www.buildingsandcities.org/insights/news/challenges-next-gen-built.html
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.
Housing has emerged globally as one of the most pressing social and economic challenges. The supply of affordable, adequate and sustainable housing is struggling to keep pace with demand. Ageing, inefficient and inadequate dwelling stocks, partially influenced by the dynamics of the property market, as well as the need for climate adaptation, and the rising cost of construction materials, are putting significant pressure on the construction sector.
The conference is organised with 4 themes. Abstracts are sought across 4 topics:
- Room for housing: reflecting on affordability, equity and resilience
- Livability, comfort and health: reflecting on the nature of the built environment
- Process workflow and services: reflecting on innovation in the building sector
- Materials without borders: reflecting on reuse and impacts
All abstracts will be double-blind peer reviewed by the Scientific Committee. NEXT BUILT ensures a fair and transparent process is undertaken by all the members involved.
WEBSITE: https://next-built.org/nextbuilt-2026/
CONTACT:
Latest Peer-Reviewed Journal Content
Timing matters: life cycle embodied GHG emissions of circular building strategies
A Wöhler, L Rosado, H Abu Ghaida, H Wallbaum & A Hollberg
Scaling up retrofit: regional challenges and opportunities for MMC
H Dörr, P Späth & I Goñi
Design as communicative activity: implications for sustainability assessment software
T Säwén, A Sasic Kalagasidis & A Hollberg
Indoor temperature and office work performance in a temperate climate
T Kramer & S Schiavon
Moving homes and energy poverty: residents’ concerns, capabilities and responses
M Jalas, J Rinkinen, S Numminen & E Valkealahti
Reference study for biogenic carbon storage in the residential building stock
O Iliescu, I Talvitie, A Amiri & S Junnila
Building space heating and cooling in NDCs 4.0
T P Lützkendorf
Building component reuse as sociomaterial interaction: lessons from precast concrete
J Uusikartano, L Alkki & V Capitani
Validating national reuse indicators from regional demolition data: a Swedish example
F Ericsson, K Mjörnell & U Janson
Climate change risk and decision-making [editorial]
S Foxell & I Cooper
Technologies of reconstruction [editorial]
P Tombesi
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
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Latest Commentaries
Practitioners’ Views of POE
Post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is widely valued but weakly embedded in practice. Ant Marsh, Kate van Someren, Lara Clarke and Tom Randall (Arup Building Performance and Commissioning Services) explain the findings from a survey and focus groups with UK construction industry practitioners. They identified fragmented responsibility, split commercial incentives and a persistent fear of “bad news”. Making POE routine requires a shift from producing reports to a focus on improving outcomes by owning and acting on learning.
Who is Responsible for Climate Change?
Ian Cooper (Eclipse Research) explores the questions of responsibility raised in the recent Buildings & Cities special issue ‘Climate Change Risk and Decision-Making’. Focusing here on carbon emissions and mitigation, global responses will require grounding in what can work locally. New responsibilities arise for the wide range of built environment decision-makers: clients, professionals and their institutions, central and local governments, product suppliers, financiers, insurers, etc. A framework is needed to manage the complexity of responsibilities especially for variety of actors, the time frames and spatial scales.