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Sustainable Construction: Innovations in Design, Engineering, and the Circular Economy,...
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Sustainable Construction: Innovations in Design, Engineering, and the Circular Economy, 2nd Edition

A special issue of Designs (ISSN 2411-9660). This special issue belongs to the section "Civil Engineering Design".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026 | Viewed by 1074

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Aziz Ahmed

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Civil, Mining, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia
Interests: structural optimization; additive manufacturing; cold-formed steel structures; structural dynamics; ice-structure interaction; fracture mechanics; structural steel connections; high-rise reinforced concrete structures; earthquake engineering; FRP based structural retrofit
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This is the second edition of the successful Special Issue “Sustainable Construction: Innovations in Design, Engineering, and the Circular Economy” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/designs/special_issues/R5GKP95N7L).

This Special Issue will delve into the core principles of sustainable design in construction engineering, promoting the construction of buildings and structures that are not only functional but also resilient, user-centered, and environmentally responsible. It will focus on the integration of circular economy principles at the design stage, particularly through the use of sustainable practices, efficient resource utilization, and responsible management of construction processes. We welcome contributions with an emphasis on innovative design approaches, design-driven construction methodologies, and engineering strategies that advance the sustainability of the built environment. Studies using life cycle assessment, performance evaluation, and design-based decision frameworks to demonstrate the practical implementation and impact of sustainable engineering practices are especially encouraged.

By presenting successful case studies, best practices, and forward-thinking design strategies, this Special Issue aims to inspire the design and engineering community, providing valuable insights into sustainable construction solutions. Our goal is to showcase the latest advancements in sustainable design and construction engineering, offering a deeper understanding of challenges and opportunities in the field, and ultimately to accelerate the transition toward a more sustainable future, aligning with the mission of Designs to advance innovative design research across disciplines.

Dr. Aziz Ahmed
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. Designs 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 1600 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

  • sustainable engineering
  • sustainable design
  • circular economy
  • construction engineering
  • sustainable built environment

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 4249 KB  
Article
Towards Sustainable Construction: Hybrid Prediction Modeling for Compressive Strength of Rice Husk Ash Concrete
by Wanling Yang, Yasha Ji, Shengtao Zhou, Ling Ji, Yu Lei and Minhao Wang
Designs 2025, 9(6), 141; https://doi.org/10.3390/designs9060141 - 5 Dec 2025
Viewed by 377
Abstract
Rice husk ash (RHA) offers an eco-friendly way to improve concrete. Owing to the complex mix design of RHA concrete, accurately predicting its strength remains a challenge. This study addresses this need by compiling a dataset of 291 compressive strength records for RHA [...] Read more.
Rice husk ash (RHA) offers an eco-friendly way to improve concrete. Owing to the complex mix design of RHA concrete, accurately predicting its strength remains a challenge. This study addresses this need by compiling a dataset of 291 compressive strength records for RHA concrete. Using seven key input variables (e.g., cement, water, and RHA content), three novel hybrid models were developed by integrating the XGBoost algorithm with advanced metaheuristic optimizers: Northern Goshawk Optimization (NGO), Arctic Puffin Optimization (APO), and Catch Fish Optimization Algorithm (CFOA). These hybrid models were compared against classic Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Regression (SVR), and unoptimized XGBoost models. The results demonstrated that all hybrid models significantly outperformed the unoptimized classic models. The APO–XGBoost model achieved the highest prediction accuracy on the testing set (RMSE = 3.5462, R2 = 0.9579 on testing set), followed by CFOA–XGBoost and NGO–XGBoost. Cement content was revealed to be the most influential parameter on compressive strength, as determined by a sensitivity analysis, ahead of both water and coarse aggregate content. This research confirms the superiority of metaheuristic-optimized hybrid models for predicting the strength of RHA concrete, providing a reliable data-driven tool to support its mix design and promote its application in sustainable construction. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Construction: Innovations in Design, Engineering, and the Circular Economy, 2nd Edition)
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21 pages, 7223 KB  
Article
Towards Circular Construction: Material and Component Stock Assessment in Montréal’s Residential Buildings
by Rafaela Orenga Panizza, Farzad Jalaei and Mazdak Nik-Bakht
Designs 2025, 9(6), 129; https://doi.org/10.3390/designs9060129 - 20 Nov 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 522
Abstract
The construction industry is a major consumer of raw materials and a significant contributor to global waste. In Canada, the construction, renovation, and demolition (CRD) sector diverts only 16% of its waste from landfills, underscoring the urgent need for circular economy (CE) practices. [...] Read more.
The construction industry is a major consumer of raw materials and a significant contributor to global waste. In Canada, the construction, renovation, and demolition (CRD) sector diverts only 16% of its waste from landfills, underscoring the urgent need for circular economy (CE) practices. This study develops a generalizable and reproducible framework for archetype identification to support CE strategies, with a focus on Montréal, Canada’s second-largest city. We define a new set of exterior shell archetypes for low-rise residential buildings and demonstrate their application in a neighborhood-scale case study. These archetypes enable systematic estimation of material and component stocks, as well as end-of-life recovery flows, across a representative sample of buildings in the Mercier–Hochelaga–Maisonneuve district. Results show that prioritizing reuse can nearly double material recovery compared to conventional sorting and recycling. More broadly, this framework advances engineering design for circular systems by integrating component-level data into reuse strategy assessment and providing a scalable approach for urban circularity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Construction: Innovations in Design, Engineering, and the Circular Economy, 2nd Edition)
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