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Special Issue "Building Sustainability within a Smart Built Environment"

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Green Building".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 July 2024 | Viewed by 2153

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Amjad Almusaed

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Guest Editor

Department of Construction Engineering and Lighting Science, School of Engineering, Jönköping University, Jönköping, Sweden
Interests: sustainabile architectural design; energy efficiency buildings; environmental design; smart buildings; biophilic architecture; sustainability within BIM; LEED in BIM; smart lighting design; human comfort

Prof. Dr. Raad Z. Homod

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Oil and Gas Engineering, Basra University for Oil and Gas, Basrah, Iraq
Interests: automation and control energy engineering; artificial intelligence; hybrid modeling HVAC systems

Dr. Asaad Almssad

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

Department of Engineering and Chemical Sciences, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden
Interests: sustainable construction and building materials; smart buildings; energy efficiency

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change is the biggest problem we face today. The built environment and energy efficient structures are essential to stop climate change. Structures, buildings, and construction are responsible for around 40% of all air pollutants and energy use. One of the most important considerations about the human living environment in the building is how the living space affects the well-being of the users. Good spatial design results in a less stressful and more productive environment. Room users should feel comfortable and quiet in their physical work environment to produce their best work. Comfort aspects include personal factors, health and well-being, thermal comfort, interior air quality, visual comfort, etc. The "built environment" process embraces mental and physical health, where it works with the interdisciplinary field that addresses the design, construction, management, and use of these environments as an interrelated whole.

This theme aims to take a holistic approach to the opportunities that digitalization can bring and catalyze the diffusion of new opportunities and business models across the sector.

This theme includes the concepts, theories, and practical experiences regarding the sustainable smart built environment, which cover the energy efficiency problems for the built environment, smart buildings, and cities. The idea of sustainability, also known as ecological design, is concerned with ensuring that our use of currently available resources does not adversely affect our collective wellbeing or make it challenging to obtain help for future reasons. The topic also includes all activities necessary to overcome barriers to improve the problems of sustainability enviro factors, human psychological and physical comfort, which also include urban spaces' attractiveness for creating a healthy built environment, the issues of urbanization, and the destruction of natural ecosystems for today and the future. This theme aims to raise awareness of the smart building environment, which has become more and more essential for the next generation of buildings.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Areas of research can include (but are not limited to):

Smart building;
Sustainable architecture and urban design;
Smart cities;
Efficient smart daylighting and human comfort within buildings and cites;
Digital twin in construction;
Artificial intelligent;
Smart housing.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Amjad Almusaed
Prof. Dr. Raad Z. Homod
Dr. Asaad Almssad
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 2200 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

sustainability
smart buildings
smart cities
energy efficient buildings
bio-bases building materials
efficient daylight design
smart windows

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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Open AccessArticle

Architectural Reply for Smart Building Design Concepts Based on Artificial Intelligence Simulation Models and Digital Twins

Amjad Almusaed

and

Ibrahim Yitmen

Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 4955; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064955 - 10 Mar 2023

Viewed by 400

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) simulation models and digital twins (DT) are used in designing and treating the activities, layout, and functions for the new generation of buildings to enhance user experience and optimize building performance. These models use data about a building’s use, configuration, functions, and environment to simulate different design options and predict their effects on house function efficiency, comfort, and safety. On the one hand, AI algorithms are used to analyze this data and find patterns and trends that can guide the design process. On the other hand, DTs are digital recreations of actual structures that can replicate building performance in real time. These models would evaluate alternative design options, the performance of the building, and ways to improve user comfort and building efficiency. This study examined the important role of intelligent building design aspects, such as activities using multi-layout and the creation of particular functions based on AI simulation models, in developing DT-based smart building systems. The empirical data came from a study of architecture and engineering firms throughout the globe using a CSAQ (computer-administered, self-completed survey). For this purpose, the study employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the hypotheses and build the relationship model. The research verifies the relevance of AI-based simulation models supporting the creation of intelligent building design features (activities, layout, functionalities), enabling the construction of DT-based smart building systems. Furthermore, this study highlights the need for further exploration of AI-based simulation models’ role and integration with DT in smart building design. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Sustainability within a Smart Built Environment)

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Open AccessArticle

Analysis of the Challenges in the Swedish Urban Planning Process: A Case Study about Digitalization

Elena Núñez Varela

Kristoffer Öhrling

and

Annika Moscati

Sustainability 2022, 14(24), 16333; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142416333 - 07 Dec 2022

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 674

Abstract

While the populations of cities continue to grow, institutions are demanding more sustainability in urban development, leading to a great increase in the complexity of urban planning. The need to consider social, legal, environmental, and economic parameters challenges the traditional urban planning processing in favor of an optimized and automated process. Generative design has the potential to optimize the design phase by automatically generating spatial design solutions and analyzing them in the design phase. The objective of the present study is to analyze the traditional urban planning process and to compare it with a digitalized driven process by using generative design. This study uses a mixed approach with four research methods: document analysis, survey, interviews, and a case study based in Sweden. The critical analysis of the Swedish urban planning process makes it possible to define the main barriers to a digitalized process. Results also show the benefits of using generative design for a more sustainable and faster design process. Two main conclusions can be made from this study: institutional and organizational changes are necessary to achieve digitalization, and generative design proves to be a useful tool that should be considered to support the digitalization of urban planning. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Sustainability within a Smart Built Environment)

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Other

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Open AccessSystematic Review

Integration of Blockchain and Digital Twins in the Smart Built Environment Adopting Disruptive Technologies—A Systematic Review

Habib Sadri

Ibrahim Yitmen

Lavinia Chiara Tagliabue

and

Sustainability 2023, 15(4), 3713; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043713 - 17 Feb 2023

Viewed by 597

Abstract

The integration of blockchain and digital twins (DT) for better building-lifecycle data management has recently received much attention from researchers in the field. In this respect, the adoption of enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud and edge computing, Big Data analytics, etc., has also been investigated in an abundance of studies. The present review inspects the recent studies to shed light on the foremost among those enabling technologies and their scope, challenges, and integration potential. To this end, 86 scientific papers, recognized and retrieved from the Scopus and Web of Science databases, were reviewed and a thorough bibliometric analysis was performed on them. The obtained results demonstrate the nascency of the research in this field and the necessity of further implementation of practical methods to discover and prove the real potential of these technologies and their fusion. It was also found that the integration of these technologies can be beneficial for addressing the implementation challenges they face individually. In the end, an abstract descriptive model is presented to provide a better understanding of how the technologies can become integrated into a unified system for smartening the built environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Building Sustainability within a Smart Built Environment)

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