Advanced Timber and Hybrid Structural Systems for Sustainable and Fire-Resilient Buildings

Dear Colleagues,

The growing demand for sustainable, low-carbon, and high-performance construction systems has intensified the global interest in timber-based and hybrid structural solutions for modern buildings. Engineered timber products, hybrid timber–steel systems, bio-based composites, and advanced computational approaches have emerged as promising alternatives capable of combining structural efficiency, environmental sustainability, and resilience under extreme conditions.

Recent advances in structural engineering have demonstrated the significant potential of timber and hybrid systems in improving mechanical performance, reducing embodied carbon, and enabling innovative architectural and structural solutions. Simultaneously, increasing attention has been directed toward the thermomechanical behavior, fire resistance, durability, numerical modelling, and performance-based design of these systems, particularly under complex service and extreme loading conditions.

This Special Issue aims to provide an international platform for the dissemination of high-quality research related to advanced timber engineering, hybrid structural systems, sustainable construction technologies, and computational approaches for structural analysis and design. Experimental, numerical, analytical, and multidisciplinary contributions are welcome.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Hybrid timber structural systems;
• Timber–steel and concrete–timber composites;
• Fire resistance of timber composite structures;
• Thermomechanical behavior of structures;
• Performance-based structural and fire design;
• Finite element modelling and computational mechanics;
• Sustainable and low-carbon construction systems;
• Advanced timber engineering and engineered wood products;
• Innovative structural materials and building systems;
• AI-assisted and data-driven structural modelling;
• Durability, safety, and resilience of timber structures;
• Experimental and numerical analysis of timber systems;
• Circular economy and sustainability in construction.

This Special Issue seeks to promote interdisciplinary discussions and scientific advances at the intersection of structural engineering, sustainability, computational modelling, and innovative construction technologies for future buildings.

Dr. André Luis Christoforo
Dr. Fernando Junior Resende Mascarenhas
Prof. Dr. Francisco Antonio Rocco Lahr
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-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.