Sustainable and Conventional Buildings

This editorial aims at summarize the scientific papers contributing to the Special Issue “Sustainable and Conventional Buildings”.

The Special Issue “Sustainable and Conventional Buildings” contains the latest advances in research related to the perceived comfort of buildings. This is one of the most highly rated parameters for the built environment and cities. Buildings are part of everyone’s life, and their role is to protect us from outdoor climate conditions and to shelter us throughout our lifetime. Cities must provide neighborhoods and services to meet the needs of increasingly heterogeneous groups of people.

Interestingly, emergent communities have integrated the land-use and transportation plan based on transit-oriented developments (TODs) and light rail transit with the sole purpose to enliven and redevelop the constructed environment. Research findings help to revisit the design and application of TOD models and to enhance the livable conditions for its occupants. The finding suggest a design model based on livability, compactness, public realms, walkability, and accessibility [1]. Furthermore, in recent decades, Doha, the capital of Qatar, has experienced large-scale transformation due to globalization and rapid economic growth. The investigation of the existing site conditions of the West Bay area, evaluated with respect to TOD principles, led to the proposal of a master plan for improved development including design guidelines aimed at increasing the ridership of the West Bay metro station and creating a more attractive and dynamic neighborhood [2].

When facing traditional houses, interestingly, in Bangladesh, occupants have unique living patterns that may have contributed towards achieving indoor thermal comfort. When investigating the existing relationship between an indoor thermal environment and an occupant’s living pattern within these tropical houses, some findings may be outlined. Indeed, using both physical measurement of thermal parameters and questionnaire surveys followed by personal observations, we can see that the indoor air temperature fluctuates readily with the outdoors one without a timelag, resulting in daytime overheating. The occupant’s daytime thermal sensation is mostly slightly warm to hot. Semi-open and outdoor shaded spaces become a way to cope with the daytime overheating period [3].

In another part of the world, similar problems have been investigated. In Korea, the evaluation of the thermal comfort inside traditional vernacular architecture called Hanok is performed. A comfort assessment index was derived to evaluate the spatial comfort performance of Hanok, especially with domestic standards and indices. Then, the predicted mean vote (PMV) has further been selected as the method for the thermal assessment for their interior spaces. As a result, the surrounding conditions showed the least influence on the Hanok comfort, and the adjacency type mostly affected the performance of thermal control in the aspects of the habitual sustainability. As a final finding, it was demonstrated that the Hanok designs could positively be considered and utilized by surroundings and adjacency types that have the most advantages in terms of the thermal environment [4].

When considering the acoustic domains, some investigations could be performed. Specifically when talking about natural or mechanical ventilation or using a controlled mechanical ventilation system (CMV), some issue have to be solved. One is correlated with the CMV noise of the fans due to the movement of air and to the electric motor rotation. Acoustic measurements performed on an apartment equipped with CMV operating in a single and simultaneous mode and related acoustic simulations demonstrated that, by differentiating the fan speed of the CMV, a considerable acoustic comfort improvement could be obtained in the bedrooms and in the living room/kitchen. Class I for living rooms and class I or II for bedrooms according to the EN 16798-1 standard could be achieved through speed optimization [5].

Finally, It is demonstrated that the control of noise propagating along ventilation system ducts is an important issue in the building and vehicle sectors. The characterization of the nature of the problem and the proposal of a design approach are much needed. By applying the transfer matrix approach to a duct system, with the implementation of the transfer matrices of each single element and then assembling a system capable of acoustically describing the source and the duct structure, it was possible to study the coupling between the duct system with source and receiver impedances. This permits to predict the sound pressure level at a given distance from the outlet. The predictive capability, usability, and intuitiveness of the proposed design procedure are also proposed to users, receiving positive feedback [6].