Human-Centric Buildings and Communities: Prioritising Comfort, Health, Well-being and Energy Efficiency
A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2027 | Viewed by 2314
Special Issue Editors
Interests: low-carbon buildings; performance monitoring and modelling; retrofit; climate change; renewable energy integration in buildings; indoor air quality and health impact of mould
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: thermal comfort and perception; personalised environmental control systems (PECS); building energy performance; and sustainable and green buildings
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The built environment profoundly influences the comfort, health, and overall well-being of occupants. While energy efficiency and carbon reduction remain critical, there is a growing need to shift from purely performance-driven design towards human-centric building and community design and operation.
We invite original research, reviews, case studies and methodological papers that advance a human‑centric paradigm where comfort, health, productivity and overall well‑being are primary performance metrics throughout the design, construction and operation of buildings and communities. Contributions may address experimental studies, numerical simulations, monitoring approaches, design or operational strategies, and policy and standards that integrate the needs of occupants.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Human-centric design strategies for buildings and communities;
- Human-centric building and community-scale operation;
- Multimodal thermal comfort;
- Building performance and occupant health outcomes;
- Real-time monitoring of comfort and health metrics;
- Adaptive control systems that respond to real-time occupant feedback;
- Policy, standards and certification schemes that embed human-centric criteria;
- Design of flexible, inclusive spaces that accommodate diverse user needs;
- Quantification of productivity;
- Indoor conditions and well-being gains in workplaces, schools, healthcare settings, housing, and community facilities;
- Personal environmental control systems (PECS).
This Special Issue was also developed in the context of the Human-Centric-Buildings (HCB) Network/IEA EBC Annex 95/Users TCP Task Human-Centric Buildings for a Changing Climate.
Dr. Hu Du
Dr. Roberto Rugani
Dr. Marco Picco
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. 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
- human-centric buildings
- thermal comfort
- building energy efficiency
- climate change adaptation
- overheating
- productivity and well-being in buildings
- climate-resilient buildings
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