High-Performance Buildings for Health and Comfort: Indoor Environment, Thermal Design, and Structural Integrity
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: 30 June 2026 | Viewed by 801
Special Issue Editors
Interests: human thermal comfort and health; built environment sensing and control; low-carbon and energy-efficient buildings
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: performance improvement of existing building structures; indoor environmental quality; energy conservation and carbon reduction technology of buildings
Interests: large-span structures; thermal and structural performance of steel cooling tower; building energy-saving technology
Interests: sports architecture design and theory; healthy urban environment planning and design; sustainable technology for sports architecture; architectural evaluation technology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In recent decades, the profound shift towards indoor living has heightened the critical need for improving the indoor environmental quality (IEQ) in buildings. As a core component of IEQ, the thermal environment—governed by a complex interplay of building design, systems, and external climate—exerts a pivotal influence on occupant well-being and building performance. It not only fundamentally determines human comfort but is also intrinsically linked to physical health, cognitive function, and overall productivity.
Furthermore, innovative approaches to managing the thermal environment, such as high-performance building envelopes, smart HVAC system controls, and passive/low-carbon design strategies, have demonstrated significant potential for enhancing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. This Special Issue aims to foster a deeper understanding of the multifaceted interactions between occupants and their thermal environment, with a particular focus on achieving an optimal balance between human-centric needs and building performance. To this end, it seeks to provide a platform for the gathering and exchange of cutting-edge ideas and research in the intersecting fields of indoor environmental quality, occupant health, and building performance. Topics of interest for this Special Issue include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Human thermal comfort and adaptive behaviors;
- Innovative HVAC system design, operation, and control strategies;
- Low-carbon building retrofit techniques and performance evaluation;
- Multi-objective optimization of energy efficiency and indoor environmental quality;
- Data-driven methods and smart sensing for building performance monitoring;
- Coupled effects of thermal, acoustic, and visual comfort on occupant well-being;
- Physiological and psychological responses to the built environment;
- Resilience of building systems to climate change and extreme weather;
- Integrated design methods for high-performance and healthy buildings.
Dr. Yuxin Yang
Dr. Zheng Li
Dr. Guoqing Song
Dr. Meng Gu
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
- indoor environmental quality
- thermal comfort
- occupant health
- building performance simulation
- low-carbon retrofit
- HVAC system optimization
- smart building control
- building envelope
- data-driven modeling
- sustainable building design
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