Sustainable and Resilient Affordable Housing in Architecture Design and Urban Plans

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: 15 April 2027 | Viewed by 1133

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
ArCoD Department, Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy
Interests: housing policies; student housing; urban regeneration
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This special issue aims to explore innovative and sustainable approaches to affordable housing projects and plans. It seeks to highlight the current debates surrounding affordable housing within the context of the environmental, social, and economic challenges posed by urbanization, climate change, and recent global crises. These issues, now more than ever, must be studied and addressed in an integrated and multidisciplinary way, adopting affordable, resilient, and inclusive strategies that respond to the evolving needs of communities. Topics include (but are not limited to) affordable housing, neighborhood revitalization, public housing re-typing, regeneration, inclusion and integration strategies, heritage reuse and land use policy, and energy efficiency, with a particular focus on reducing the carbon footprint and adapting to climate change.

The special issue aims to explore the connections between housing policy and project and urban, financial, energy, environmental, and transportation policies and strategies through interdisciplinary approaches.

We welcome manuscripts examining these topics in any national context, as well as comparative case studies across different contexts.

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

  • Integrated housing policies with a focus on environmental and social sustainability
  • Innovative and inclusive housing projects that promote resilience and reduce environmental impact
  • Publicness in social housing projects and plans with a focus on equity and environmental justice
  • Housing and urban regeneration with a focus on reducing the ecological footprint and promoting urban biodiversity
  • Sustainable approaches in housing re-typology with a focus on the circular economy and waste reduction
  • Participatory processes in social and public housing that promote environmental awareness and social responsibility
  • Public and private heritage reuse with a focus on resource conservation and reducing environmental impact
  • Implementation of Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) in social housing for climate change mitigation and adaptation
  • Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of materials and construction techniques in sustainable social housing
  • Strategies for reducing energy poverty through the efficiency improvement of social housing buildings

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Urban Science.

Dr. Giovanna Mangialardi
Prof. Dr. Umberto Berardi
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

  • housing policies
  • housing projects
  • publicness
  • regenerate
  • housing sustainability
  • social and public housing
  • affordability
  • inclusion
  • circular economy
  • reuse

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

35 pages, 8684 KB  
Article
Comparative Study of Roofing Systems for High-Altitude Social Housing: A Holistic Assessment in the Peruvian Andes
by Gianmarco Caceres-Vilca, Gerardo Hipolito Apaza Cañapataña and José Carlos Cárdenas-Gómez
Buildings 2026, 16(5), 1032; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings16051032 - 5 Mar 2026
Viewed by 457
Abstract
In the high Andean regions of Peru, above 3500 m a.s.l., selecting a roofing system requires balancing budgetary constraints, technical performance, and environmental impacts under severe frost and demanding climatic conditions. This study compared several roofing alternatives from a comprehensive perspective to determine [...] Read more.
In the high Andean regions of Peru, above 3500 m a.s.l., selecting a roofing system requires balancing budgetary constraints, technical performance, and environmental impacts under severe frost and demanding climatic conditions. This study compared several roofing alternatives from a comprehensive perspective to determine the most suitable solution by simultaneously considering economic, environmental, and social criteria. For this purpose, the Integrated Value Model for Sustainable Assessment (MIVES)—a multi-criteria decision-making methodology—was employed to evaluate five systems: traditional ichu thatched roof (ITR), ceramic tile (CT-II), corrugated galvanized steel with insulation (CGS-II), fiber cement with insulation (FC-II), and sandwich panel with an insulating core (PIR-SP). The model was implemented using a requirements tree with 11 indicators and its stability was assessed through a sensitivity analysis involving five weighting configurations. The overall sustainability indices ranked ITR first (0.697), primarily due to its low carbon footprint and favorable thermal performance. It was followed by CT-II (0.632), due to its superior landscape integration; CGS-II (0.602), owing to its cost-effectiveness; FC-II (0.586), for its balanced environmental profile; and finally, PIR-SP (0.504), which excelled in industrial efficiency and construction speed despite a higher environmental impact. In summary, the results indicated that vernacular solutions minimized environmental impacts and optimized local resources, whereas industrialized options were preferable when durability and assembly times were prioritized. The sensitivity analysis, with variations below 5%, supported the model’s consistency as a decision-support tool and its potential to guide policies for sustainable social housing in high-mountain contexts. Full article
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