Digital Twin in the Construction Industry—Advances and Challenges

Dear Colleagues,

Digital Twins (DT) technology, an integral part of the 4th industrial revolution, has paramount significance for the Architectural, Engineering and Construction Industry (AECI) due to its potential for assisting in the whole life-cycle of constructed assets. Despite its importance, however, DTs applications in AECI are behind other industries. The recent Green New Deal for Europe has set as primary objectives the minimization of the required materials, energy, environmental pollution and waste for all heavy industries including AECI. The purpose of this SI is to present the progress achieved so far and the challenges of the integration of DT technology into AECI in the fast approaching smart asset era.

It is, therefore, our great pleasure to invite you to contribute to this Special Issue by presenting your results on Digital Twin Technologies for AECI from an academic, design office’s or construction company’s point of view. The papers can focus on the adoption of Digital Twin Technologies related to all aspect of AECI including barriers and enablers, sustainability, agility, resilience, organisational requirements, implementation challenges and the multi-dimensional technological prerequisites. Articles may also include manufacturing technologies, modeling, optimization, artificial intelligence algorithms, control, measurements, analysis, and/or experimental investigations related to additive manufacturing combined with the AECI.

Prof. Dr. John-Paris Pantouvakis
Prof. Dr. Nikos D. Lagaros
Dr. Marina Marinelli
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. Buildings 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 2600 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.