Special Issues
What understandings and processes do built environment actors need to address mitigation and adaptation risks in the built environment?
How can the complexity and challenges of physical reconstruction across diverse disciplines, stakeholders and governance be organised and synthesised?
What are the roles and impacts that Living Labs play in increasing civic resilience and supporting ecological transition in different contexts and at different scales?
How might the building stock transition towards net zero? How big a change is achievable? What factors determine both the overall potential as well as the transition process?
As codes and regulations become stricter, is simulation the right tool for compliance as well as sketching performance to assist design?
How can conditions be created for decent living standards for all without exceeding planetary limits?
How do indoor environments affect health inequalities, inequities and injustice?
How can we create a more pluralistic, inclusive approach to urban climate adaptation? How can ill-suited approaches be disrupted?
How is social value created, defined and measured in both placemaking (urban design, architecture and real estate) and construction (procurement and labour) processes?
This special issue examines why demolition occurs, its consequences and how a more sustainable approach can be created.
This special issue advances understandings of the practices, politics and power implications of data-driven buildings and cities
This special issue examines how cities in the Global South can predict & manage their expansion in effective, sustainable ways.
This special issue advances understandings of the nature, extent and effectiveness of cities' implementation efforts to realise low-carbon, climate resilient cities.
Gender 'blindness' impacts negatively on engagement with smart home technologies. If the energy transition is to be realised, then gender must be addressed.
This special issue investigates the broader implications and consequences of MMC over the life of the building - for both civil society and the construction industry.
This special issue advances the understanding and implementation of housing adaptability and flexibility across a range of issues: spatial, social, environmental, economic, time and multi-use and multiuser adaptability.
In an increasingly hotter world, what policies, designs, technologies & behaviours can provide thermal adequacy for coolth?
Urban areas are highly complex systems. Solutions to urban problems are often co-dependent and inter-connected. How can a systems approach to cities improve sustainability and health outcomes?
What are the capabilities and capacities for delivering retrofit at scale?
How can urban densification be defined, monitored and controlled to create positive outcomes and avoid unintended consequences / negative impacts?
Latest Peer-Reviewed Journal Content
Reuse of cast-in-place concrete: overcoming industry barriers
M Romann & M Bastien-Masse
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 [briefing note]
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 [briefing note]
N Eyre & R Khosla
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Latest Commentaries
Two Key Messages for COP31
Space Heating & Cooling in NDCs 4.0: Nationally Determined Constributions (NDCs) are at the heart of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement. NDCs embody each country's efforts to reduce their emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. So it is essential to include the building stock (particularly space heating and cooling) in the next NDCs.
Realistic Retrofit: Residential buildings are major users of energy and emitters of CO2. What constitutes realistic retrofit? Affordable, practical low-carbon policies for homes are described for both the Global North and Global South.
Thomas Lützkendorf and Nick Eyre send their messages to COP31: prioritise the building stock in NDCs and implement policies for practical retrofit. Watch their videos - for links to the videos click on "More" below:
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.