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A closer look at the built environment shows that opportunities lie in transforming buildings with nature-based solutions for fostering climate resilience. To understand the potential of buildings in contributing to transforming cities, we conducted a systematic literature review to synthesize the evidence of the provided benefits of nature-based solutions implemented on their roofs and facades. Our goal is to highlight findings about the co-benefits of nature-based solutions on buildings in real-life case studies. After systematic screening and selection, the 222 reviewed research papers support that there is confidence in the climate resilience performance and benefits green walls, green roofs, and living walls provide, contributing to heat resilience and indirectly to social-ecological justice, especially when they are installed in old buildings. Our findings show that other recorded benefits include the provision of vegetation, habitat and biodiversity enhancement, and strong evidence of water retention and purification. We also report on design characteristics of nature-based solutions which are recommended when they are implemented on buildings. Green roofs were especially well-documented and it underlines the need of more studies about diverse NBS. From the synthesis of the state of the art, we propose that further research about the design of nature-based solutions on buildings is required to extend their co-benefits to noise reduction, air pollution entrapment and filtering, and carbon sequestration. In our paper, we found that the most important knowledge gap for future research is holistic perspectives on designing NBS on buildings.

In this paper, a new type of recycled polyurethane material is used as a new type of wall insulation material, and the new building insulation wall made of this paper has high efficiency thermal insulation and energy-saving characteristics and also has certain environmental significance. The thermal conductivity of the new building cold insulation recycled polyurethane material is 0.023 W/(m·K), and the thermal conductivity of the new building insulation wall prepared is 0.297 W/(m·K). Compared with traditional double-sided plastered porous wall tiles, it can save 85.4% of energy consumption per square meter, with higher thermal insulation characteristics and economic benefits. The preparation of a new type of building insulation wall proposed in this paper provides a new and green way for wall insulation.

Buildings are complex structures composed of heterogeneous elements; these require building management systems (BMSs) to dynamically adapt them to occupants’ needs and leverage building resources. The fast growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has transformed the BMS field into a multidisciplinary one. Consequently, this has caused several research papers on data-driven solutions to require examination and classification. This paper provides a broad overview of BMS by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR) summarizing current trends in this field. Unlike similar reviews, this SLR provides a rigorous methodology to review current research from a computer science perspective. Therefore, our goal is four-fold: (i) Identify the main topics in the field of building; (ii) Identify the recent data-driven methods; (iii) Understand the BMS’s underlying computing architecture (iv) Understand the features of BMS that contribute to the smartization of buildings. The result synthesizes our findings and provides research directions for further research.

In this paper, we have carefully studied the scientific literature dealing with the use of passive radiative surfaces within the construction industry. The aim of this paper is to highlight technologies and materials for daylight radiative cooling under study today—or already on the market—and to report their main characteristics, performance and, where possible, costs. Following a review of the available scientific literature, the advantages and limitations of such an option were highlighted, seeking to capture opportunities and future lines of research development. This review also provides the physical laws that evaluate the energy balance of passive radiative surfaces as well as the criteria to quantify all the terms of these equations.

Valuation of buildings is an utmost complication for different socio-economic stakeholders in the building's buying and selling process. The traditional valuation approaches can vary because it depends on the evaluator's opinions. Also, existing approaches have not considered all the parameters and the interrelation between these parameters for their models. The objective of this study is to develop a priority weights-based rating model for the valuation of existing and new buildings. In this paper, the Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) is used to develop a rating system to use in the valuation process of buildings. The complementary novelty of this paper is the inclusion of the primary principles of engineering, sustainability, and adaptability into the valuation process of a building. Further, the subjectivity of this model is eliminated by using numerical descriptors. The opinions of 100 experts were collected and averaged to develop this model, and the consistency ratio of the experts’ opinions was maintained at less than 10 %. Finally, the valuation of a residential building is performed as a case study to show the numerical possibilities of the proposed model. The proposed model can be used to evaluate existing and new residential buildings in property transactions, insurance purposes, taxation, and making investment decisions.

Social value has a long academic tradition in the field of heritage studies, and while it has become part of heritage management, expert-driven intrinsic values still dominate the conservation policy and practice. This paper explores the use of building biographies as a way to assess, illustrate and record the social value of shopping arcades. A case study of the North Street Arcade in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is used to explore how building biographies can contribute bottom-up evidence to top-down value-based approaches of architectural conservation. The North Street Arcade is a listed shopping arcade that has been lying vacant and derelict for the last 30 years awaiting demolition and redevelopment. Archival documents, historic photographs, news reports and documentaries, interviews and anthropology were combined to compile the arcade’s biography. Allowing the combination of positivist and interpretive approaches, as well as merging community and expert voices, building biographies can produce localised and inclusive heritage narratives that accentuate the many dimensions of social value that different publics ascribe to built heritage. Policy relevance Although social value has become part of heritage management, expert-driven values still dominate the conservation policy and practice. The inclusion of social value in the statutory criteria for listing could afford heritage protection to places that are highly valued by local communities, thereby encompassing places that do not fulfil the architectural and historic criteria. This article explores the use of building biographies as a way to assess, illustrate and record the social value of shopping arcades. The building biography is an approach that combines qualitative methods deriving from anthropology and sociology with historical and architectural analysis, and can be used to highlight the link between people and places, as well as their ever-changing cultural context. This paper illustrates how building biographies can contribute bottom-up evidence to top-down value-based approaches of architectural conservation and highlight the social value of shopping arcades.

Earthquake is one of the natural disasters that affects the buildings and communities in developing countries. It causes different levels of damages to the buildings, making them uninhabitable for a period of time, called downtime (DT). This paper proposes a Fuzzy Logic hierarchical method to estimate the downtime of residential buildings in developing countries after an earthquake. The use of expert-based systems allows quantifying the indicators involved in the model using descriptive knowledge instead of hard data, accounting also for the uncertainties that may affect the analysis. The applicability of the methodology is illustrated using the information gathered after the 2015 Gorkha, Nepal, earthquake as a case study. On April 25, 2015, Nepal was hit by the Mw 7.8 Gorkha earthquake, which damaged and destroyed more than 500.000 residential buildings. Information obtained from a Rapid Visual Damage Assessment (RVDA) is used through a hierarchical scheme to evaluate the building damageability. Sensitivity analysis based on Sobol method is implemented to evaluate the importance of parameters gathered in the RVDA for building damage estimation. The findings of this work may be used to estimate the restoration time of damaged buildings in developing countries and to plan preventive safety measures.

In the so near future, climate change caused by Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions as a result of an increase in energy demand (ED) in the buildings sector becomes really hazard to our green environment. Both climate change and increase in ED are affected by each other. Such increase in ED would increase both climate change and global warming. Fortunately, there is, however, still plenty of time to address this issue. This increase might be significantly and effectively controlled. One of the effective solutions is to apply demand response (DR) strategies exploiting the smart grid (SG). Hence, SG contributes to help reduce both ED and CO2 emissions. Of importance is establishing SGs-adopted buildings in which DR role could act as an operating and management system aiming to reach energy sustainability. We review researches on DR strategies and technologies applied to SGs-adopted buildings. Unlike previous literature reviews considering certain types of buildings or strategies which therefore narrow the focus of review papers, this review has analyzed numerous types of buildings and a variety of technologies to expand the review’s scope. Concluded remarks, insights, challenges faced by researchers, and suggestions proposed by this review paper have been in detail discussed. Limitations, further gaps in future research on DR strategies, potential implications of DR in SG-adopted buildings have been also discussed. Towards sustainable energy in the buildings sector utilizing DR strategies, points of strength and weakness concluded from the reviewed articles have been highlighted and discussed to open trends that might potentially enhance future proposed DR strategies applied to SG-adopted buildings.

In this paper, we present the Home Electricity Data Generator (HEDGE), an open-access tool for the random generation of realistic residential energy data. HEDGE generates realistic daily profiles of residential PV generation, household electric loads, and electric vehicle consumption and at-home availability, based on real-life UK datasets. The lack of usable data is a major hurdle for research on residential distributed energy resources characterisation and coordination, especially when using data-driven methods such as machine learning-based forecasting and reinforcement learning-based control. We fill this gap with the open-access HEDGE tool which generates data sequences of energy data for several days in a way that is consistent for single homes, both in terms of profile magnitude and behavioural clusters. • From raw datasets, pre-processing steps are conducted, including filling in incomplete data sequences, and clustering profiles into behaviour clusters. Transitions between successive behaviour clusters and profiles magnitudes are characterised. • Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are then trained to generate realistic synthetic data representative of each behaviour groups consistent with real-life behavioural and physical patterns. • Using the characterisation of behaviour cluster and profile magnitude transitions, and the GAN-based profiles generator, a Markov chain mechanism can generate realistic energy data for successive days.

This paper examines speech privacy in both residential and commercial spaces. The ASTM E2638 standard defines the Speech Privacy Class (SPC) parameter, which measures speech privacy based on the signal-to-noise ratio at the listener’s position. This paper proposes estimating the SPC value using relevant ISO parameters commonly used in European practice: the apparent sound reduction index in dB (defined by ISO 16283-1, 2 standards) and the equivalent ambient noise level in dBA (defined by the ISO 1996-1 standard). The estimated value of the SPC parameter in this paper is referred to as the Speech Privacy Index (SPI). A diverse range of situations, i.e., rooms, was analyzed in the field. These rooms varied in terms of purpose, organization, dimensions, furnishings, isolation from other spaces, and internal and external environments. The results of the experiments demonstrate a strong correlation between the SPC value estimated according to ISO parameters (the proposed method) and the SPC as defined in the ASTM E standard. This indicates that the proposed method can provide an indicator of the state of speech privacy in buildings. The significance of the proposed calculation method (i.e., the STI parameter) lies in its ability to be applied at the building design stage, as well as after its completion, during routine testing.

ANNs have become a cornerstone in efficiently managing building energy management systems (BEMSs) as they offer advanced capabilities for prediction, control, and optimization. This paper offers a detailed review of recent, significant research in this domain, highlighting the use of ANNs in optimizing key energy systems, such as HVAC systems, domestic water heating (DHW) systems, lighting systems (LSs), and renewable energy sources (RESs), which have been integrated into the building environment. After illustrating the conceptual background of the most common ANN architectures for controlling BEMSs, the current work dives deep into relative research applications, thereby exhibiting their methodology and outcomes. By summarizing the numerous impactful applications during 2015–2023, this paper categorizes the predominant ANN-based techniques according to their methodological approach, specific energy equipment, and experimental setups. Grounded in the different perspectives that the integrated studies illustrate, the primary focus of this paper is to evaluate the overall status of ANN-driven control in building energy management, as well as to offer a deep understanding of the prevailing trends at the building level. Leveraging detailed graphical depictions and comparisons between different concepts, future directions, and fruitful conclusions are drawn, and the upcoming innovations of ANN-based control frameworks in BEMSs are highlighted.

This paper explores the difference between the ways that nature functions and the way that the built environment is currently produced and operates, and if and how they can be realigned. While regenerative approaches can apply to a range of human enterprises, the paper focuses on their application to the production of the urban built environment. It examines if and how they may move into mainstream building practice and how long this may take given the inherent inertias in the building industry. Key issues include the recasting and interrogating of the accumulated knowledge held by design professionals within a broader living systems frame, and rethinking what constitutes a successful outcome of building design. Such efforts are set against the diminishing time available before a series of climate tipping points are crossed and further short- to mid-term constraints posed by a host of other powerful countervailing forces. Practice relevance A critique of emerging regenerative practices is provided with an overview of both the challenges facing design professionals moving them into mainstream building practices, and the opportunities it provides them. Rather than viewing their work as solely reducing environmental impact, regenerative practices offer architects and planners a positive casting and expansion of their responsibilities. They enable design professionals to both contribute in the bringing about of systems-level change and to provide inhabitants with greater opportunities and pathways to both navigate an uncertain future and re-establish, reconnect and co-evolve with natural systems.

Interest is rising in improving efficiency and productivity by increasing the received signal power, which is driven by the proliferation of wireless local area networks and the increasing use of portable computing devices such as laptops and PDAs. Waveguides comprising frequency selective surfaces are suggested for use in indoor wireless environments, and their impact on the propagation of radio waves is examined in this paper. Additional battery power and a link budget buffer are required for the obstructed (OBS) path because the received power is more attenuated than the line-of-sight path. Additionally, this study proposes a novel model for selectively improving radio propagation in confined spaces under OBS circumstances by reflecting channel radio waves into target regions, thus avoiding significant propagation loss. Finally, a small-scale interior environment has been built and tested in a half-wave chamber and a real room to demonstrate the idea in practice using ray tracing techniques.

Mobility technologies, since the discovery of the uniaxial wheel, have strongly shaped the forms and times of cities and buildings and their interiors. The paper explores how newly developed flying transports, such as drones, may in the future reshape and alter the interiors of the buildings we inhabit. Utopias about cities with flying cars are a literature full of examples and theories, such as Andrea Branzi/Archizoom’s No Stop City and Instant City and others, but also even more extensive cinematography such as Christopher Nolan’s movie Inception and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In fact, the flying vehicles, by which people as well as goods will soon move, introduce a fourth dimension (time) and will allow access to buildings from the roof and facades. They will recover the distributional logic of an iconic and historical typology of Milanese architecture, that of the edificio a ballatoio, in which the distribution of spaces followed a private/public logic that would lend itself perfectly to the buildings of the drone city. The article will explore the transformations in plans, materials, facades, ways of living, and relationships that, this coming revolution, will introduce into the interior spaces of buildings and our existences.

Is it more environmentally friendly to replace an existing building with a new one or to renovate the existing property? This paper addresses how to frame and evaluate this question. Although several previous studies exist, their methods lack a harmonised set of practice. A new framework is introduced that adopts the concept of consequential replacement framework (CRF) for life cycle assessment (LCA) which had previously been applied to vehicles. The application of the CRF to buildings is demonstrated with case studies on school buildings in Finland. Three alternative cases are examined: the refurbishment of a 1950s school; extending it with an annex; and demolition and replacement with a new concrete or timber building. As the European environmental impact regulation of buildings pertains to CO2 emissions, the paper also focuses on CO2. The case studies demonstrate that refurbishment in Finland is a more climate-friendly alternative to demolition and new build. The studied new buildings’ better energy efficiency is set off for decades by the carbon spike caused by the embodied CO2 in their materials. The CRF is shown to be a methodologically sound, easily approachable framework for evaluating immediate environmental consequences of decision-makers’ retention or replacement choices, suitable to different contexts. Policy relevance As the global CO2 budget is running out, the need to combat the escalation of the climate emergency is imminent. Decades-long payback times for embodied CO2 investments in new replacement buildings, as in the paper’s case studies, are not helpful in this effort. The introduced framework helps to uncover the climate change mitigation potential in building preservation, which is presently poorly understood and considered in policymaking. The new framework provides a useful decision support tool and evidence for both policymakers and planners. Current policy initiatives in Europe focus on CO2 regulation for new build and renovation. However, replacement situations are not yet regulated. In contexts where renovation clearly proves to be more climate friendly (as validated by this method), policymakers should recognise the greenhouse gas-mitigation potential in building retention and create policies to encourage renovation over new build.

Teleworking offers various socio-economic benefits to the workforce, especially during major disasters. However, the holistic net energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions impacts of telework remain poorly understood. This paper develops and tests a longitudinal mixed-methods approach to estimate energy and emissions in three domains: home office, transportation, and information and communications technology (ICT). A pilot study of 11 participants from Ottawa, Canada, is used to evaluate the method, while generating a rich dataset and new insights. The results show transportation, home heating and cooling account for > 94% of telework-related energy, while home office equipment, lighting and ICT account for the remaining 6% (and < 2% of GHG emissions). Not including employer offices, teleworking will likely yield a net reduction in energy and GHG emissions compared with conventional working arrangements, but this result is dependent on personal choices, routines, purchasing decisions and household structure. The paper concludes with a discussion and future recommendations for the developed method based on the lessons learned. Practice relevance A new mixed-methods approach was developed and piloted to study the holistic energy impacts of teleworking. This demonstrates measurement tools, data analysis measures and scenario modelling. It provides lessons learned and acknowledges limitations. It is a major step forward in setting the stage for larger scale studies. The specific results showed that compared with conventional working arrangements, nine of the 11 participants are likely to consume less energy and produce fewer GHG emissions when teleworking based on a scenario-based analytical approach. However, if workers use sustainable transportation, teleworking may not yield any energy savings as increases in the home domain are expected. Future studies should include the employer offices.

The building sector is a major contributor to global resource consumption and waste generation. The circular economy (CE) concept offers a promising alternative to the traditional linear economy by promoting the reuse, remanufacture, repair, and recycling of materials and products. However, the adoption of CE in the building sector faces several barriers. This paper presents a systematic literature review utilising the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) approach, focusing on the barriers and enablers influencing the adoption of the CE concept in the building sector. Drawing from an analysis of numerous papers published between 2008 and 2023, we identified a high number of barriers and enablers that delay the integration of CE. The barriers were categorised into six categories: awareness, technical, economic and market, implementation, support/promotion, and social. The paper also discusses the interdependence of the identified barriers, using a co-occurrence matrix. The study findings indicate lack of CE regulations, fragment supply chain, and high upfront investment cost as major barriers to the implementation of CE in the building sector. Based on the study results, stringent governance and legislation, financial incentives, and the development of technology and innovation for circular building tools are critical factors for the successful implementation of CE principles. The results of this study provide a comprehensive overview of the feasibility to CE adoption in the building sector, which could also help to develop strategies to accelerate the transition to an integrated CE.

Deep learning has gained widespread interest in the task of building semantic segmentation modelling using remote sensing images; however, neural network models require a large number of training samples to achieve better classification performance, and the models are more sensitive to error patches in the training samples. The training samples obtained in semi-supervised classification methods need less reliable weakly labelled samples, but current semi-supervised classification research puts the generated weak samples directly into the model for applications, with less consideration of the impact of the accuracy and quality improvement of the weak samples on the subsequent model classification. Therefore, to address the problem of generating and optimising the quality of weak samples from training data in deep learning, this paper proposes a semi-supervised building classification framework. Firstly, based on the test results of the remote sensing image segmentation model and the unsupervised classification results of LiDAR point cloud data, this paper quickly generates weak image samples of buildings. Secondly, in order to improve the quality of the spots of the weak samples, an iterative optimisation strategy of the weak samples is proposed to compare and analyse the weak samples with the real samples and extract the accurate samples from the weak samples. Finally, the real samples, the weak samples, and the optimised weak samples are input into the semantic segmentation model of buildings for accuracy evaluation and analysis. The effectiveness of this paper’s approach was experimentally verified on two different building datasets, and the optimised weak samples improved by 1.9% and 0.6%, respectively, in the test accuracy mIoU compared to the initial weak samples. The results demonstrate that the semi-supervised classification framework proposed in this paper can be used to alleviate the model’s demand for a large number of real-labelled samples while improving the ability to utilise weak samples, and it can be used as an alternative to fully supervised classification methods in deep learning model applications that require a large number of training samples.

The carbon footprint (CF) linked to electricity consumption in buildings has become a significant environmental issue because of its significant role in greenhouse gas emissions. This study seeks to assess and examine the CF of electricity consumption in buildings across various building types. Additionally, this paper aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the CF of buildings. The investigation involves a comparative analysis between the CF values observed and predicted during the years affected by the pandemic. Additionally, the study evaluates the influence of the pandemic on the accuracy of CF model predictions by employing three distinct machine-learning models. Spatial analyses were conducted to identify clustering patterns of CF and identify areas of both high and low CF concentrations within the study area. The findings demonstrate significant disparities in the CF of electricity consumption across distinct building types, with residential buildings emerging as the largest contributors to carbon emissions. Moreover, the pandemic has had a notable impact on CF patterns, leading to alterations in the areas identified as hotspots and cold spots during the pandemic years compared to the pre-pandemic period, based on building types.

This paper presents the results of a simulation model regarding the productivity and safety working space for construction workers through the floors of a building using swarm intelligence (SI), a field of artificial intelligence (AI), and specifically using artificial bee colony (ABC) optimization. After designing the algorithm used to build the simulation model, the simulation was used in an actual building project by comparing the travel times of workers conventionally transporting material with another group working on routes optimized by the algorithm. Thus, the proposed algorithm provides routes combining shorter travel times and correct distances between workers when transporting materials in a construction site, handling the interference between crews. After validating the algorithm on-site, no statistically significant differences were found between the travel times of workers and the times delivered by the algorithm. Additionally, the travel times using the routes obtained through the algorithm were significantly lower than those made by workers who moved freely without a predefined route. In summary, the algorithm proposed may help construction practitioners maintain safe movements that respond to hazard contexts imposed by any restriction that demands a safety distance.

Today, there is a growing interest in developing energy efficient buildings since it is estimated that buildings account for about 40% of the total primary energy consumption in the world. In relation to existing buildings, energy efficiency retrofits have become an important opportunity to upgrade the energy performance of commercial, public and residential buildings that may reduce the energy consumption, demand and cost. In this paper we cover the energy efficiency deep retrofit process that has been carried out for Nottingham Playhouse theatre building for the aim of enhancing its environmental performance and analysing the energy efficiency gained after implementing certain proposed modifications. It is a nationally protected historic building, listed as Grade II∗ on The National Heritage List for England (NHLE). The building has had insulation enhancement, doors modifications, solar energy installations, energy-saving lights, in addition to improved heating and air conditioning system. The paper presents a novel methodology; and its results indicate significant improvements in the building's energy performance which is demonstrated using infrared thermographic images and data logger sensors where significant energy savings to the building's thermal performance are obtained. The energy saving measures have been completed while maintaining the heritage building's general appearance and architectural features, which have received a Commendation Certificate from The Nottingham Civic Society for this achievement.

The purpose of this paper is to uncover how the process of managing electricity in buildings based on the Internet of Things occurs. In particular, the work seeks to depict the factors affecting electricity consumption and management, as well as the application of the Internet of Things in energy management. A systematic literature review is used to examine the breadth of the electric energy management literature, encompassing bibliometric and thematic analysis based on an established procedure. The findings show the evolution of this field within key research networks with a few papers covering important elements of energy management, such as energy use, consumption and monitoring, assessment, and planning, in an integrative manner. Within this field, lacking in theory and practice, the originality of the work is the assembly of electric energy management into a conceptual framework based on real-time consumption and the Internet of Things (IoT). Indeed, the framework brings together the breadth of factors affecting consumption, energy use, and improvements that have been dispersed across the literature into one place. This framework, therefore, represents a stage towards an integrative view of IoT electric energy management and subsequent enhancement of theory and energy efficiency adoption.

Hybrid energy systems physically or conceptually combine various energy generation, storage, and/or conversion technologies to reduce costs and improve capability, value, efficiency, or environmental performance in comparison with independent alternatives. Hybridization is an interesting energy sector solution for plants to expand their flexibility, optimize revenues, and/or develop other useful products. Integrated hybrid energy systems’ improved flexibility can hasten the integration of more renewable energy into the grid and help become closer to the target of zero-carbon energy grids. This paper aims to provide an updated literature review of design and applications of hybrid energy systems in buildings, focusing on economic, environmental, and technical viewpoints. This current study will analyze current and future trends toward hybrid energy systems for buildings and their functions in electrical energy networks as potential research study topics for the future. This study aims to enhance sustainable building techniques and the creation of effective electrical energy networks by offering insights into the design and applications of hybrid energy systems. The methodology used in this study entails assessing present and potential trends, as well as looking at hybrid energy system uses and designs in buildings. The higher flexibility of integrated hybrid systems, which enables enhanced grid integration of renewables, is one of the key discoveries. The discussion of potential research study themes and conceivable applications resulting from this research forms the paper’s conclusion.

As one of the important feature categories in urban geographic data, buildings are the key thematic elements to be represented in large-scale urban mapping with the high speed of urban digital construction. The identification and extraction of buildings are of great significance for feature extraction, feature matching, image interpretation and mapping. However, the great variability of building size, shape, color, orientation, etc., in remote sensing images poses a great challenge to building detection. To this end, this paper proposes an algorithm based on multi-feature multi-scale fusion for the automatic extraction of buildings in remote sensing images are represented in the form of roofs. It is difficult to represent all buildings with a single feature because of the different colors, textures and shapes of building roofs. Effective features to describe buildings are proposed, including edge density and edge distribution, brightness contrast, color contrast and other features to describe building edge brightness. We propose effective features to describe buildings, including edge density and edge distribution, luminance contrast, color contrast and other underlying features to describe the edges, luminance and color of buildings, and adding special structural features such as main direction orthogonality and target integrity and symmetry to describe buildings by multiple features together.

Tourism architecture is an important material guarantee for carrying out tourism activities in scenic spots and is an important part of the tourism system. This paper analyzes the theory and structure of the G-DINA model in detail. To conceptualize the geospatial tourism architecture, form a conceptual cognition, and establish a basic geospatial tourism architecture cognitive model. Then the G-DINA model is brought into the basic cognitive model, and cognitive judgments are made using observation of tourism building features to form a G-DINA-based geospatial cognitive model of tourism buildings for planning and design of scenic tourism buildings. Experimental proof: By comparing the number of tourists in a tourist area for two months, it is obvious that the number of tourists in the second month has increased by 592 compared with the number of tourists in the first month, which is 160% of the number of tourists in the first month, and the comprehensive index of tourism economy has increased from 0.08 to 0.5, with an annual growth of 8.3%, showing a gradual upward trend in general. Accordingly, it can be considered that the attractiveness and competitiveness of tourist areas are significantly improved through the rational planning and design of tourist buildings. This verifies that reasonable design of tourism architecture and scientific planning of tourism areas can strengthen the harmony between tourism architecture and local style and surrounding environment, highlight regional characteristics and let them be inherited, and promote tourism development.

Asset management has an increasingly important role in organisations, as it can affect productivity and cost effectiveness, the useful life of facilities, the quality of processes, compliance with standards and safety and environmental laws, and more recently, to ensure more sustainable operations and use of resources. However, despite its importance in the provision of services to users, the buildings sector is deficient in contributions in the literature that: a) use an objective multicriteria model, and those developed in a fuzzy environment are even rarer; b) analyse the evolution of asset management in a country over an extended period of time; c) use weightings for each factor analysed, taken from judgements provided by experts in the buildings sector; d) consider all the full data for the sector, rather than average values; e) analyse the buildings complete sector and according to the size of the building. This paper, therefore, sets out a fuzzy multicriteria model for analysing the evolution of the asset management performance of the buildings sector by size (small, medium and large) in Spain from 2000 to 2020. The weightings of criteria and sub-criteria will be calculated based on the judgements of four experts in Spanish maintenance. 229 surveys carried out by the Spanish Maintenance Association are used, looking at all the information provided, rather than average values, developing discrete probability distribution functions to allow the uncertainty of the historical evolution of the asset management of buildings in Spain to be calculated. The average utility variation over the period 2000–2020 in the sector is 1.36 %. This value, although positive, is very low to cover a period of 20 years, and it seems that maintenance departments are not adapted to the new challenges of Industry 4.0.

AbstractThe response spectra defined in the appropriate Euro standards from the first and second generation (EN 1998–1 and EN 1998-1-1), which determine the seismic load for common buildings, are critically presented first. To avoid a reduction in earthquake loading on structures using response spectra, only a few points of the response spectra in the second generation of EN 1998-1-1 are determined by applying the probabilistic concept of seismic hazard assessment. The comparison of current response spectra in EN 1998–1 is made with the uniform hazard spectra (UHS). The comment and application of the second generation of EN 1998-1-1 is a novelty that is introduced in this paper. On the basis of response spectra presented here according to EN 1998–1 and EN 1998-1-1 and other spectra obtained from real and artificial records, comparative different methods of analysis on one regular simple eight-story reinforced concrete frame structure are illustrated to find out how the kind of spectra and used methods of analysis influence the story displacements and story drifts of one simple regular structure. So, at the same time, the reader will be informed not only about novelties in the second generation of EN 1998-1-1 as far as response spectra are concerned but also understand the implication of various response spectra on the methods of analysis of building structures.

This paper explores the potential of rooftop solar PV to meet the electricity demand in the urban areas of Abha city, Saudi Arabia (KSA), minimising imports from the grid. A localised energy system for Abha is proposed that considers two types of loads: (i) residential loads with a monthly aggregated energy consumption of 172,440 MWh and an electric demand of 239.5 MW, and (ii) commercial loads with a monthly aggregated energy consumption of 179,280 MWh and an electric demand of 249 MW. The grid currently supplies this load. This paper proposes a PV development planning tool for residential and commercial areas to calculate the total PV production for each type of load to achieve a balanced energy area, considering (i) the number of buildings, (ii) the type of load, (iii) the peak load, and (iv) the total PV array area in m2 per building. The results of the modelling study using real data demonstrate that the anticipated total PV production in residential and commercial areas is sufficient to meet local peak demand, and there is an excess of power that can either be stored locally or exported to the grid.

Buildings can be made more user-friendly and secure by putting “smart” design strategies and technology processes in place. Such strategies and processes increase energy efficiency, make it possible to use resources rationally, and lower maintenance and construction costs. In addition to using wireless technologies and sensors to improve thermal, visual, and acoustic comfort, “smart” buildings are known for their energy, materials, water, and land management systems. Smart buildings use wireless technologies and sensors to improve thermal, visual, and acoustic comfort. These systems are known for managing energy, materials, water, and land. The task of the study is to consider the indicators that form the basis of the framework for evaluating intelligent buildings. The indicators for the development of “smart” buildings are classified into six categories in this paper: green building construction, energy management systems, safety and security management systems, occupant comfort and health, building automation and control management systems, and communication and data sharing. The paper aims to develop a scoring model for the smartness of public buildings. In developing the scoring system, the decision-making process requires an appropriate selection of the optimal solution. The contents of the research are the methods known as the Pythagorean Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (PF-AHP), Interval Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy AHP with differences (IVPF-AHP d), and the proposed method Interval Valued Pythagorean Fuzzy AHP (IVPF-AHP p). The research focuses on the IVPF-AHP as one of the methods of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) and its implementation. The comparative analysis of the three presented methods indicates a significant degree of similarity in the ranking, which confirms the ranking similarity. The results highlight the importance of bioclimatic design, smart metering, ecological materials, and renewable energy systems.

The recent seismic activity highlights the crucial need to enhance seismic design and safety assessment methods, particularly for irregular structures, in both new and existing constructions. The present study focuses on structural irregularities in elevation for buildings, as the design of structural systems involves multiple variables that often result in irregularities in many buildings. This work aims to perform a comparative assessment of the criteria adopted for the evaluation of the structural irregularities in elevation present in European and international seismic codes. This paper is structured as follows: Firtsly, it discusses structural irregularities and more specifically the most common types of structural damage due to seismic events. Then, it shows the documented experiences of structural damages in seismic events associated with structural irregularities in China, Italy, Spain, Nepal and Mexico. Additionaly, it discusses the requirements of the standards on irregularities and their limitation in that matter. At the end of this section, the different approaches of each code in irregularities in elevation are compared. All assessed seismic codes addresses the structural irregularity issue, attributing the desired characteristics of a seismic-resistant structure. However, there are considerable development differences between norms, demonstrated on ambiguity of few codes on criteria of vertical irregularies.

Persistent Scatterer InSAR (PS-InSAR) technology enables the monitoring of displacement in millimeters. However, without the use of external parameter correction, radar scatterers exhibit poor geopositioning precision in meters, limiting the correlation between observed deformation and the actual structure. The integration of PS-InSAR datasets and building databases is often overlooked in deformation research. This paper presents a novel strategy for matching between PS points and building contours based on spatial distribution characteristics. A convex hull is employed to simplify the building outline. Considering the influence of building height and incident angle on geometric distortion, an adaptive buffer zone is established. The PS points on a building are further identified through the nearest neighbor method. In this study, both ascending and descending TerraSAR-X orbit datasets acquired between 2016 and 2019 were utilized for PS-InSAR monitoring. The efficacy of the proposed method was evaluated by comparing the PS-InSAR results obtained from different orbits. Through a process of comparison and verification, it was demonstrated that the matching effect between PS points and building contours was significantly enhanced, resulting in an increase of 29.2% in the number of matching PS points. The results indicate that this novel strategy can be employed to associate PS points with building outlines without the need for complex calculations, thereby providing a robust foundation for subsequent building risk assessment.

This study addresses the critical need for sustainable architectural designs within the context of climate change and the significant role the built environment plays in greenhouse gas emissions. The focus of this paper is on understanding the influence of unbalanced cantilevers on the embodied carbon of structural systems in buildings, a subject that has, until now, remained underexplored despite its importance in architectural innovation and environmental sustainability. Employing a case study approach, the Melbourne School of Design (MSD) building serves as a primary example to assess the embodied carbon implications of cantilevered versus supported structures. The methodological framework encompasses a comparative embodied carbon assessment utilising an input–output-based hybrid life cycle inventory analysis approach. The findings reveal that unbalanced cantilevers in buildings, exemplified by the MSD building, can lead to a 10% increase in embodied carbon compared to alternative designs incorporating supporting columns. Such findings underscore the environmental premium for cantilevers, prompting a re-evaluation of design practices towards minimising embodied carbon. Through this investigation, the research contributes to the broader discourse on sustainable construction practices, offering valuable insights for both design practitioners and educators in the pursuit of improving the environmental performance of the built environment.

This paper is the second output of a project that examines the embodied greenhouse gas emissions (‘embodied carbon’) from the use of concrete in buildings. In the current absence of either regulation or widespread industry practice in quantified carbon assessment, it seems likely that messaging will play a powerful role in influencing designers’ perceptions and decisions. Using the UK as a case study, this paper considers the current messages about the carbon implications of concrete in buildings from professional institutions and the cement and concrete trade body. Three mechanisms through which it is claimed carbon emissions are significantly reduced are identified: thermal mass, durability, and carbonation. By assessing each of these in turn against the available scientific literature, it is shown that they are likely to have a far more limited effect on the total impacts than suggested. More accuracy is needed from trade organisations if real carbon reductions are to be achieved. 'Practice relevance' In the current absence of whole life carbon assessment for buildings, messaging about the carbon impacts of different materials is likely to have a strong impact. The paper recommends that the cement and concrete industry should be more accurate with the messages it is sharing. In particular the claims that thermal mass, durability and carbonation are effective mechanisms, which suggest concrete is a low carbon option, should be reconsidered. Meanwhile designers should use the excellent advice being produced by the professional institutions and undertake whole-life carbon calculations to ensure the lowest carbon design. These should include a best estimate of future trends towards warming climates and decarbonisation of electricity, but should also recognise the importance of the immediate effects of the emissions from construction materials. There is also a key role for policymakers in legislating to make the measurement of embodied impacts of buildings mandatory.

In contrast to domestic buildings, the drivers influencing the stock dynamics (construction subtracted by demolition) of non-domestic buildings (NDB) have not yet been researched on a use-class basis. For the first time, due to elaborated data sets on construction and demolition of NDB in Germany, an in-depth analysis of causal relationships is provided at a subnational level. This paper investigates the cause–effect relationships between influencing variables and stock dynamics of the three quantitatively most relevant use classes of the German NDB stock: office buildings, industrial buildings and warehouses. Influencing variables on the development of the stock were first identified by means of expert interviews. Regions with high construction dynamics were identified. Within these highly dynamic regions, construction activity was correlated with influencing variables. A principal component analysis was used to examine the explanatory power of underlying, use-class-specific components of the variable set. The results show the particular importance of employment-related variables. They combine demographic, economic and wealth-related influences and allow for a distinction to be made in relation to functional non-domestic-use classes. For the first time, this confirms that different use classes of NDB are characterised by different influencing variables, and that these variables recur to uncorrelated overarching drivers. Practice relevance This study identifies the drivers of NDB stock dynamics. These drivers can be used to estimate future changes of the NDB stock on different scales. The linkages to specific use-class drivers allow new understandings of stock dynamics for office, industrial and warehouse buildings at a regional level. This has potential application to circular economy approaches as the results of this research can be applied at city levels. This study can provide a clearer understanding of future construction material volumes and their respective recycling capacities. The same is applicable for research on stock-driven land demand. This study can contribute to the broader discussion on the future development of the non-residential building stock and the resulting environmental impacts due to land use, energy and material consumption or CO2 emissions.

In line with the decarbonization of the domestic sector to meet the 2050 climate neutrality targets, this paper describes the energy, economic, and environmental analysis of a set of different novel configurations of polygeneration installations to provide electricity, air conditioning, domestic hot water, and desalinated water for a building of 80 dwellings. All arrangements were designed to cover 100% of the five demands required in the building with renewable energy only, from photovoltaic (PV) and photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) panels and biomass backup boilers (BB). Electricity can be sold to or purchased from the grid without electrical storage with batteries. Additional electricity generation with thermoelectric generators (TEG) coupled to the PVTs, and the BB was explicitly analyzed. The choice of electrically or thermally activated technologies (heat pump, HP/single-effect absorption chiller, SEAC for cooling and multi-effect distillation, MED/reverse osmosis, RO for desalination) created four configurations from the basic structure based on solar and biomass sources. Thus, the paper has studied four designs in detail and applied them to three case studies corresponding to different locations in Spain. They were modeled with TRNSYS and included specific models for desalination technologies. Both structures provide important energy and CO2 savings concerning the conventional supply of the building demands. The novel life-cycle analysis approach further increases the lifetime CO2 savings for all configurations as well. The electric option (the combination of HP and RO for cooling and desalting) was, by far, the most attractive solution in terms of liability and lower investment required in the three case studies.

Compared to other goods, buildings have a long lifespan. It is therefore the norm and not the exception that adaptation will be needed at some point in their life cycle to changing environmental conditions, technical progress and new/additional user requirements. The adaptation of existing buildings to future challenges in the form of refurbishment contributes to sustainable development. The proportion of refurbishments is increasing in both absolute and relative terms in the building sector in Europe. It is therefore surprising that the modelling particularities of refurbishment in the context of a life cycle-based environmental performance assessment are still neglected in the EN-standards. The paper deals with these particularities. Specifically, it presents a typology of approaches starting with a distinction between planned refurbishment as B5 and unforeseen refurbishment as an independent design and construction task / next life cycle, as well as the status of the discussion in selected countries. Recommendations for action for the life cycle assessment are given for specific decision-making situations.

Although indoor environmental quality (IEQ) and human health have been on the agenda of the green building industry, a new emphasis is being placed on building features that explicitly promote the experience of occupants. However, evidence of the performance of green-certified buildings from the occupant perspective remains inconsistent, with numerous questions on how to effectively design, assess and promote ‘healthy buildings’. Focusing on the key IEQ categories of indoor air quality, thermal comfort, lighting and acoustics, this paper synthesises emerging knowledge related to IEQ and health; identifies research and practical challenges that may impede the performance of green-rated buildings; sets the foundations for researchers and green rating system developers to capture immediate and long-term opportunities; and proposes a new framework for green-certified buildings. The envisioned future of green buildings will need to be based on a thorough knowledge of the building and its users, their inter- and intra-individual variability, their spatiotemporal localisation, their activities, their history of exposures, together with a capacity of anticipation of the likelihood of future events and preparedness for them. A balanced, integrated, consideration of these factors can provide the basis for more effective green building certification systems. 'Practice relevance' The Covid-19 pandemic has focused attention on the importance of IEQ and highlighted the limitations of prevailing practice for promoting human experience, health and wellbeing. Most critically, the good intentions of project planning are often not reflected in real-world conditions, and establishedbest practiceshave not kept pace with advances in research. This paper provides a critical synthesis of the literature on the effectiveness of green building ratings systems for human experience. It identifies limitations and practical opportunities for improvement in the design and application of rating tools. These observations present specific, actionable, opportunities to improve the design and operation of green building rating systems. Rating system developers and practitioners can use this information to better align design intentions with outcomes. Explicit consideration is needed for differences in individual preferences, spatial and temporal variabilities of IEQ factors, occupant exposure history, and other factors impacting IEQ.

Contextual data are receiving increasing attention in Smart Cities as they enable the development and delivery of smart services for their citizens. The homogenization of contextual data flows has become an important topic for standardization bodies as they attempt to enable data flow control and vendor-independent solutions. Buildings are a critical component of cities, due to their role in several dimensions of Smart Cities (including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals); these may include the monitoring of their operation, maintenance, energy consumption, ability to respond in emergencies, and people flows, all of which affect the sustainability of a Smart City’s ecosystem. In this respect, Building Information Management Systems and Building Infrastructure Management Systems can benefit from this standardization. This paper presents how a novel solution named Smart-City-as-Hub can homogenize building contextual data and enable smart services’ development and delivery based on these data. The analysis of the data from several IoT deployments in public school buildings is the method used to highlight the segmentation and fragmentation of the IoT landscape and to present the benefits that the Smart-City-as-Hub provides in this context. The ways in which the Smart-City-as-Hub concept can mitigate these challenges and enable Smart City stakeholders to concentrate their efforts on developing value-added services is presented in the discussion section. By providing real-life data of the IoT devices deployed in Smart City projects, this study aims to further advance research pursuing the homogenization and standardization of Smart City flows.

As researchers and ultimately deployers of energy decarbonisation solutions, we collectively see significant but often siloed efforts that in isolation may appear as an appropriate solution to an aspect of energy decarbonisation. However, when systemwide thinking is applied, a former attractive solution may become more challenging and, likewise, a less attractive silo may become more appropriate as part of an energy systemwide approach. Thus, the aim of this paper is to combine proposed energy decarbonisation concepts, e.g., electrification, hydrogen, biogas etc., with the status of the system in which they intend to operate, and then highlight the barriers, opportunities, and alternatives that may come into play when the whole system is taken into account. This is a hypothetical study using the city of Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK as an example and reflects, in part, the city’s desire to decarbonise while enhancing its economic prosperity. The “system” is defined as the region boundaries, i.e., Northern Ireland will supply the energy (all or in part) to the city of Belfast. The methodology deployed here therefore is a framework of energy thinking that is the basis of such energy decarbonisation plans at a city-wide level.

Airborne circular synthetic aperture radar (CSAR) can realize high-resolution imaging of the scene over 360 degrees azimuth angle variation. Aiming at the problem of focusing of buildings for the airborne CSAR, this paper first analyzes the phase errors of CSAR buildings focusing in detail, and the analytic relationship between the scatterer height and azimuth focusing quality is deduced. Then, a focusing method of CSAR buildings based on the back projection algorithm is proposed. This method adopts the processing strategy of multi-layers imaging, and it is able to improve azimuth focusing quality of the buildings which have large height dimension. The proposed method is especially suitable for the high-resolution imaging and monitoring of the urban site with high-rise buildings in the airborne CSAR scenario. The correctness of the theoretical analysis and the validity of the proposed method are verified by using both simulation results and Ku-band airborne CSAR real data processing results.

Building construction accounts for a significant proportion of global greenhouse gas emissions, raw material extraction, and waste production. Applying circular economy (CE) principles in the building construction industry would considerably reduce these values. However, uptake by the industry is relatively slow, which is largely attributed to sectoral barriers, including limitations in knowledge and experience. This review paper aims to assess and contribute to diminishing these obstacles by offering a comprehensive review of circular material usage principles and strategies within the construction sector. Opportunities and facilitators of change are also presented, including innovations and emerging technologies in recycling, digitization, robotic systems, novel materials, and processing. Finally, four case studies demonstrate the application of circular theory via a novel block system, recycled aggregate, modular kitchen reuse, and an energy efficiency retrofit. The conclusions show that future efforts should prioritize the development of strong regulatory frameworks, awareness initiatives, and international cooperation. In this regard, the integration of technological advancements, such as AI, robotics, and blockchain, is essential for optimizing waste management efficiency. Furthermore, education on circular practices plays a critical role. Through global collaboration, standardizing circular construction approaches can promote a more sustainable and resilient building construction industry.

Sustainability rating systems for the built environment involve a multitude of indicators that are based on different types of data. This work capitalizes on an existing multicriteria assessment method and supporting decision-making tool at building and neighbourhood scale, to develop an enhanced method and tool at city scale. The main sustainability issues at building and city scales include site and infrastructure, energy and resources consumption, environmental loadings, climate change, environmental quality, water, waste, transportation, services, social aspects, economy and governance. Approximately 300 indicators distributed among the different scales are used to describe and quantify the various facets of sustainability. Specifically, the building scale includes a pool of 80 indicators of which 17 are key performance indicators (KPIs), the neighbourhood scale has 133 indicators of which 14 are KPIs and the city scale has a total of 99 indicators of which 10 are KPIs that were new additions to the existing method. The emphasis in this paper is given on elaborating the key performance indicators for cities and demonstrating their applicability through a case study. The common method and tools provide a flexible assessment system for local authorities and stakeholders to develop and assess sustainability plans.

Rapid assessment of urban damages after a strong earthquake is a necessary and crucial task to reduce the number of fatalities and recover socioeconomic services. In this paper, a novel deep-learning-based framework is proposed for detecting and mapping damages in urban buildings and roads using post-earthquake high-resolution satellite imagery. The method begins with overlaying a pre-event vector map on an input image to extract the building and road objects. The core machine learning components include two separate convolutional neural networks (CNN), integrated with Gabor filters, which extract debris pixels associated with building and road objects. These debris pixels are analyzed to generate the final damage maps, which show multiple damage degrees for buildings and roads. Two different datasets were used to thoroughly evaluate the proposed method's overall effectiveness. The overall accuracy of 95% for detecting the debris pixels in building and road areas proves the effectiveness of the proposed CNN models for debris detection in comparison to the traditional Machine Learning (ML) methods. The proposed method successfully labelled 84% of the buildings and 87% of the roads when compared with a manually generated multiple damage map.

Current adaptation theory tends to consider individual buildings or the city level, which cannot address decisions related to masterplan developments on large brownfield sites. This paper investigates the drivers for building demolition or retention and adaptation decisions at the masterplan scale. Expert interviews and three case studies are used to explore how and why decisions to demolish, or to retain and adapt, are made at this scale. The research compared three different geopolitical contexts: Cambridge in the UK; Eindhoven in the Netherlands; and Sydney in Australia. Additional factors and complexities that should be considered at the masterplan scale are identified. The theoretical underpinnings of urban development processes are used to explain these complexities in relation to four existing models and demonstrate that no one model is adequate to describe the interactions. With increasing awareness of climate change impacts, it is critical that demolition decisions on masterplan developments are reviewed in the light of retaining carbon as well as heritage. Practice relevance This research demonstrates the different and specific concerns applying to demolition and retention on masterplan scale sites compared with the individual building scale. Although the evidence shows that decisions are context specific, the criteria as identified and categorised within this research offer a useful tool for stakeholders when establishing their priorities and approaches to decisions to demolish or retain and adapt within a masterplan context. This should help to avoid contested decisions and can help community groups hoping to have an influence over the long-term decisions, as well as developers looking to retain good relationships with the local community. The identified criteria can support planners and local authorities responsible for approving masterplan developments to better understand the factors relevant to each decision, including the importance of retaining flexibility throughout to enable response to changing circumstances.

This paper describes the development of a detailed plan to get the social housing stock of the Borough of Islington in London, UK, to net zero carbon emissions. This stock is very diverse in form, age and construction, and includes houses, flats and maisonettes. A total of 4500 buildings containing some 33,300 dwellings were modelled using the 3DStock method. Six packages of measures combining fabric improvements, heat pumps and photovoltaic installations were evaluated for each dwelling individually, in terms of costs, the impacts on gas and electricity use, and predicted cuts in carbon emissions. The rollout of measures between 2020 and 2030 was modelled with a specially developed scenario tool, allowing the user to set different criteria and priorities. Fabric measures on their own were shown to achieve only a 13% cut in gas use on average. Heat pumps are the key to displacing gas use. With all measures combined and taking account of the predicted decarbonisation of the electricity supply, it is only possible to achieve an overall 70% cut in emissions by 2030. Policy relevance The development of a detailed practical plan of action is described: an applied case study with the close engagement of the local authority—not a theoretical desk exercise. Each dwelling in Islington’s housing stock was examined and measured separately. The modelling did not rely on ‘archetypes’ as in many such studies. Realistic retrofit options were analysed in each case, using current cost data from practitioners. The same approach could be applied directly to other London boroughs, and for local authorities outside the capital, although different costs and other local factors would apply. For readers outside the UK, the methodology and tools could serve as exemplars. The findings about the respective contributions of heat pumps, solar photovoltaics and fabric measures, and the effects of different priorities in the rollout of retrofits, have relevance for policymaking more generally at local and national levels.

The electrification of transport, has placed a great deal of attention into electrical energy storage. Several battery technologies exist, but all of them are based on banks of modules that connected together add up the voltage of the current needed for each application. The chemical processes that occur within the modules may condition the life of the battery. This points to the direction of management systems that can control how the batteries are used. In this work we suggest an IoT platform that can manage the control of multi-modular battery banks and that can be accessible for the many (MIT license). The platform has been proven to be sound, and it gives multiple possibilities to users and developers. A use case has been shown on this paper in which the platform allows the management of a real battery bank providing real data and applying an intelligent algorithm that forecasts the charging process and controls that the variables are within acceptable ranges.

The brick is one of the most often used masonry components in construction due to its unique characteristics. There have been several attempts to produce bricks using only natural resources. This resulted in the creation of waste due to the consumption of natural resources. The manufacture of bricks is one of the significant waste producers in the construction industry. The problem of waste may be effectively solved by recycling these wastes and using them in building materials such as recycled bricks. This paper describes an experimental study that test the potentials of producing new, lightweight brick for the building industry using a blend of brick and plastic waste. The physical and mechanical characteristics of brick mixtures with various ratios of waste are studied. The test findings for compressive strength, unit weight, and water absorption values are measured in accordance with the applicable requirements for regular building bricks based on building codes. The results found out that using broken brick with plastic waste has a great positive impact on the recycled brick component in terms of unit weight and the percentage of water absorption reduction. It was also found to have a high thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity as well as specific heat compared to red bricks, which can lead to stabilize; giving a new technique for installation and reduce the proportion of the decimated-on running. It could be used in the construction of walls that could participate in the reduction of temperature transfer from external to internal spaces in buildings.

Abstract Energy system modeling has been following the energy transition to investigate challenges and opportunities of future energy systems on all grid levels. Necessary input for sector-coupled energy system models are residential electricity and heat demand curves. The increasing importance of distribution grids and their modeling requires demand profiles in high spatial resolution.This paper presents a method to assign pre-generated electricity and heat demand curves to georeferenced residential buildings in Germany. We aim at overcoming fundamental shortcomings of the Standard Load Profiles and enable new possibilities for the modeling of distribution grids. Our approach provides a large variety in residential load profiles which spatially correspond to official socio-demographic data. All used input data sets as well as implemented methodology and the resulting profiles are publicly available under open source and open data licences to enable further use. Our results are validated on different aggregation levels as well as compared and discussed with the commonly used Standard Load Profiles.

To restrict global warming and relieve climate change, the world economy requires to decarbonize and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to net-zero by mid-century. Carbon capture and storage (CCS), and carbon capture and utilization (CCU), by which CO2 emissions are captured from sources such as fossil power generation and combustion processes, and further either reused or stored, are recognized worldwide as key technologies for global warming mitigation. This paper provides a review of the latest published literature on small-scale carbon capture (CC) systems as applied in micro combined heat and power cogeneration systems for use in buildings. Previous studies have investigated a variety of small- or micro-scale combined heat and power configurations defined by their prime mover for CC integration. These include the micro gas turbine, the hybrid micro gas turbine and solid-state fuel cell system, and the biomass-fired organic Rankine cycle, all of which have been coupled with a post-combustion, amine-based absorption plant. After these configurations are defined, their performance is discussed. Considerations for optimizing the overall system parameters are identified using the same sources. The paper considers optimization of modifications to the micro gas turbine cycles with exhaust gas recirculation, humidification, and more advanced energy integration for optimal use of waste heat. Related investigations are based largely on numerical studies, with some preliminary experimental work undertaken on the Turbec T100 micro gas turbine. A brief survey is presented of some additional topics, including storage and utilization options, commercially available CC technologies, and direct atmospheric capture. Based on the available literature, it was found that carbon capture for small-scale systems introduces a large energy penalty due to the low concentration of CO2 in exhaust gases. Further development is required to decrease the energy loss from CC for economic feasibility on a small scale. For the micro gas turbine, exhaust gas recirculation, selective gas recirculation, and humidification were shown to improve overall system economic performance and efficiency. However, the highest global efficiencies were achieved by leveraging turbine exhaust waste heat to reduce the thermal energy requirement for solvent regeneration in the CC plant during low- or zero-heating loads. It was shown that although humidification cycles improved micro gas turbine cycle efficiencies, this may not be the best option to improve global efficiency if turbine waste heat is properly leveraged based on heating demands. The biomass-organic Rankine cycle and hybrid micro gas turbine, and solid-state fuel cell systems with CC, are in early developmental stages and require more research to assess their feasibility. However, the hybrid micro gas turbine and solid-state fuel cell energy system with CC was shown numerically to reach high global efficiency (51.4% LHV). It was also shown that the biomass-fired organic Rankine cycle system could result in negative emissions when coupled with a CC plant. In terms of costs, it was found that utilization through enhanced oil recovery was a promising strategy to offset the cost of carbon capture. Direct atmospheric capture was determined to be less economically feasible than capture from concentrated point sources; however, it has the benefit of negative carbon emissions.

In a previous study, the collapse frequencies and associated mortalities of buildings were compiled based on various publications. The investigation showed a considerable scattering of collapse frequencies depending on the countries. In this paper, the collapse frequencies determined for buildings are compared with the results of probabilistic calculations. Such comparisons have already been carried out for bridges, dams, tunnels and retaining walls including the consideration of central estimators and standard deviations. In order to limit the scatter, the probabilities of failure for buildings were subdivided into the different causes of failure, and collapse frequencies were subdivided into different countries and geographical regions. Overall, the comparison shows that the probabilities of failure are on overage larger than the observed collapse frequencies. Furthermore, the comparison shows are large span, which is unusual for other types of structures. Of concern are the high observed collapse frequencies in various developing countries. Human error, lack of training, etc. are often cited as the cause. Should this correspond to the facts, the basic safety concept of modern building standards, which generally excludes human error, would only be applicable in these regions to a limited extent. However, the investigation includes some limitations, such as different safety targets in different standards and different years of constructions, which are not considered. Further work is required.