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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2022) | Viewed by 13704

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. Claudio Del Pero

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Guest Editor

Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Milan, Italy
Interests: sustainable buildings; renewable energy; energy saving; developing countries

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Many developing countries are being quickly involved in a massive urbanization process that is typical in post-war or post-crisis conditions. This means that the risk of establishing wrong practices, methods, and business models that will pave the way for the next 10–20 years is absolutely high and real.

This would mean a significant lack in properly considering social and environmental needs while also limiting the development of local knowledge and skills in climate-responsive constructions.

In such a context, the scope of the Special Issue is to collect research works focused on proper climate-responsive technologies, techniques, methodologies and business models specifically suited for the building sector in developing countries. Appropriate topics include:

Design and construction techniques;
Construction materials;
Urban design schemes;
Passive/active techniques for indoor/outdoor comfort;
Renewable energy systems;
Business models;

with a specific reference to solutions explicitly suited to ensure environmental, economic, and social sustainability in developing countries.

Dr. Claudio Del Pero
Guest Editor

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

Sustainable buildings
Renewable energy
Energy saving
Affordable housing
Developing countries

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

23 pages, 2808 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Research on a Visual Comfort Model Based on Individual Preference in China through Machine Learning Algorithm

by Guofeng Ma and Xuhui Pan

Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7602; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147602 - 7 Jul 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2443

Abstract

Recently, decreasing energy consumption under the premise of building comfort has become a popular topic, especially visual comfort. Existing research on visual comfort lacks a standard of how to select indicators. Moreover, studies on individual visual preference considering the interaction between internal and external environment are few. In this paper, we ranked common visual indicators by the cloud model combined with the failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) and hierarchical technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS). Unsatisfied vertical illuminance, daylight glare index, luminance ratio, and shadow position are the top four indicators. Based on these indicators, we also built the individual visual comfort model through five categories of personalized data obtained from the experiment, which was trained by four machine learning algorithms. The results show that random forest has the best prediction performance and support vector machine is second. Gaussian mixed model and classification tree have the worst performance of stability and accuracy. In addition, this study also programmed a BIM plug-in integrating environmental data and personal preference data to predict appropriate vertical illuminance for a specific occupant. Thus, managers can adjust the intensity of artificial light in the office by increasing or decreasing the height of table lamps, saving energy and improving occupant comfort. This novel model will serve as a paradigm for selecting visual indicators and make indoor space be tailored to meet individual visual preferences. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Buildings in Developing Countries)

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14 pages, 1334 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Construction Technologies for Sustainable Affordable Housing within Fragile Contexts: Proposal of a Decision Support Tool

by Nazly Atta, Anna Dalla Valle, Andrea Campioli, Davide Chiaroni and Cinzia Talamo

Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 5928; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115928 - 24 May 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3355

Abstract

The topic of sustainable affordable housing in developing countries is gaining increasing importance within international debates. The challenge is to find a balance between the concepts of sustainability and affordability in building construction within fragile contexts, overcoming basic self-made shelter solutions towards the creation of sustainable durable housing. In particular, concerning the selection of constructive technological solutions, the goal is to shift from the current decision-making process based only on economic factors to a more holistic approach based on a triple bottom line perspective, integrating economic, environmental and social sustainability. With this aim, this paper proposes a decisional support tool for contexts characterized by poor information to sustain decision-makers in identifying suitable technological solutions. The tool is based on a set of key indicators, articulated into the three pillars of sustainability. The proposed tool, conceived as scalable and replicable, is finally applied to the specific context of Mogadishu (Somalia), since it is representative of the uncertain social, political and economic nature of fragile contexts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Buildings in Developing Countries)

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21 pages, 9011 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Energy Use at the University of Almeria (Spain)

by Mehdi Chihib, Esther Salmerón-Manzano, Mimoun Chourak, Alberto-Jesus Perea-Moreno and Francisco Manzano-Agugliaro

Sustainability 2021, 13(11), 5843; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115843 - 22 May 2021

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 2818

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused chaos in many sectors and industries. In the energy sector, the demand has fallen drastically during the first quarter of 2020. The University of Almeria campus also declined the energy consumption in 2020, and through this study, we aimed to measure the impact of closing the campus on the energy use of its different facilities. We built our analysis based upon the dataset collected during the year 2020 and previous years; the patterns evolution through time allowed us to better understand the energy performance of each facility during this exceptional year. We rearranged the university buildings into categories, and all the categories reduced their electricity consumption share in comparison with the previous year of 2019. Furthermore, the portfolio of categories presented a wide range of ratios that varied from 56% to 98%, the library category was found to be the most influenced, and the research category was found to be the least influenced. This opened questions like why some facilities were influenced more than others? What can we do to reduce the energy use even more when the facilities are closed? The university buildings presented diverse structures that revealed differences in energy performance, which explained why the impact of such an event (COVID-19 pandemic) is not necessarily relevant to have equivalent variations. Nevertheless, some management deficiencies were detected, and some energy savings measures were proposed to achieve a minimum waste of energy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Buildings in Developing Countries)

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19 pages, 1702 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainable Solutions for Mass-Housing Design in Africa: Energy and Cost Assessment for the Somali Context

by Claudio Del Pero, Oscar Eugenio Bellini, Maricla Martire and Davide di Summa

Sustainability 2021, 13(9), 4787; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094787 - 24 Apr 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4318

Abstract

Today, the main issue of providing adequate and affordable housing is to go beyond the mere offer of basic shelters, intending to create sustainable and durable settlements. Due to the fragile and uncertain nature of its social, political and economic context, characterized by the lack of common shared legislative references and business strategies in the housing sector, Somalia is a challenging reality to be explored and improved. This paper describes the outcomes of the BECOMe project, intending to propose sustainable solutions for mass-housing design for new sustainable settlements in Mogadishu, involving local entrepreneurs, social organizations and renewable energy. In detail, social, environmental and economic key sustainability requirements (KSRs) for mass-housing are identified first. Then, the most appropriate climate-responsive design and construction technologies at the building level, tailored to the Mogadishu context, are selected; the outcomes are applied to a specific case-study building, assessing energy and cost performances to pave the way for implementation projects in Somalia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Buildings in Developing Countries)

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