Smart Material and Smart Construction Technologies for Urban Development

Dear Colleagues,

The continued growth of populations in cities demands more infrastructure. Consequently, this increases the energy demand, construction cost, construction and demolition waste and risk to environmental sustainability as it produces significant amounts of greenhouse gas emissions to the environment. Thus, the governments and the construction industries should focus on sustainable construction materials and smart and rapid construction technology to enable sustainable cities. However, applications of smart materials and smart construction in the buildings are limited due to the lack of knowledge of their capabilities and constraints. The present Special Topic aims to increase the knowledge by exploring the recent advancement, current thinking and constraints of smart material and smart construction technologies to overcome the challenges facing urban city development and enable a sustainable construction industry. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Smart construction technology to improve the construction performance.
• Energy-efficient building design for a sustainable urban city.
• Additive manufacturing in offsite construction to enable rapid construction.
• Robotic technology to improve the construction performance.
• Smart materials that enable sustainable construction.
• Sustainable construction materials that reduce the embodied energy and enhance building energy efficiency.

Dr. Sathees Nava
Dr. Kate Nguyen
Topic Editors