Rehabilitation Building Materials: Bridging Tradition and Innovation
A special issue of Materials (ISSN 1996-1944). This special issue belongs to the section "Construction and Building Materials".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2026 | Viewed by 169
Special Issue Editors
Interests: sustainable building materials; multifunctional materials; addictive manufacturing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: conservation of built heritage; bio-materials; stones; lime
Interests: cement; lime; bricks; stones; additives; coatings; bio-materials; nano-modification
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: structural analysis; structural repair and maintenance of buildings; structural health monitoring; structural testing and modelling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
With buildings accounting for nearly 30% of global natural-resource extraction, about 40% of global energy use, and approximately 35% of anthropogenic CO₂ emissions, the need to preserve, rehabilitate, and retrofit existing buildings has become critically urgent.
Within this context, building material selection plays a pivotal role in defining not only the technical quality of conservation, rehabilitation and retrofitting actions, including compatibility with existing materials and durability, but also their aesthetic value, authenticity, cultural significance, environmental performance and cost-efficiency.
In this Special Issue, we will curate a comprehensive collection of innovative research studies dedicated to the latest developments in rehabilitation materials and methodologies, comprising two main thematic areas: i) the use of non-conventional building materials and innovative rehabilitation methodologies, and ii) the functionalization of building materials and sensing for building monitoring.
Research studies should contribute to elucidating the coexistence of traditional structures with emerging building materials, and advanced rehabilitation and monitoring technologies. Therefore, we welcome submissions reporting advances in topics that may include, but are not limited to, the following:
(i) Use of non-conventional building materials and innovative rehabilitation methodologies- Application of innovative binders in rehabilitation (e.g., geopolymers, alkali- or acid-activated materials, low-clinker cements);
- Performance, compatibility, and durability analysis of emergent building materials;
- Application of nanomaterials for repair, consolidation, and surface protection;
- Additive, subtractive, and hybrid manufacturing for rehabilitation and retrofitting;
- Hybrid rehabilitation techniques combining traditional materials and production methods with digital fabrication.
- Self-healing concretes and mortars in rehabilitation;
- Use of photocatalytic and pollution-mitigating coatings for improved air quality;
- Thermochromic and phase-change materials for energy management in rehabilitated buildings;
- Smart coatings for moisture, pollution, stress, and crack detection;
- Embedded sensors for structural health monitoring;
- Integration of IoT-enabled materials in building rehabilitation and heritage conservation.
Dr. Guilherme Ascensão
Dr. Sara Goidanich
Prof. Dr. Maria Stefanidou
Dr. Hugo Rodrigues
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. Materials 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
- rehabilitation
- non-conventional building materials
- innovative rehabilitation methodologies
- materials functionalization
- sensing
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