Circular Cities and Buildings: Social, Technical and Digital Innovation for Planning and Design

Dear Colleagues,

Cities, as hubs of material and energy consumption, spatial and building density, socio-economic activity, and digital and social innovation, present unique opportunities for closing resource loops. Achieving a circular economy in urban contexts requires a socio-technical understanding of urban infrastructure, including buildings, as valuable resources that shape human and spatial networks, waste and material flows, as well as commercial and industrial scenarios. Circularity in cities relies on resource efficiency, which is driven by alternative production and consumption patterns that are intertwined with social practices and behaviours. This entails promoting resource efficiency via alternative production and consumption patterns that are intertwined with social practices and behaviours. Therefore, integrated approaches, tools and case studies that attend to a range of scales, from materials and tools, individuals and communities, to buildings and cities, are required.

This Special Issue aims to explore the challenges and opportunities of circularity in cities, and acknowledges that implications for urban spatial and policy strategies are likely to require cross-disciplinary understanding. As such, contributions from experts in diverse fields, including articles on new circular models and typologies that demonstrate social, environmental and economic sustainability, are anticipated.

The Special Issue welcomes papers that focus on the intersection of material flows, technological developments, and social practices in order to advance our understanding of circularity as a means by which to achieve sustainable urban development. The findings presented in this Special Issue are expected to have implications for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers alike, and serve as a valuable resource for advancing circularity in urban contexts.

Prof. Dr. Koen Steemers
Dr. Anastasia Panori
Dr. David Peck
Guest Editors

Artemis Psaltoglou
Guest Editor Assistant

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.