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Climate-Responsive Architecture and Urban Form: Adapting Buildings and Infrastructures to Environmental Challenges

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Urban and Rural Development".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2025) | Viewed by 1985

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Construction and Infrastructure (PPGCI), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Av. Osvaldo Aranha, 99–7° Andar, Sala 706, Porto Alegre 90035-190, RS, Brazil
Interests: sustainable development; environmental impact assessment; environmental analysis; environment; climate change; water resources management; environmental management; sustainability; sustainable architecture

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Guest Editor
Department of Architectural Technology, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
Interests: efficiency energy; deep retrofit; facilities; industrialized systems; optimal cost; renewables
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The impact of more frequent extreme events (floods, hurricanes, droughts, heat islands, earthquakes) on the built environment has become more evident in recent years. The appropriate application of climate-responsive design strategies for buildings and urban planning, including built and non-built infrastructures, is crucial for dealing with these events more resiliently. Buildings and infrastructure should be designed to consider climate adaptation and resilience to extreme events, and innovative solutions should be provided that promote sustainability and safeguard occupants. In addition, predictive methods and new technical solutions are vital to guarantee the operation of buildings with essential services (hospitals, water and sludge treatment, climatic centers, and security centers, among others).

Climate adaptation is crucial in policy decisions as supporting climate-resilient buildings offers opportunities to mitigate risks, safeguard assets, and ensure returns over the long term. This approach helps reduce economic losses, optimize costs throughout the building and infrastructure life cycle, and balance initial economic investments with co-benefits at the environmental, economic, and social levels, both private and macroeconomic.

This Special Issue invites contributions concerning climate adaptation and resilience to the built environment, climate change prevention (low-carbon buildings and urban infrastructures), resource (materials, water, energy, and food) management, and circularity.

Prof. Dr. Ana Carolina Badalotti Passuello
Dr. Eva Crespo Sánchez
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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. Sustainability 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 2400 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

  • climate adaptation
  • climate resilience
  • low carbon buildings
  • urban infrastructures
  • retrofit
  • circularity
  • waste
  • water
  • energy
  • vulnerability

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

24 pages, 10900 KiB  
Article
Reaching Near-Zero Environmental Impact in Heritage Buildings: The Case of the Wine Cellar of Rocafort de Queralt
by Belén Onecha, Eduardo Herrador, Rosnery Castillo and Montserrat Bosch
Sustainability 2025, 17(2), 577; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17020577 - 13 Jan 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1153
Abstract
In the current context of a necessary reduction in environmental impact, the reuse of heritage buildings is key. Although architectural rehabilitation already significantly reduces this impact, thermal comfort facilities present several challenges, both due to the huge visual impact they entail, compromising buildings’ [...] Read more.
In the current context of a necessary reduction in environmental impact, the reuse of heritage buildings is key. Although architectural rehabilitation already significantly reduces this impact, thermal comfort facilities present several challenges, both due to the huge visual impact they entail, compromising buildings’ historical values, as well as the environmental impact due to machines and ducts and the operating energy consumption. This paper demonstrates, through the case study of the Rocafort de Queralt Wine Cellar, that it is possible to reduce to nearly zero the thermal comfort facilities of converted heritage buildings for public cultural use. This historic building, considered one of the “Wine Cathedrals” in Spain, was built in 1918 and is characterized by its architectural style typical of Catalan modernism. The method applied was in situ monitoring, combined with dynamic simulation with DesignBuilder v7 software and NECADA software v2024, considering four different scenarios of the building: (1) the current state; (2) after passive improvements; (3) after architectural rehabilitation; and (4) subject to the climatic conditions expected for 2050 according to IPCC AR4 A2. The conclusions are surprising. In Scenario 2, 87% thermal comfort is reached with zero facilities, and 100% thermal comfort is reached when the location of cultural activities within the building is changed according to geographical orientation and the season of the year. Full article
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