Search Results (401)

Frequent extreme weather driven by climate change makes building resilience an essential guarantee for urban livability and sustainable development. As key building energy-consuming facilities, aged refrigeration plants suffer from low efficiency, high energy consumption of fixed-speed pumps, poor cooling tower heat exchange and failed automatic control. This study develops an integrated energy-saving retrofit framework for aged refrigeration plants of office buildings in hot–humid regions. The framework integrates equipment retrofit scheme design, techno-economic trade-off evaluation, on-site implementation, and long-term measurement and verification, and covers full-chain upgrades of chillers, water pumps, cooling towers, metering, and intelligent group control systems. Implemented on an aged refrigeration plant of an office building in Guangzhou, the optimal retrofit scheme improves system-level energy efficiency to top-runner tier, and core equipment including chillers, water pumps and cooling towers achieve satisfactory real-world operating performance after renovation. Efficiency deviations between actual and rated performance of chillers are mostly below 10%; variable-frequency retrofits raise the chilled-water and cooling-water transport factors to above 35 and 45, respectively, and cooling towers deliver performance consistent with their rated values under the local subtropical climate. This integrated retrofit framework provides practical engineering references for retrofits of similar aged refrigeration plants in hot–humid regions. Full article

Climate non-stationarity and intensifying extreme rainfall challenge flood-risk assessment in cold-region old industrial cities, where renewal must work within an established built fabric. Conventional assessments apply fixed indicator weights and thresholds derived from a single design event, although the factors controlling inundation and their response positions can shift with rainfall intensity. This study examines 208 urban green-space plots within Shenyang’s Third Ring Road, combining plot-level field sampling, GIS-based spatial indicators, and maximum inundation depths simulated for 1-, 3-, 10-, 30-, and 50-year return periods. Four analyses were applied along a common scenario axis: indicator screening defined the factor set; multi-group structural equation modeling characterized shifts in latent-variable paths; random forests with permutation importance ranked observed factors; partial dependence analysis located response breakpoints; and XGBoost-SHAP described sample-level contributions. All predictive results are reported from 30 repeated train–test splits with uncertainty intervals. Screening reduced 59 candidate indicators to 13 key factors. The diagnostic evidence indicates a mechanism-shift interval between the 10- and 30-year return periods: the structural path from spatial-pattern resistance to inundation becomes significant from the 10-year scenario, the total effect of surface-cover pressure first exceeds that of vertical storage capacity in the same scenario group, and the response breakpoint of impervious surface ratio tightens from about 58% to about 33% within this interval. Predictive importance is dominated by grey infrastructure density, green infrastructure density, and catchment radius in all scenarios. Renewal priorities therefore vary with rainfall intensity: internal storage and infiltration under regular rainfall, joint surface-cover and catchment control within the shift interval, and coordinated grey–green system responses under extreme scenarios. These findings are diagnostic and predictive, and retrofit benefits require experimental or quasi-experimental validation. The framework offers a methodological reference for further local calibration in comparable cold-region old industrial cities. Full article

Metro systems are expected to promote compact development, land-use diversity, pedestrian activity, and reduced automobile dependence, but these outcomes vary across station areas. This study examines how morphological, configurational, public-realm, behavioral, and governance conditions differ across three contrasting station-area transformation patterns during the planning and implementation of the Riyadh Metro. A comparative mixed-method case study examines Al Hamra, Granada, and the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD), representing established suburban, commercial, and comprehensively planned high-density contexts. Methods combine GIS-based morphological comparison of two reference conditions, 2010 and 2023, Space Syntax and visibility analysis, field observation, photographic documentation, interviews, focus groups, and governance analysis. Because the 2023 condition predates passenger service, the comparison concerns station-area conditions during a period that overlapped metro planning and construction rather than the effects of an operating metro system. The design does not distinguish metro-related change from concurrent urban-development processes and therefore does not attribute the observed differences to the metro. Results show three contrasting empirical patterns: Al Hamra retained a corridor-dominant configuration with persistent lateral neighborhood discontinuities; Granada concentrated development and configurational prominence around established commercial destinations; and KAFD developed the most extensive formally connected network but with greater multi-level route complexity. Triangulation with field observations and participant evidence supported the interpretation of these patterns as Adaptive Retrofit, Commercial Convergence, and Programmed Vertical TOD Enclave, respectively. Full article

This paper presents a teaching mobility developed within the framework of the European project TNE-DESK—Developing Shared Knowledge in Innovative Materials and Digital Transformation for Sustainable Economy and Green Transition (CUP H91I24000380007), funded by Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), M4C1, Inv. 3.4. The mobility was hosted by Epoka University, Tirana, Albania, in November–December 2025 and was related to Work Package 7—Green Transition of the teaching module Sustainable Urban Futures (EQF 7). The programme integrated climate literacy, place-based learning, and applied environmental design into architectural education through lectures, workshops, and collaborative design activities. Climate-sensitive practices, including sun-path and wind analysis, passive strategies, and outdoor-space retrofitting, were contextualized within Tirana’s rapidly changing urban environment. The experience highlights the pedagogical potential of short-term teaching mobility for supporting ecological awareness, green skills, and comparative learning across Mediterranean and Balkan contexts. It also contributes to the broader discussion on transnational education as a means of embedding sustainability and ecological transition within higher-education curricula. Full article

Urban-park accessibility is commonly assessed through physical access, leaving cognitive legibility, controlled retreat, and sensory organization comparatively underexamined. This gap limits spatial evaluation because an audit may record an accessible entrance or amenity without showing whether route structure, refuge options, and sensory transitions support self-directed use. This study developed and exploratorily applied a preliminary Neurodivergent-Centered Design (NCD) framework in three contrasting Bangkok parks. Here, neurodivergent-centered denotes the cognitive, sensory, and emotional-access needs prioritized by the framework; it does not imply participatory co-design or validation. A targeted interdisciplinary review informed three dimensions: cognitive clarity and visual logic, emotional safety and retreat, and sensory zoning and regulation. Repeated structured observations, transect walks, photography, mapping, and contextual records were synthesized into park-by-dimension ordinal judgments through independent review and consensus. Route legibility varied with spatial configuration, while distributed retreat, buffered activity adjacencies, and legible sensory transitions were recurrent gaps. The framework contributes an indicator-based spatial audit that connects wayfinding, environmental affordances, and design-retrofit decisions while separating environmental provision from unmeasured user outcomes. It is a proof-of-concept structure, not a validated instrument. Participatory validation, reliability testing, and application across parks, seasons, and urban contexts remain necessary. Full article

Urban sprawl and traffic are intensifying air pollution and heat stress, harming human health, thermal comfort, and urban living environments. Vegetation, specifically green walls, offers a compelling strategy to reduce pollutant concentrations and pollution-related hospitalization, in addition to enhancing the microclimate—specifically, human thermal comfort. Its impact is strongly associated with well-planned strategic distribution. However, this pollutant-reduction benefit is largely theorized from studies conducted under different traffic, wind, and coverage conditions, and its applicability to dense, high-traffic corridors in hot arid climates has not been tested. The scientific novelty of this study is the first coupled design assessment of thermal comfort and PM benefits of vertical greening under hot arid conditions in retrofitting contexts—focus on structure-mounted elements. This configuration and climate combination solely is limited and present in temperature and humid climates in the existing literature. In this study, green walls are integrated into a vibrant street with limited urban spaces to examine their effects on particulate matter (PM) and thermal comfort. The current street status, 100% vertical green, and 200% vertical green area coverage on structure-mounted columns scenarios were simulated and compared using ENVI-met 5.9.0. The study is conducted in an urban street in Cairo, Egypt. The street faces severe air pollution and high thermal discomfort. The results showed that vertical greening increased user thermal comfort while having a low effect on PM dispersal and reduction under the specific hot-arid, low-wind, and single-day design of this study. At the maximum 200% coverage, air temperature dropped by up to 0.93 °C and PET by up to 1.71 °C; 100% coverage alone was not sufficient to produce a significant improvement, suggesting a possible coverage response threshold that intermediate scenarios were not tested to confirm. The plant with the higher leaf area index (LAI = 3) produced the greatest thermal benefit, though LAI had no measurable effect on PM reduction. This study helps policymakers and urban planners design retrofitting solutions to improve air quality and thermal comfort by emphasizing the need to examine both variables simultaneously. It should also be noted that the effect is influenced by multiple factors—street characteristics, microclimate conditions, local activities, plant characteristics, and the available space—and that the findings are specific to the single hot arid street canyon and summer design day simulated in this study. Full article

This paper evaluates the energy performance and lifecycle environmental impact of three retrofit pathways—conventional insulation, an extensive green roof, and rooftop photovoltaics—for two lamella-type residential buildings (three-story, five-story; over 40 years old) in Blocks 45 and 70, Novi Beograd, Serbia. The study builds on an architectural concept treating the flat roof as an active environmental surface. Energy demand was quantified via calibrated dynamic simulation for a baseline and three scenarios—insulation (S1), insulation with an extensive green roof (S2), and insulation with rooftop photovoltaics (S3)—with environmental performance assessed using cradle-to-use LCA (1 m² heated floor area, 50-year period) covering global warming potential, cumulative energy demand, and Environmental Footprint 3.1 indicators. Insulation and the green roof achieve nearly identical reductions in heating demand (27–31%) and lifecycle GWP/CED (10–13%), the green roof performing marginally better while also offering evapotranspirative cooling and urban co-benefits. Photovoltaics deliver the largest lifecycle GWP reduction (26% three-story, 15% five-story) and cut acidification by up to 36%, but increase mineral resource depletion, water and land use. Benefits of both roof-level measures scale with roof-to-floor-area ratio, favoring lower-rise buildings, supporting prioritization of green roof and photovoltaic retrofit across the district lamella stock. Full article

Abandoned and underutilized buildings/spaces exhibit considerable potential to transform into resource-producing hubs (RPHs) by integrating food–energy–water (FEW) systems. The Pointe-Saint-Charles neighborhood is used as a representative case study for FEW incorporation and proximity-oriented developments (PODs). A scalable food–energy–water + proximity-oriented development (FEW–POD) framework is developed to integrate retrofitting strategies in an existing neighborhood. Food is cultivated through urban agriculture (UA), energy is produced using solar photovoltaics (PVs), and rainfall is harvested to support irrigation. Resource-sharing networks (RSNs) are developed to improve availability and accessibility to food items. A scenario-based assessment is performed, where Scenario 1 (S1) includes baseline resource demand assessment, Scenario 2 (S2) integrates FEW, and Scenario 3 (S3) distributes food items within the neighborhood, from surplus to deficit neighborhood units (NUs) by developing RSNs. The Food–Energy–Water–Carbon Index (FEWCI) is developed to estimate contributions to resource needs and carbon emission reductions. It is based on food self-sufficiency (FSS), energy self-sufficiency (ESS), and water self-sufficiency (WSS), and avoids carbon emissions from food miles and the grid. Carbon emissions from food miles and the grid are reduced by 96% and 27.5%, respectively, from S1 to S2, but remain unchanged in S3 as no extra food or energy is being produced. The estimation of ESS and grid-based carbon emissions excludes the energy demand associated with greenhouse operations, as incorporating this will reduce energy and carbon benefits. The neighborhood’s FEWCI is improved to 0.40 by bringing in FEW production and to 0.66 by distributing food items among NUs. Full article

In recent decades, the intensification of the urban heat island (UHI) phenomenon has emerged as a critical challenge for European cities, exacerbated by climate change, dense urban morphologies, and the aging performance of the existing building stock. In this context, the renovation of post-war residential heritage represents a strategic opportunity to simultaneously enhance buildings’ energy performance and contribute to urban-scale thermal mitigation. This study investigates sustainable and integrated retrofitting strategies applied to residential buildings constructed between 1945 and 1990 in the metropolitan area of Milan. The research aims to evaluate how targeted refurbishment interventions can improve building energy performance and potentially support UHI mitigation through improved envelope performance and material selection. The methodology combines field surveys, archival data from public housing authorities, energy simulations, and multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) analysis, integrating economic, environmental, and performance-based indicators. Several retrofit scenarios are assessed across different building typologies. Results highlight that low-invasive and cost-effective measures, such as advanced glazing systems, roof insulation, and efficient heating system upgrades, achieve a favorable balance between energy performance improvement, economic feasibility, and intervention-related criteria. For buildings with larger dispersing surfaces, envelope insulation solutions using sustainable materials demonstrate increased effectiveness. Beyond individual building performance, the study discusses the potential indirect contribution of large-scale retrofit strategies to UHI mitigation through reduced building energy requirements and potentially lower HVAC-related anthropogenic heat emissions. The proposed operational framework supports public stakeholders in prioritizing interventions across a large building stock, offering a replicable decision-support tool for climate-resilient urban regeneration and for supporting UHI mitigation strategies. Full article

Buildings account for a substantial share of global energy use and carbon emissions, making climate-adaptive building envelopes critical for sustainable urban development. Thermochromic glazing dynamically modulates solar transmittance with temperature, offering a promising pathway toward sustainable buildings; however, guidance on transition temperatures and composite configurations across China’s five climate zones remains limited. This study therefore derives an evidence-based, climate-adaptive design strategy for thermochromic hydrogel-based insulating glass units in office buildings across these climate zones. To achieve this aim, an EnergyPlus model validated against summer field measurements in Chongqing quantified heating and cooling loads for 220 simulated cases and identified suitable glazing configurations and transition temperature, while RF-SHAP ranked factor importance. The results provide climate- and orientation-specific guidance for office-glazing selection: a 25 °C transition temperature delivers 2.76–4.04% total load savings in the two warm zones, and surface-2/3 Low-E composite TSG achieves up to 12.93%. In cold and severe cold zones, south-facing use can raise loads, whereas west-, east-, and north-facing applications retain saving potential; in temperate climates, single-silver Low-E glass is generally preferable. The RF-SHAP analysis ranks the factors influencing the total energy saving rate as glazing configuration > climate zone > orientation > transition temperature. These findings translate into a practical climate zone-based selection framework that supports sustainable building envelope design and retrofitting, helping to reduce operational energy consumption and carbon emissions while maintaining indoor thermal comfort. Full article

Public buildings play a critical role in national decarbonization strategies and green energy transitions due to their high energy consumption densities, large occupant capacities, and potential to drive public awareness. Optimizing energy efficiency in these structures not only alleviates the financial burden on public budgets but also serves as a benchmark for sustainable urban development. To investigate the energy-saving potentials, thermal comfort dynamics, and financial feasibilities within this sector, this study selects two university buildings from two different countries with distinct climatic, structural, and operational profiles as comparative case studies: university buildings in Türkiye (TR) and Italy (IT), respectively. A total of seven tailored retrofitting scenarios were developed based on country-specific legislative frameworks and subsidy mechanisms: the Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM) and Conto Termico 3.0 for Italy, and the Public Buildings Energy Efficiency Project (KABEV), Energy Performance Contracting (EPC), and Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (NSEB) mandates for Türkiye. The scenarios evaluate deep building envelope insulation, high-efficiency window replacements, lighting automation (LED with daylighting controls), mechanical ventilation with heat recovery units (HRV), air-to-water heat pump integrations, and rooftop photovoltaic (PV) installations using calibrated DesignBuilder simulation models. The quantitative results demonstrate that country-specific green building incentives drastically enhance both the energy performance and financial viability of deep retrofits. For the Turkish case study, the comprehensive near-zero energy building (nZEB) retrofitting package (TR-4) successfully reduced annual primary energy consumption by 75% (from 284 to 71 kWh/m²·year) and cut annual thermal comfort discomfort hours by 72% (from 3147 to 880 h), yielding a Subsidized Net Present Value (NPV) of +310,600 €. Similarly, for the Italian case study, the holistic retrofit combined with rooftop photovoltaic integration (IT-4) achieved an 80% energy reduction (dropping from 128 to 25.6 kWh/m²·year), minimized annual discomfort hours to 45 h, and generated a Subsidized NPV of +425,500 €. Furthermore, national incentive mechanisms shortened simple payback periods by more than half, establishing that targeted public policy is vital to accelerate public sector building decarbonization while ensuring long-term fiscal profitability. Full article

As urban development in China shifts toward improving existing areas, the focus of evaluation is moving from availability to quality, yet assessments of the neighborhood built environment and living circles still stop at facility provision. This study decomposes the conversion from spatial supply to need fulfillment into three links—availability, reach-and-visibility, and need fulfillment. Encounterability (E) captures how far a spatial element enters everyday experience through physical reach or visual exposure; perceptual affordance (P) captures how well an encountered element supports six perceptual needs: social interaction, recreation and leisure, aesthetic experience, emotional experience, broad learning, and humanistic enrichment. Taking Xi’an’s historic old city as a typical case, public needs were translated through grounded coding into auditable elements, which trained assessors evaluated at the city, district, and neighborhood levels, with a four-quadrant diagnosis locating the gaps. The results show that, within this context of comparatively rich provision, the principal experiential gaps arise at the encounter and support links: encounterability is similar across levels while perceptual affordance diverges, and the share of synergy categories differs significantly across levels (p = 0.007), forming resource–encounter, node–route, and frequency–support mismatches; the principal mismatch patterns are robust to equal weighting and to moderate shifts in the quadrant thresholds. Basic needs fail on quality and advanced needs fail on encounter and interpretation, pointing to three renewal actions: retrofitting, opening, and interpretation. This study extends evaluation objects from facilities to a fuller spectrum of spatial elements, extends encounter to reach and visibility together, and extends output from ranking to gap localization, offering a low-cost diagnostic tool for the human-centered assessment of the built environment, applicable to living-circle evaluation, urban physical examination, and livability improvement in historic neighborhoods. Full article

This paper investigates spatial characteristics and functional capacities of primary schools’ outdoor spaces in the City of Osijek (Croatia), with the purpose of identifying potential for their qualitative improvement. The study investigates fifteen primary schools in Osijek, analysed through a comparative framework that includes criteria such as school plot area, plot disposition, design, programmatic content (facilities), and relationships with the surrounding urban context. Rather than measuring educational outcomes, the analysis evaluates the spatial conditions and affordances that may enable or constrain a broader range of outdoor educational, recreational, and social activities. The results indicate that, although spatial capacity is generally sufficient, outdoor school areas are significantly underdeveloped. Across the sample, outdoor environments are generally characterised by limited spatial and programmatic diversity, weak direct connections between ground-floor classrooms and outdoor areas, and a predominance of sports grounds, open grassy areas, and school squares over dedicated outdoor-learning settings. In conclusion, we propose strategic design guidelines aimed at enhancing the multifunctionality, accessibility, and pedagogical value of school outdoor spaces, as well as their integration into everyday educational practice and the broader community context. While the study proposes evidence-based design priorities for retrofitting existing school grounds, it explicitly distinguishes observed spatial conditions from actual patterns of use or educational effects. Full article

Precast reinforced concrete (RC) large-panel buildings (LPBs) are a common residential construction typology in urban areas of Eastern European countries, including Albania. Due to the ageing of these buildings, which date back to the 1970s, and the country’s high seismic hazard, it is very important to assess their seismic safety. This study presents a code-based seismic assessment of a five-storey case-study building in Tirana, Albania’s capital, for which limited information was available and was solely based on the original construction specifications (due to the absence of in situ material testing). A 3D finite-element numerical model was developed using LIRA-SAPR 2024 R2 (version 24.2.0.0) software, and seismic analyses were performed using both multi-modal (response spectra) analysis and the equivalent static analysis procedures according to the current Albanian seismic design code (KTP-N.2-89) and the Eurocode 8 framework (including EN 1998-1 and EN 1998-3). Two different seismic hazard levels were considered to assess the effect of a significantly higher seismic hazard level (compared to the original design) on the seismic safety of older existing LPBs. A demand-to-capacity (DCR) assessment revealed significant structural deficiencies, at both the individual wall-panel level and the wall-assembly level. The representative interior load-bearing wall panel has inadequate flexural and shear capacity, with a DCR of 5.13 for flexure due to a very low vertical reinforcement ratio. The assessment also indicates that the vertical panel joint (D4) is the most critical component of the investigated wall assembly, since its shear capacity is governed by the tensile failure of the steel plate that connects the adjacent wall panels, corresponding to a DCR value of 13.89, indicating very high seismic vulnerability. The seismic assessment of the investigated case-study building may be useful for informing future efforts related to seismic assessment and retrofitting of similar LPBs in Albania and Eastern European countries. Full article

Community-scale sustainable built-environment practices are increasingly important for linking urban sustainability policy with everyday spatial transformation, yet the evidence base remains fragmented across nature-based solutions, housing retrofit, settlement upgrading, public-space transformation, digital mapping, circular infrastructure, and governance-oriented planning. This scoping review, reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR), maps and synthesizes peer-reviewed evidence on community-scale sustainable built-environment practices, with publication years from 2015 to 2026 and indexed by the final search date of 13 June 2026. Searches were conducted in Scopus and the Web of Science Core Collection, yielding 3506 records. After duplicate removal, title-and-abstract screening, and full-text eligibility assessment, 130 studies were included for Spatial–Social–Governance (SSG) coding and thematic synthesis. This review identified eight thematic clusters, led by nature-based and green–blue infrastructure practices, followed by housing, retrofit, and settlement upgrading; neighborhood sustainability assessment and planning; public-space transformation and placemaking; digital tools and mapping; circular neighborhood infrastructures; mobility-related practices; and heritage-led regeneration. The largest concentration of evidence was found in nature-based and green–blue infrastructure practices, followed by housing, retrofit, and settlement upgrading; smaller clusters extended the field towards neighborhood assessment, public-space transformation, digital evidence systems, circular infrastructures, mobility, and heritage-led regeneration. As a review-derived synthesis output, the Spatial–Social–Governance Mechanism Framework does not introduce spatial, social, and governance as new analytical dimensions. Instead, it operationalizes these established concerns as a common comparison structure for heterogeneous community-scale built-environment practices, linking spatial intervention, social embedding, and governance enablement. The framework is neither a general theory nor an effectiveness model; its contribution is an integrative and review-specific analytical instrument. Full article