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Buildings
Special Issues
Smart and Sustainable Buildings: Advancing Towards Net-Zero and Intelligent Control
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Smart and Sustainable Buildings: Advancing Towards Net-Zero and Intelligent Control

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 March 2026 | Viewed by 1643

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hong Tang

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Guest Editor
Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Interests: building-grid interactions and demand response; building-integrated photovoltaics; digital twins and optimization of low-carbon energy systems; risk analysis and machine learning in energy engineering
Dr. Zhe Chen

E-Mail
Guest Editor
Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Interests: building energy management and optimization; machine learning and AI for energy systems; HVAC system fault detection and diagnosis; energy prediction and load forecasting; demand response and smart grid
Dr. Wenzhuo Li

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Guest Editor
Global Banking School, London UB6 0HE, UK
Interests: energy decarbonization; optimal control; edge computing and distributed systems; internet of things (IoT); machine learning and artificial intelligence
Dr. Yanxue Li

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Guest Editor
College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Qingdao University of Technology, Qingdao 266033, China
Interests: building energy system management; low-energy building; renewable energy utilization; building environment control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Buildings account for nearly 40% of global energy consumption and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. In response to climate imperatives, Zero-Energy Buildings (ZEBs) have emerged as a transformative solution to decarbonize the built environment. Achieving net-zero energy consumption is a complex challenge, requiring interdisciplinary research and innovative solutions across various domains, from architectural design and engineering systems to policy frameworks and occupant behavior. While significant progress has been made, there remain considerable challenges, including technological integration, cost-effectiveness, performance gaps between design and operation, grid interaction, and scalability. The application of Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and advanced data analytics offers promising pathways to address these issues by enabling smarter control, predictive maintenance, and optimized energy flows.

This Special Issue aims to address these challenges by showcasing the latest advancements, cutting-edge research, and practical applications that are pushing the boundaries of ZEB realization. We seek contributions that bridge theoretical models with real-world applications for achieving robust, cost-effective net-zero energy performance and grid interaction across new and retrofitted buildings. This issue directly supports the Buildings focus on sustainable energy systems, building physics, and climate-responsive design. By showcasing interdisciplinary advances in ZEBs, we reinforce the journal’s mission to publish transformative research that tackles energy challenges while promoting environmental resilience.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

  1. Innovative ZEB Design & Materials: Passive heating/cooling, high-performance facades, phase-change materials.
  2. Renewable Integration: Building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), micro-wind, geothermal hybridization.
  3. Machine Learning and Smart Control: Application of machine learning and AI for energy systems, including energy prediction and load forecasting, HVAC system fault detection and diagnosis (FDD), IoT-enabled energy management, predictive control, and digital twins for ZEB optimization.
  4. Grid-Interactive and Responsive Buildings: Demand response and smart grid integration, net-zero building microgrids, vehicle-to-building (V2B) systems, and advanced thermal/electrochemical storage.
  5. Policy & Economics: Cost-benefit analysis of ZEB technologies, carbon-neutral certification frameworks, and incentives for smart buildings.
  6. Human-Centric Approaches: Occupant behavior modeling, thermal comfort, and indoor environmental quality in ZEBs.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Hong Tang
Dr. Zhe Chen
Dr. Wenzhuo Li
Dr. Yanxue Li
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. 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

  • ZEB design & materials
  • smart building control
  • building demand response
  • renewable energy integration
  • policy and economics of ZEB
  • human-centric approaches

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 2125 KB  
Article
Investigation on Electricity Flexibility and Demand-Response Strategies for Grid-Interactive Buildings
by Haiyang Yuan, Yongbao Chen and Zhe Chen
Buildings 2025, 15(23), 4368; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15234368 - 2 Dec 2025
Viewed by 56
Abstract
In line with the global goal of achieving climate neutrality, a flexible energy system capable of accommodating the uncertainties induced by renewable energy sources becomes vitally important. This paper investigates the electricity demand flexibility characteristics and develops demand-response (DR) control strategies for grid-interactive [...] Read more.
In line with the global goal of achieving climate neutrality, a flexible energy system capable of accommodating the uncertainties induced by renewable energy sources becomes vitally important. This paper investigates the electricity demand flexibility characteristics and develops demand-response (DR) control strategies for grid-interactive buildings. First, a building’s flexible loads are classified into three types, interruptible loads (ILs), shiftable loads (SLs), and adjustable loads (ALs). The load flexibility characteristics, including real-time response capabilities, the time window range, and the adaptive adjustment ratios, are investigated. Second, DR control strategies and their features, which form the basis for achieving different optimization objectives, are detailed. Finally, three DR optimization objectives are proposed, including maximizing load reduction, maximizing economic benefits, and ensuring stable load reduction and recovery. Through case studies of a residential building and an office building, the results demonstrate the effectiveness of these DR strategies for load reduction and cost savings under different DR objectives. For the residential building, our results showed that over 50% of the electricity load could be shifted, resulting in electricity bill savings of over 17.6%. For office buildings, various DR control strategies involving zone temperature resetting, lighting dimming, and water storage utilization can achieve a total electricity load reduction of 28.1% to 63.6% and electricity bill savings of 7.39% to 26.79%. The findings from this study provide valuable benchmarks for assessing electricity flexibility and DR performance for other buildings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Sustainable Buildings: Advancing Towards Net-Zero and Intelligent Control)
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23 pages, 3659 KB  
Article
Research on Cooling-Load Characteristics of Subway Stations Based on Co-Simulation Method and Sobol Global Sensitivity Analysis
by Zhirong Lv, Wei Tian, Qianwen Lu, Minfeng Li, Baoshan Dai, Ying Ji, Linfeng Zhang and Jiaqiang Wang
Buildings 2025, 15(21), 3858; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15213858 - 25 Oct 2025
Viewed by 453
Abstract
As high-energy-consumption underground public space, subway stations are responsible for a particularly significant proportion of air-conditioning energy use, especially during the cooling season, making the investigation of cooling-load characteristics highly important. However, the determination of independent influencing factors in different situations has not [...] Read more.
As high-energy-consumption underground public space, subway stations are responsible for a particularly significant proportion of air-conditioning energy use, especially during the cooling season, making the investigation of cooling-load characteristics highly important. However, the determination of independent influencing factors in different situations has not yet reached a consensus, and the role of interaction effects is lacking, which hinders the development of energy-saving strategies. For this purpose, this study proposes a sensitivity analysis framework based on 10 typical influencing factors from thermal parameters, meteorological parameters, internal heat disturbances, and indoor environmental setpoints. An input set was generated by integrating equal-step parameter discretization and Saltelli quasi-MonteCarlo sampling. A database containing 11,264 samples was constructed through an EnergyPlus–Python co-simulation method. Based on the Sobol global sensitivity analysis, the key influencing factors of subway station cooling load were identified and quantified, and the impact of these 10 factors was systematically analyzed. Results show that occupant density (SiT = 0.5605) and fresh air volume (SiT = 0.4546) are the dominant factors, contributing more than 50% of the load variance. In contrast, the characteristics of an underground structure significantly weaken the influence of the building-envelope heat transfer coefficient (SiT = 0.1482) and soil temperature (SiT = 0.0884). Furthermore, five groups of strong interaction effects were identified in this study, including occupant density–fresh air volume (Sij = 0.1094), revealing a nonlinear load response mechanism driven by multi-parameter coupling. This research provides a theoretical foundation and quantitative tool for the refined design and optimized dynamic coupled operation of underground transportation hubs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Sustainable Buildings: Advancing Towards Net-Zero and Intelligent Control)
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20 pages, 5694 KB  
Article
Automated Screw-Fastened Assembly of Layered Timber Arch-Shells: Construction-Phase LCA and Performance Validation
by Yanfu Li, Kang Bi and Hiroatsu Fukuda
Buildings 2025, 15(17), 3186; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15173186 - 4 Sep 2025
Viewed by 846
Abstract
Global climate change mitigation has prompted the construction sector to pursue decarbonization strategies, with timber structures offering significant carbon reduction potential. Wood serves as a sustainable material that sequesters carbon during growth while reducing emissions across the entire construction supply chain. Robotic construction [...] Read more.
Global climate change mitigation has prompted the construction sector to pursue decarbonization strategies, with timber structures offering significant carbon reduction potential. Wood serves as a sustainable material that sequesters carbon during growth while reducing emissions across the entire construction supply chain. Robotic construction of timber structures is increasingly promoted as a low-carbon, intelligent alternative for small- and medium-scale projects, yet the energy consumption and environmental impacts of robotic automated assembly using self-tapping screws remain understudied. This study presents a construction-phase life-cycle assessment (LCA) of an innovative vertically mobile robotic construction system for automated timber structure. The system integrates a KUKA KR 6 R900 (KUKA Robotics Corporation, Augsburg, Germany) six-axis robot with an electrically actuated lifting platform and specialized end-effector, enabling fully autonomous assembly of a Layered Interlaced Timber Arch-Shell (LITAS) structure using Hinoki cypress timber and self-tapping screws. This research provides the first comprehensive LCA dataset for robotic screw-fastened timber construction and establishes a replicable framework for sustainable automated building practices, with methodology scalability enabling application to diverse timber construction scenarios and advancing intelligent and decarbonized transformation in the construction industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Sustainable Buildings: Advancing Towards Net-Zero and Intelligent Control)
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