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Digital Sustainability in Building Design
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Digital Sustainability in Building Design

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2022) | Viewed by 18676

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Aliakbar Kamari

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
Interests: sustainable buildings and renovation; sustainable building design; building performance; sustainability certification systems; integrated building project; integrated building process; life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA); life cycle management (LCM); building information modeling (BIM); digital twin (DT); digital sustainability
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Carl Peter Leslie Schultz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering-Software Engineering & Computing Systems, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark
Interests: building information modelling (BIM); automated building code compliance checking; green building certification systems; knowledge representation and reasoning; constraint logic programming; declarative spatial reasoning; ontologies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Steffen Petersen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Engineering, Aarhus University, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Interests: building science; sustainable buildings; building simulation; indoor environmental quality; commissioning; building design process
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ensuring long-term, sustainable prosperity within the environmental limits of our planet is the challenge of our lifetime. Consequently, the AEC sector is subject to increasing demands for more sustainable solutions. While the COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily changed the focus from the climate, biodiversity, and broader sustainability crises to managing its social and economic consequences, it also provides an occasion for re-thinking and re-considering our ordinary business processes (European Policy Centre, 2020). The AEC sector should seize this moment to optimise business models by further aligning efforts to advance the green transition with the digital transformation. Digital technologies and processes are considered key to accelerate the transition to an environmentally and socially sustainable economic model that complies with the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals—SDGs (European Commission, 2019). In this Special Issue, we define Digital Sustainability in Building Design as the activities that seek to advance sustainable buildings through the creative deployment of digital technologies and workflow frameworks during the building design process.

The objective of this Special Issue is to gather scientific advances on the combination of green and digital transformation in the AEC sector. We invite researchers to submit contributions with the conceptualization or development of cutting-edge and recent advances in IT solutions for analyses, simulations, calculations, visualizations, etc., integrated into the workflow of building designers to facilitate the creation of sustainable design proposals and solutions throughout the design process.

The scope of the work includes, but is not limited to, the following:

  • IT Supported Architectural and Engineering Design;
  • IT Supported Sustainability goals in Building Design (i.e., compliance with specific regulations, certification systems or standards);
  • Design and Decision Support Systems;
  • Building Information Modelling;
  • Knowledge Modelling and Linked Data;
  • Integrated Process and Product Design;
  • Data, Information, and Knowledge Management;
  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in the AEC industry;
  • Model-Based Management Tools and Systems;
  • Life Cycle Management (LCM)/Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) Tools;
  • Communication and Collaboration Technologies;
  • Cloud-based Simulation and Collaboration;
  • Visualization and Simulation Techniques;
  • Digital-Twin for Design;
  • Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (VR/AR)

Dr. Aliakbar Kamari
Dr. Carl Peter Leslie Schultz
Prof. Dr. Steffen Petersen
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

  • digitalization
  • sustainability
  • building design
  • digital sustainability
  • building information modelling (BIM)
  • decision support
  • green transition
  • digital transformation

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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28 pages, 2153 KiB  
Article
Modeling the Critical Success Factors for BIM Implementation in Developing Countries: Sampling the Turkish AEC Industry
by Seda Tan, Gulden Gumusburun Ayalp, Muhammed Zubeyr Tel, Merve Serter and Yusuf Berkay Metinal
Sustainability 2022, 14(15), 9537; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14159537 - 3 Aug 2022
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 4731
Abstract
One of the latest advancements transforming the global architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is building information modeling (BIM). Although BIM implementation is at high level in developed countries, it is at a lower level in developing countries. BIM is new to the [...] Read more.
One of the latest advancements transforming the global architectural, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry is building information modeling (BIM). Although BIM implementation is at high level in developed countries, it is at a lower level in developing countries. BIM is new to the construction industry in Turkey, with only minor construction firms having implemented it. When making projections based on the current state of the Turkish AEC industry, it is foreseen that it will become mandatory in the near future. Considering this projection, it is doubtful that many construction companies will be caught unprepared for this situation and will not know how to implement BIM. Therefore, this study aimed to identify and model the critical success factors for BIM implementation and their impact size in order to gain insight for the fast and efficient implementation of BIM among construction firms in the Turkish AEC industry, which can be generalized for most developing countries. To reach these aims, a questionnaire was designed with 41 identified success criteria (SC) that were derived through a systematic literature review (SLR). The survey was conducted on construction professionals who actively implement BIM technology at their occupied firms in Turkey and they were asked to rank the importance of 41 SC on a five-point Likert scale. The sampling frame consisted of architects and civil engineers, and in total, 243 responses were received. The differentiation between SC and critical success criteria (CSC) was obtained by using a normalized mean cutoff value. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to identify the critical success factors (CSFs), and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the underlying size effects of each CSF on BIM implementation in the Turkish AEC industry. The results of this study reveal 20 CSC for successful BIM implementation, and EFA exhibited three CSFs from 20 CSC. Three critical success factors for BIM implementation in the Turkish construction industry were determined and grouped into two categories. “Awareness of technological benefits” and “organizational readiness and competitive advantages” formed one group and are the most influential critical success factors for BIM implementation. “Motivation of management regarding BIM” formed the second group of critical success factors that have a significant effect. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Sustainability in Building Design)
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21 pages, 36230 KiB  
Article
Application of Intelligent Technology in Facade Style Recognition of Harbin Modern Architecture
by Linlin Shan and Long Zhang
Sustainability 2022, 14(12), 7073; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14127073 - 9 Jun 2022
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2837
Abstract
The judgment of facade styles is an important part of the sustainable utilization and restorative process of historical architectures. Contemporary Harbin needs the help of modern architectural facade forms in the planning of the famous historic city, especially with the facade renovation of [...] Read more.
The judgment of facade styles is an important part of the sustainable utilization and restorative process of historical architectures. Contemporary Harbin needs the help of modern architectural facade forms in the planning of the famous historic city, especially with the facade renovation of old architectures with non-cultural heritage. This paper discusses the possibility of applying advanced image recognition algorithms to the classification of the modern Harbin architectural facade styles and argues that the keys to the classification and positioning of the styles are the forms, the details, and the decorative patterns of the architectural facades, together with the deformation and the quantitative variation factors of the facade decoration symbols. Based on the conventional classification method, the facade styles of Harbin modern architecture were divided into 12 categories after data analysis. To better capture the overall structure information and the style features of the local components in the architectural images, the group convolution and the dilated convolution were added into the ResNet model, and then, the improved channel attention mechanism was introduced to construct a novel CA-MSResNet model. The CA-MSResNet model could more accurately identify the morphological elements and the style categories of the architectures, and the average accuracy reached 87.5%. These techniques, with their promising results, are expected to be further applied in the future research on the sustainable utilization and renovation of Harbin modern architecture. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Sustainability in Building Design)
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16 pages, 1626 KiB  
Article
Digital Atlas of Tactics to Designing Sustainable Factories
by Lia Marchi and Ernesto Antonini
Sustainability 2022, 14(7), 4321; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074321 - 6 Apr 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2600
Abstract
For a long time, the design of factories has been profit-driven only, while their detrimental effects on the environment, perceptual-aesthetic interferences with the surroundings, and social disturbances on local communities have been largely neglected. Despite a growing attention towards these topics, literature shows [...] Read more.
For a long time, the design of factories has been profit-driven only, while their detrimental effects on the environment, perceptual-aesthetic interferences with the surroundings, and social disturbances on local communities have been largely neglected. Despite a growing attention towards these topics, literature shows that there is a fundamental knowledge and tool gap on design practices for holistically sustainable factories, and companies are often unaware of both negative and positive effects related to the impact of their sites on the landscape. This paper presents a toolkit that has been developed to support entrepreneurs and designers in devising more sustainable factories through an integrated perspective, which is the great novelty of the approach. The article focuses on one of its tools: a digital atlas of design tactics. These have been mapped in sustainable factories around the world and labelled with an ad hoc faceted classification. Each tactic is then described in an info-sheet, which feeds a web portal. There, the user is assisted in searching for the most suitable tactics and mutual links with other useful strategies. The main potentiality of the atlas is to encourage a holistic design approach by highlighting positive synergies among tactics from different fields. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Sustainability in Building Design)
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Review

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22 pages, 2797 KiB  
Review
Sustainability Rating Systems for Historic Buildings: A Systematic Review
by Farzaneh Karimi, Nima Valibeig, Gholamhossein Memarian and Aliakbar Kamari
Sustainability 2022, 14(19), 12448; https://doi.org/10.3390/su141912448 - 30 Sep 2022
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 6949
Abstract
Historic buildings are an integral part of the built environment that have historical, cultural, social, and economic value. Sustainable conservation/rehabilitation/renovation of historic buildings that will perform well for decades is therefore critical. Numerous sustainability-rating systems (e.g., LEED, BREEAM, DGNB, etc.) have been developed [...] Read more.
Historic buildings are an integral part of the built environment that have historical, cultural, social, and economic value. Sustainable conservation/rehabilitation/renovation of historic buildings that will perform well for decades is therefore critical. Numerous sustainability-rating systems (e.g., LEED, BREEAM, DGNB, etc.) have been developed to deal with broader sustainability objectives in the design of new buildings, which are not adequate/sufficient in intervention in historic buildings. This paper aims to study and explore rating systems for historic buildings. It is hypothesized that using rating systems can help historic buildings achieve more sustainable outcomes. The paper begins by presenting comprehensive background information on existing sustainability-rating systems worldwide, followed by a systematic review of the literature on rating systems for historic buildings. The PRISMA flowchart (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) was used, searching Science Direct and Google Scholar databases. The study reveals most current studies focus on environmental aspects, such as improving the energy efficiency of historic buildings, which results in lowering economic costs and increasing occupant satisfaction with the indoor environment. We argue that all three traditional dimensions of sustainability should be balanced when developing or adapting the next generation of rating systems to assess/address the sustainability of historic buildings. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Sustainability in Building Design)
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