Energy Efficiency and Renewable Integration in Sustainable Buildings

Dear Colleagues,

The integration of renewable energy sources in buildings and, more broadly, the growing demand for architectural eco-efficiency have become central issues within the context of the global energy transition. The construction sector continues to account for a significant share of overall energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, making it necessary to adopt effective strategies aimed at reducing energy demand and supporting the ongoing transition toward more sustainable development models, in line with major international decarbonization policies.

Within this framework, recent research highlights how building eco-efficiency requires a fully integrated approach, capable of coordinating envelope design, technological innovation in materials, the integration of building services, and advanced strategies for performance control and management, according to a coherent and environmentally conscious perspective. Buildings therefore represent the primary unit of analysis and experimentation, within which architectural and technological decisions directly influence energy performance, indoor environmental quality, and on-site energy production, also drawing on experimental models derived from different disciplinary fields.

From this perspective, eco-efficiency should be understood as an integral part of the design process, capable of informing and guiding decisions from the earliest conceptual stages, rather than as the inductive outcome of retrofit operations implemented a posteriori. This process-oriented interpretation of sustainability reflects a consolidated theoretical framework in which technology plays a structuring role within contemporary architectural practice.

Alongside new construction, increasing attention is being devoted to the energy retrofitting of the existing building stock, addressed not only at the scale of individual buildings but also at the urban scale, in response to the transformation needs affecting contemporary cities. Energy renovation and renewable energy integration offer significant opportunities to reduce energy consumption and emissions in existing buildings, including those of historical value or located in sensitive contexts, through compatible, reversible, and replicable solutions. When systematically applied, such strategies can contribute to the development of repeatable models at the urban scale, supporting sustainable energy behavior in response to the growing demand for urban eco-efficiency.

In this context, tools such as energy audits, energy modeling and simulation, in-operation performance monitoring, and life cycle assessment (LCA) play a fundamental role in evaluating the effectiveness of interventions and supporting design decisions. At the same time, the application of Artificial Intelligence opens new perspectives for data analysis, performance optimization, and decision-support processes, fostering the development of innovative, verifiable, and transferable solutions.

This Special Issue aims to collect scientific contributions addressing energy efficiency and renewable energy integration in sustainable buildings, highlighting approaches, methods, and applications capable of providing concrete, replicable, and innovative responses to the challenges posed by the energy transition.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Energy efficiency strategies in buildings.
• Integration of renewable energy systems at the building scale.
• Passive and active solutions for low-energy buildings.
• Building envelope design and energy systems.
• Energy retrofit and renovation of existing buildings.
• Technological innovation and renewable integration in historic buildings and sensitive contexts.
• Replicable energy solutions and applications at the urban scale.
• Energy audits, modeling, simulation, and performance monitoring.
• Life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to buildings.
• Applications of Artificial Intelligence for energy optimization in the built environment.
• Nearly zero-energy and positive-energy buildings.

Prof. Dr. Alvaro Marucci
Dr. Stefano Bigiotti
Guest Editors

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