Energy Efficiency in Buildings and Innovative Materials for Building Construction

Dear Colleagues,

It is our pleasure to announce the opening of a new Special Issue in the Applied Science Journal.

The main topics of the Issue will be regarding energy efficiency in buildings and the use of innovative materials for design and retrofit to pursue the goal. In developed countries, energy consumption in buildings comprises 20%–40% of the total energy use, and is above industry and transport in EU and USA. For this reason, energy efficiency strategies have become a priority in energy policies, with new regulations and certification schemes, including minimum requirements. This could be allowed by means of different approaches, among which energy saving in buildings will be essential in order to make a sustainable energy future possible.  In Europe, the new Clean Energy for All Europeans package also outlines specific measures for the building sector, with considerable potential for gains in energy performance. Among the measures, it is worth mentioning the boost of renovations for more energy-efficient buildings, as well as an improved monitoring of buildings energy performance so as to reduce costs.

Under this perspective, the Special Issue wants to contribute to the field, presenting the most relevant advances in this research area.

The following are some of the topics proposed for this Special Issue (but not limited to):

• Retrofit of buildings for energy efficiency
• Control and management of buildings for energy efficiency and thermal comfort (model predictive control)
• Innovative materials for building construction
• Green and sustainable materials for buildings
• New efficient and sustainable buildings
• Historical buildings conservation, energy management, and comfort

We hope you will contribute your high-quality research and we look forward to reading your valuable results.

Prof. Cristina Cornaro
Prof. Cinzia Buratti
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.