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It is our pleasure to welcome you to the Buildings and Cities journal. We are created by and for the research community that we serve. Our emphasis is on creating, supporting and maintaining a vibrant global and inclusive community of authors and readers.
Our content is diverse and cross-disciplinary. Buildings and Cities considers the interplay and interactions between the different scales of region, city, building stocks, neighbourhood, street or block, and the individual site / building. We also address fragmentation - of disciplinary boundaries and responsibilities, regulation and governance, research and practice.
Understanding how these elements interact is critical for meeting the current challenges we face in policy and practice. We will bring additional content to you - briefing papers, synthesis articles, policy analysis, replication articles, methods articles, commentaries, book reviews.
We're innovative. We will actively encourage engagement with the end users of research - policy makers, practitioners, clients and wider society. We recognise that the dialogue must be two-way to be meaningful. In addition to content on our website, we will partner with organisations to host events to discuss research needs, research findings and the actions that need to arise.
We're launching this journal to respond to the multiple crises and challenges facing the built environment. First and foremost are the challenges in our towns, cities and peri-urban areas to create a built environment that supports human development and ecological systems and reduces resource demand and GHG emissions. Places that are safe, healthy, inclusive, sustainable and adaptable over time. A built environment that mitigates climate change and makes a positive contribution to global and local vitality. The professional responsibilities owed to society are shifting; consequently education, training, skills and organisational practices need to respond.
The editors have a proven reputation for providing a rigorous, high-quality peer-review process for journal articles and curated themed issues. Our previous success at Building Research & Information shows what we can deliver with confidence. We use a double-blind peer review system with a minimum of 3 expert reviewers. Our editors advise and assist authors with the feedback they receive.
We recognise the enormous contribution that authors, reviewers and editors contribute to this journal - so we don't exploit authors' and reviewers' work by extracting a profit. Any surplus will go into the journal or back into the research community as small grants or financial assistance for publishing. We're independent from large publishers who impose strictures on their journals and editors. As a not-for-profit organisation, we are not motivated to publish more and more to benefit shareholders (we have no shareholders).
You are invited to participate in this active community and contribute your research and insights. We will encourage a two-way dialogue and exchange with practitioners, clients, policy makers and the public.
Richard Lorch,
Editor in Chief
Analysing cold-climate urban heat islands using personal weather station data
J Taylor, C H Simpson, J Vanhatalo, H Sohail, O Brousse, & C Heaviside
Are simple models for natural ventilation suitable for shelter design?
A Conzatti, D Fosas de Pando, B Chater & D Coley
Impact of roofing materials on school temperatures in tropical Africa
E F Amankwaa, B M Roberts, P Mensah & K V Gough
Acceptability of sufficiency consumption policies by Finnish households
E Nuorivaara & S Ahvenharju
Key factors for revitalising heritage buildings through adaptive reuse
É Savoie, J P Sapinski & A-M Laroche
Cooler streets for a cycleable city: assessing policy alignment
C Tang & J Bush
Understanding the embodied carbon credentials of modern methods of construction
R O'Hegarty, A McCarthy, J O'Hagan, T Thanapornpakornsin, S Raffoul & O Kinnane
The changing typology of urban apartment buildings in Aurinkolahti
S Meriläinen & A Tervo
Embodied climate impacts in urban development: a neighbourhood case study
S Sjökvist, N Francart, M Balouktsi & H Birgisdottir
Environmental effects of urban wind energy harvesting: a review
I Tsionas, M laguno-Munitxa & A Stephan
Office environment and employee differences by company health management certification
S Arata, M Sugiuchi, T Ikaga, Y Shiraishi, T Hayashi, S Ando & S Kawakubo
Spatiotemporal evaluation of embodied carbon in urban residential development
I Talvitie, A Amiri & S Junnila
Energy sufficiency in buildings and cities: current research, future directions [editorial]
M Sahakian, T Fawcett & S Darby
Sufficiency, consumption patterns and limits: a survey of French households
J Bouillet & C Grandclément
Health inequalities and indoor environments: research challenges and priorities [editorial]
M Ucci & A Mavrogianni
Operationalising energy sufficiency for low-carbon built environments in urbanising India
A B Lall & G Sethi
Promoting practices of sufficiency: reprogramming resource-intensive material arrangements
T H Christensen, L K Aagaard, A K Juvik, C Samson & K Gram-Hanssen
Structural barriers to sufficiency: the contribution of research on elites
M Koch, K Emilsson, J Lee & H Johansson
Disrupting the imaginaries of urban action to deliver just adaptation [editorial]
V Castán-Broto, M Olazabal & G Ziervogel
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
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
Latest Commentaries
Self-Organised Knowledge Space as a Living Lab
While Living Labs are often framed as structured, institutionalised spaces for innovation, Sadia Sharmin (Habitat Forum Berlin) reinterprets the concept through the lens of grassroots urban practices. She argues that self-organised knowledge spaces can function as Living Labs by fostering situated learning, collective agency, and community resilience. The example of a Living Lab in Bangladesh provides a model pathway to civic participation and spatial justice.
Climate Mitigation & Carbon Budgets: Research Challenges
Thomas Lützkendorf (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) explains how the research community has helped to change the climate change policy landscape for the construction and real estate sectors, particularly for mitigating GHG emissions. Evidence can be used to influence policy pathways and carbon budgets, and to develop detailed carbon strategies and implementation. A key challenge is to create a stronger connection between the requirements for individual buildings and the national reduction pathways for the built environment.