructure systems are
essential supporting instruments of society; they evolve gradually and some 19th
century infrastructure remains viable and essential today. Martin Mayfield discusses how urban scale digital twins
(USDT) provide a holistic approach to urban and infrastructure design, operation and future proofing.
Joe Clarke (University of Strathclyde) describes the ‘7 deadly sins’ associated with performance simulation tools.
Simulation tools offer increased opportunities for understanding building performance, but also present significant challenges. To overcome the '7 deadly sins' associated with performance simulation tools, Joe Clarke argues that structural changes are needed involving the roles of construction industry, professional bodies, researchers and software developers.
Kevin Lomas discusses a new tool for the identifying and reducing overheating risk
The risk of overheating in homes is an increasing problem in the UK and elsewhere. Kevin Lomas discusses a ground-breaking new tool developed and launched to assist designers, planners and clients to identify and reduce the risk of summer overheating in dwellings.
Stuart Green explores the promises and pitfalls of Modern Methods of Construction
This article considers whether Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) can really resolve the construction industry's challenges of a diminishing workforce and low productivity, whilst also delivering a more energy efficient built environment. Stuart Green explores how an alternative conceptualisation might help to avoid failure.
Alan Short responds to the Climate Emergency and argues we must rethink our dependency on the mechanical conditioning of buildings.
A city comprised of buildings with high energy demand is risky and damaging to the climate. Alan Short suggests that for change to occur, the behaviours and attitudes of the supply side need to change. The main barrier is for clients and their designers to break with the status quo.
Fionn Stevenson explains why rapid change is needed to redefine education and training. Students need to be able to access and understand existing principles, methods and solutions for carefully defined, problem and evidence-based learning.
The built environment disciplines and their corresponding institutes / regulators must radically update their professional validation criteria for their education programmes now and more closely define the key competences that professionals must have. Fionn Stevenson explains why rapid change is needed to redefine education and training.
Evaluating mitigation strategies for building stocks against absolute climate targets
L Hvid Horup, P K Ohms, M Hauschild, S R B Gummidi, A Q Secher, C Thuesen, M Ryberg
Equity and justice in urban coastal adaptation planning: new evaluation framework
T Okamoto & A Doyon
Normative future visioning: a critical pedagogy for transformative adaptation
T Comelli, M Pelling, M Hope, J Ensor, M E Filippi, E Y Menteşe & J McCloskey
Suburban climate adaptation governance: assumptions and imaginaries affecting peripheral municipalities
L Cerrada Morato
Urban shrinkage as a catalyst for transformative adaptation
L Mabon, M Sato & N Mabon
Maintaining a city against nature: climate adaptation in Beira
J Schubert
Ventilation regulations and occupant practices: undetectable pollution and invisible extraction
J Few, M Shipworth & C Elwell
Nature for resilience reconfigured: global- to-local translation of frames in Africa
K Rochell, H Bulkeley & H Runhaar
How hegemonic discourses of sustainability influence urban climate action
V Castán Broto, L Westman & P Huang
Fabric first: is it still the right approach?
N Eyre, T Fawcett, M Topouzi, G Killip, T Oreszczyn, K Jenkinson & J Rosenow
Gender and the heat pump transition
J Crawley, F Wade & M de Wilde
Social value of the built environment [editorial]
F Samuel & K Watson
Understanding demolition [editorial]
S Huuhka
Data politics in the built environment [editorial]
A Karvonen & T Hargreaves
European building passports: developments, challenges and future roles
M Buchholz & T Lützkendorf
Decision-support for selecting demolition waste management strategies
M van den Berg, L Hulsbeek & H Voordijk
Assessing social value in housing design: contributions of the capability approach
J-C Dissart & L Ricaurte
Electricity consumption in commercial buildings during Covid-19
G P Duggan, P Bauleo, M Authier, P A Aloise-Young, J Care & D Zimmerle
Disruptive data: historicising the platformisation of Dublin’s taxi industry
J White & S Larsson
Impact of 2050 tree shading strategies on building cooling demands
A Czekajlo, J Alva, J Szeto, C Girling & R Kellett
Social values and social infrastructures: a multi-perspective approach to place
A Legeby & C Pech
Resilience of racialized segregation is an ecological factor: Baltimore case study
S T A Pickett, J M Grove, C G Boone & G L Buckley
Latest Commentaries
Time to Question Demolition!
André Thomsen (Delft University of Technology) comments on the recent Buildings & Cities special issue ‘Understanding Demolition’ and explains why this phenomenon is only beginning to be understood more fully as a social and behavioural set of issues. Do we need an epidemiology of different demolition rates?
Where are Women of Colour in Urban Planning?
Safaa Charafi asks: is it possible to decolonialise the planning profession to create more inclusive and egalitarian urban settings? It is widely accepted that cities are built by men for other men. This male domination in urban planning results in cities that often do not adequately address challenges encountered by women or ethnic and social minorities. Although efforts are being taken to include women in urban planning, women of colour are still under-represented in many countries, resulting in cities that often overlook their needs.