Recent Advancements in Sustainable Design and Performance of Buildings

Dear Colleagues:

Over the past few years, tremendous efforts have been devoted to enhancing sustainability in the building sector, in terms of sustainable design, selection of low impact materials, waste recycling and reutilization, and so on. The evaluation of sustainability performance of buildings, including the development of quantification methods, indicators, etc., has also been extensively studied globally. Recently, with an increasing demand for construction materials, scarcity of material supply, and growing environmental concern, resource-efficient construction is highly debated globally in particular after the concept of circular economy (CE) has emerged at various levels, viz. the government, industry, and academia (Reike et al., 2018; Kirchherr et al., 2017). When the CE principle is integrated to buildings, it can help to achieve several objectives, e.g., improving material and energy efficiency through the sourcing of sustainable materials; enhancing the collaborative benefits between the associated industries; maximizing the recycling and reuse of materials and components; significantly reducing waste generation; and avoiding the waste disposal problem and saving landfill space (Ghisellini et al., 2018). Furthermore, moving toward a CE model would provide an opportunity to reduce the use of primary materials, ensure material efficiency, and reduce the associated environmental impacts (Kanters, 2020).

However, the implementation of CE in buildings is not straightforward, as buildings are unique entities and are often the result of one-off projects. The design of material circularity is a challenging task. Thus, new technologies and design approaches are required with a desire to address the challenge of material circularity based on the CE approach, particularly from the traditional ‘take–make–dispose’ system to a circular perspective on material reuse. The adoption of CE requires a system thinking circular approach for the whole building lifecycle and construction value chain that shifts to sourcing sustainably, maintaining material productivity over the lifecycle of developments, and reducing the losses of materials (Cambier et al., 2020; Herczeg et al., 2018). Several challenges have also been identified for effective CE implementation, such as design for circularity, materials selection, supply chain, business model, uncertainty and risk, collaborations among actions, knowledge of understanding, relevant policy, integration of urban metabolism, and methodology for CE evaluation (Hossain et al., 2020). In addition, concepts such as design for manufacture and assembly (DfMA) and modular integrated construction (MiC) to deliver sustainable reconfigurable buildings are attracting increasing attention in the sustainable building community. However, effective frameworks, tools, and techniques for evaluating such designs are yet to be developed and validated by the case studies.

The aim of this Special Issue is to welcome theoretical, case demonstration, comprehensive reviews, methodological advancement, and framework development studies from scholars investigating the needs for effective implementation of CE into building to enhance the sustainability performance of buildings beyond the existing efforts.

This Special Issue is interested in, among others, the following topics:

• Sustainability performance of buildings;
• Recent advancement of CE into buildings;
• Recent development of tools and techniques for sustainability evaluation of buildings;
• Framework, tools, and techniques of CE;
• Sustainable design of buildings;
• DfMA/MiC for circular building design;
• Sustainability evaluation of building with DfMA/MiC;
• Lifecycle environmental impact assessment and cost analysis;
• Alternative and low impact construction materials;
• Recycled building materials;
• Materials efficiency and circularity; and
• Climate change and sustainability in buildings and building materials.

References

Cambier, C., Galle, W., De Temmerman, N. (2020). Research and development directions for design support tools for circular building. Buildings 10, 142.

Ghisellini, P., Ripa, M., Ulgiati, S. (2018). Exploring environmental and economic costs and benefits of a circular economy approach to the construction and demolition sector. A literature review. J. Clean. Prod. 178, 618-643.

Herczeg, G., Akkerman, R., Hauschild, M.Z. (2018). Supply chain collaboration in industrial symbiosis networks. J. Clean. Prod. 171, 1058-1067.

Hossain, M.U., Ng, S.T., Prince, A.A., Amor, B. (2020). Circular economy and the construction industry: Existing trends, challenges and prospective framework for sustainable construction. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 130, 109948.

Kanters, J. (2020). Circular building design: An analysis of barriersand drivers for a circular building sector. Buildings 10, 77.

Kirchherr, J., Reike, D., Hekkert, M. (2017). Conceptualizing the circular economy: An analysis of 114 definitions. Resour. Conserv. Recyc. 127, 221-232.

Reike, D., Vermeulen, W.J., Witjes, S. (2018). The circular economy: New or refurbished as CE 3.0?—Exploring controversies in the conceptualization of the circular economy through a focus on history and resource value retention options. Resour. Conserv. Recyc. 135, 246-264.

Best regards,

Prof. Thomas Ng
Dr. Md. Uzzal Hossain
Guest Editors

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• circular economy
• sustainable building
• design for circularity
• alternative materials
• material efficiency
• lifecycle assessment
• modular integrated construction
• design for manufacture and assembly