Housing Challenges in Heritage Districts: Lessons from Spain's Historic Urban Areas
A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Architectural Design, Urban Science, and Real Estate".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2027 | Viewed by 50
Editors
Interests: railway stations; railway heritage; social housing architecture sustainable materials; building materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: environmental engineering; sustainability; hydraulic behaviour; material characterization
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
This Special Issue invites contributions addressing the study, documentation, adaptation, and transformation of existing housing stock in historic urban districts in Spain. In a context defined by demographic shifts, climate change, heritage protection, and the urgent need to reduce energy consumption, the existing residential fabric represents a critical field for architectural, technical, and social innovation. This issue aims to explore evidence-based rehabilitation strategies that preserve the material, typological, and cultural values of historic environments while meeting contemporary standards of comfort, accessibility, and energy performance.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Adaptive reuse of residential buildings;
- Compatible change in use in historic housing;
- Heritage conservation and integration strategies;
- Energy upgrading and building performance improvement;
- Prefabricated and modular systems for renovation;
- Application of innovative and sustainable materials;
- Circular construction and lifecycle approaches;
- Digital documentation, survey techniques, and BIM-based analysis;
- Technical diagnosis and performance evaluation methods;
- Urban regeneration processes linked to residential rehabilitation.
Particular emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary approaches combining architectural research, construction technologies, environmental performance assessment, and urban analysis. Contributions may include theoretical, methodological, and empirical studies, as well as case-based research and comparative analyses.
By fostering dialogue across disciplines, this Special Issue seeks to advance knowledge on how historic housing can remain active, resilient, and socially relevant within evolving urban environments.
We look forward to receiving your contributions.
Our selection of related Special Issues are:
Architectural History, Modern Built Heritage, Conservation Repair and Renovation;
Urban Regeneration and Resilient City;
Prefabrication and Modularized Construction.
Dr. Aurora Martínez-Corral
Dr. María Elena Rodrigo Clavero
Guest Editors
Dr. Milagro Iborra-Lucas
Guest Editor Assistant
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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings 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 2600 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.
Keywords
- urban regeneration
- adaptive reuse
- existing housing stock
- building rehabilitation
- energy upgrading
- prefabrication
- circular economy
- sustainable materials
- building performance assessment
- digital documentation (BIM, HBIM)
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