Sustainable Design in Building and Urban Environment

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainable design in construction seeks to reduce adverse impacts on the environment and the health and comfort of people in the building and urban areas, thereby improving the performance of buildings and urban spaces. The basic objectives of sustainability are to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources, minimize waste, and create healthy, productive environments.

Sustainable design principles include the ability to optimize site potential, minimize non-renewable energy consumption, use environmentally preferable products, protect and conserve water, protect and enhance green resources, enhance the indoor and outdoor environmental quality, and optimize operational and maintenance practices.

Utilizing sustainable design principles encourages decisions at each phase of the design process aiming to reduce adverse impacts on the environment and people’s health without compromising the bottom line. It is the integrated, holistic approach that encourages compromise and tradeoffs, with such an integrated approach positively impacting all phases of an urban environment’s life cycle, including design, construction, operation, and decommissioning.
This Special Issue welcomes novel studies, including research articles, review papers, and technical notes, related to sustainable design in architecture, civil engineering, and urban design in line with achieving sustainable development goals, also including the effects of sustainable design on reducing environmental crises, promoting urban health, comfort, and the wellbeing of people in outdoor and indoor environments.

Dr. Farshid Aram
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.