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Low-Carbon Construction of Indoor Environments and Building Thermal Resilience Under...
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Low-Carbon Construction of Indoor Environments and Building Thermal Resilience Under Climate Change

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: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 2028

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Chenqiu Du

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Interests: indoor environment; human thermal comfort/health
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global climate change is leading to frequent extreme weather events, which pose great challenges in the low-carbon construction of indoor environments. When developing building environments with occupants’ wellbeing in mind, human-factor engineering is important, as various factors that interact with comfort, health, work efficiency, etc., exist, including the thermal environment, indoor air quality, lighting, and acoustic environments. Given that such coupled effects and interactions play an important role in building design and low-carbon construction, a deep understanding of indoor environments and their relations with humans is required, as well as the “people-oriented” development of buildings in a global context.

The main aim of this Special Issue is to explore the recent challenges and developments of indoor environmental quality and human comfort/health/productivity in various buildings, as well as how buildings are being adapted to enhance their flexibility and resilience in response to climate change. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Thermal comfort/outdoor thermal comfort/personal comfort system;
  • Indoor pollutant exposure and health;
  • Dynamic daylighting/nonvisual lighting;
  • Comfort soundscape;
  • Sensitive-people-oriented indoor environments, like for children and the elderly;
  • Moisture and mold in buildings;
  • Building thermal resilience/building mitigation and adaptation.

Dr. Chenqiu Du
Guest Editor

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

  • thermal comfort
  • pollutant exposure
  • daylighting
  • comfort soundscape
  • indoor environments
  • moisture and mold in buildings
  • building thermal resilience

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

27 pages, 4423 KB  
Article
Climate Change Threatens Traditional Yemeni Architecture: Building Energy Simulation of Thermal Performance in Old Sana’a Tower Houses Under Mid-Century Warming Scenarios
by Xiangyu Li, Hasan Al-Galal, Ali Salem Al-Sakkaf, Yinzhen Li and Hongyan Wang
Buildings 2026, 16(5), 956; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16050956 - 28 Feb 2026
Viewed by 906
Abstract
Climate change poses severe threats to cultural heritage, yet thermal performance impacts on traditional architecture in conflict-affected regions remain poorly quantified. This study provides one of the first comprehensive assessments of climate change effects on UNESCO World Heritage architecture in Yemen’s Old City [...] Read more.
Climate change poses severe threats to cultural heritage, yet thermal performance impacts on traditional architecture in conflict-affected regions remain poorly quantified. This study provides one of the first comprehensive assessments of climate change effects on UNESCO World Heritage architecture in Yemen’s Old City of Sana’a. We employed building energy simulation (DesignBuilder/EnergyPlus) to evaluate the thermal performance of a representative five-story traditional adobe tower house under three climate scenarios: baseline (1974–2017), SSP2-4.5 (moderate emissions, 2041–2060), and SSP5-8.5 (high emissions, 2041–2060). Climate projections were derived from five CMIP6 models using the morphing methodology, with natural ventilation-only operation (no mechanical cooling). The results demonstrate dramatic thermal performance degradation: annual overheating hours (>30 °C) increase more than 10-fold from 111 h (baseline) to 1264 h (SSP2-4.5) on the most vulnerable floor, representing escalation from 1.3% to 14.4% of the year. Extreme heat exposure (>32 °C) emerges under climate scenarios (324–423 h annually) and is absent under baseline conditions. Thermal comfort declines 27–30 percentage points across all floors. The findings reveal the systematic failure of passive cooling mechanisms under elevated temperatures, particularly when nighttime temperatures exceed 20 °C, eliminating nocturnal heat purging opportunities. The results necessitate the urgent development of heritage-sensitive adaptation strategies for Old Sana’a and similar UNESCO sites in arid regions facing compound climate-conflict vulnerability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low-Carbon Construction of Indoor Environments and Building Thermal Resilience Under Climate Change)
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25 pages, 6921 KB  
Article
Performance and Implication Analysis of Sound Insulation and Ventilation of Trickle Ventilators
by Susu Wang, Hui Li, Zhongjie Chen, Ziyun Zhao, Xiaoyan Xue, Xiang Yan and Nan Zhang
Buildings 2025, 15(24), 4417; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15244417 - 6 Dec 2025
Viewed by 793
Abstract
Indoor environmental quality (IEQ), influenced by ventilation and acoustic conditions, directly affects human health and comfort. Existing studies often concern either ventilation or sound insulation alone, neglecting the impact of the trickle ventilator's internal structure and its combination with windows on overall performance. [...] Read more.
Indoor environmental quality (IEQ), influenced by ventilation and acoustic conditions, directly affects human health and comfort. Existing studies often concern either ventilation or sound insulation alone, neglecting the impact of the trickle ventilator's internal structure and its combination with windows on overall performance. This study introduced a double-chamber model to quantify the ventilation performance of three trickle ventilators using tracer-gas-decay and pressure-difference methods. We calculated the flow coefficient (Cd) and flow exponent (n) to reveal differences in pressure sensitivity, with trickle ventilator TV2 showing the highest-pressure sensitivity (Cd = 1.34, n = 0.89). The weighted sound reduction index (RW) and weighted sound insulation index for traffic-noise correction (RW + Ctr) were measured, showing trickle ventilators TV1-1 and TV1-2, and TV2 were 29 dB, 30 dB, and 34 dB, respectively. And the sound insulation and ventilation performance of window-trickle ventilator combinations were analyzed. Trickle ventilators could enhance acoustic performance for low-insulation windows but reduce it for high-insulation windows. The study also quantitatively balanced ventilation and acoustics. This research provides data support and theoretical guidance for the synergistic optimization of ventilation and sound insulation in building environments and provides guidance on ventilation and noise control strategies suited to different floor levels and outdoor noise environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Low-Carbon Construction of Indoor Environments and Building Thermal Resilience Under Climate Change)
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