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This position paper aims to pave the way for a debate on a few under-explored, at least, perhaps even neglected, challenges we face when trying to improve building overall performance. Specifically, we suggest focusing on how the efforts to increase building energy efficiency, building safety, the home and workplace healthiness, and the comfort perceived by the users can be impaired by budget constraints, especially while operating in critical scenarios. On the one hand, restraints on capital expenditures by property owners and other investors affect the decision-making processes for the construction of new buildings or the renovation of existing ones. More beyond, rapidly developing demographic and other anthropological changes, as well as frequently occurred natural disasters, pose extra burdens on the players in the building industry and the real estate market. It has been a fact that the need to adapt to both budget constraints and challenging situations is seldom fully embedded in the studies focusing on improving building performance. Therefore, we call for attentions in research and publications to advocate for complementing the need. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conservation of historic libraries can be referred towards both the ancient book collections and the buildings themselves. Heritage collections made of paper are threaten by climate-induced deterioration risks such as cellulose hydrolysis. Several studies have investigated the microclimate inside historic libraries but comparisons are difficult due to the lack of long-term microclimate observations and uniformity in the use of standards and risk assessment methods. For the first time, the long-term microclimate observations collected in three historic libraries in Italy were comparatively studied to outline differences and similarities of their microclimates in terms of paper preservation. A multidisciplinary approach was applied to assess the building performance (a) and the deterioration risks for the collections (b). As for a), a common feature of the libraries was the high thermal inertia and low indoor-outdoor air exchanges. As for b), the Time Weighted Expected Lifetime (TWEL) was defined to account for an average chemical risk on a seasonal and yearly basis. TWEL allowed to highlight the impact of the most adverse conditions on the overall chemical risk for acidic paper preservation (e.g., temperatures above 20 °C reached naturally in summer/artificially in winter). It resulted that the measured microclimate conditions in the libraries would lead to the loss of their acidic collections in less than 300 years. Demographic plots were finally used to inform about the risk resulting from the synergy between handling and microclimate as well as to explore the effectiveness of possible preservation measures such as the deacidification of 10% of the collections. [Display omitted] • The long-term microclimate data in three historic libraries in Italy are comparatively studied. • The investigation includes microclimate characterisation and conservation risk assessment. • A multidisciplinary approach is used to evaluate building performance and paper deterioration. • The current microclimate in the libraries reduces the expected lifetime of acidic collections. • Restoration interventions might not be effective if the current microclimate is maintained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soft-switching technologies can effectively solve the problem of switching losses caused by increasing switching frequency of grid-connected inverters. As a branch of soft-switching technologies, load-side resonant soft-switching is a hotspot for applications of high-frequency inverters, because it has the advantage of achieving soft-switching without using additional components. However, the traditional PI control strategy based on the linear model is prone to destabilization and non-robust dynamic performance when large signal perturbation occurs. In this paper, a novel Passivity-Based Control (PBC) method is proposed to improve the dynamic performance of load-side resonant soft-switching grid-connected inverter. Besides, the model based on the Port Controlled Hamiltonian (PCH) model of the soft switching inverter is carried out, and the passivity-based controller is designed based on the established model using the way of interconnection and damping assignmentpassivity based control (IDA-PBC). Both stable performance and dynamic performance of the load-side resonant soft-switching inverter can be improved over the whole operating range. Finally, a 750 W load-side resonant soft-switching inverter simulation model is built and the output performance is compared with the traditional PI control strategy under stable and dynamic conditions. The simulation results show that the proposed control strategy reduces the harmonic distortion rate and improves the quality of the output waveforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to highlight a broader definition of good building performance that goes beyond the traditional emphasis on technical aspects, only adopting the lens of the social construction of technology (SCOT) in the empirical space of the workplace sector. Several building performance evaluation (BPE) methods focus on technical aspects such as energy consumption, indoor environmental conditions and compliance with building regulations and standards. Technical aspects, albeit important goals, only embed a partial component of what buildings are expected to deliver. There is growing interest in considering the organisational and experiential expectations of building performance, particularly integrating various views of performance as expected by different user groups. Design/methodology/approach: The paper adopts an archival research method to analyse the archive of the workplace consultants DEGW, particularly focusing on their work on London's Broadgate development in the 1980s and the 1990s. Findings: The findings reveal how voices from a pluralistic client organisation can be addressed to articulate a broad definition of building performance that integrates different viewpoints encompassing technical, organisational and experiential expectations. In DEGW's work, the views on building performance of various stakeholders involved in the everyday use and management of buildings are identified without imposing predetermined agendas or research notions of performance. Particular emphasis is given to understanding clients as not a homogenous entity but consisting of different interest groups, which implies multiple conceptualisations of building performance and the building itself. Research limitations/implications: The performance expectations of a building vary between organisations and even within any organisation. Moreover, the needs of an organisation will change over time, and the BPE criteria need to be changed to ensure better alignment between organisations and the physical spaces they occupy. A critical reflection on the conceptualisation of "users" and "building" in BPE methods is required to create an integrated approach towards building performance. Originality/value: The paper offers insights by adopting the theoretical lens of SCOT to explore an integrated approach to building performance that captures the varied needs of building users through the example of London's Broadgate development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the radial basis function neural network based on the orthogonal least squares (OLS-RBFNN) method is proposed for the first time for the calibration of the six-port receiver, which realises six-port accurate reception in the true sense. This algorithm overcomes the problems of an ageing circuit, narrow working frequency band and nonlinearity of the six-port receiver hardware. The RBFNN is a three-layer forward network, including an input layer, a hidden layer and an output layer. The transformation function of the hidden layer is the radial basis function. A six-port receiver test platform with an operating frequency band of 2.0–8.0 GHz is built to verify the performance of the six-port receiver based on OLS-RBFNN. The test signal is a 16-QAM signal with different bandwidths and different frequency bands. The test indicator uses error vector magnitude (EVM)， which represents the error between the received signal and the ideal signal sent. At last, the EVM of all tested data is less than 1.07%, and the best EVM is 0.57%. Therefore, the calibration accuracy of the OLS-RBFNN proposed in this paper is very high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jordan Museum is the most important modern archeological museum in Jordan. This paper assesses the quality of design and the visitors' satisfaction with the Jordan Museum. Also, it investigates which of the selected performance elements contribute most to visitors' satisfaction. Investigative Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) was used within a mixed methodology approach. A questionnaire was used for the quantitative part, complemented by other qualitative methods. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the design quality and visitors' satisfaction. Stepwise regression was used to detect which performance elements predict overall visitors' satisfaction. The design quality of the museum was rated as good, and its permanent galleries were exceptionally rated as excellent. The visitors were generally satisfied with the museum. Visitors were satisfied with the interior and exterior finish but were not impressed with the heavy use of stone in the façade. The simplicity of the museum layout made navigation easy, and visitors were satisfied with wayfinding. This paper is the first to use POE to assess the Jordan Museum. The findings can be used to enhance the management and operation of the Jordan Museum. Also, important performance elements can be developed into guidelines to guarantee effective museum designs in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of buildings not being designed and constructed in an operational friendly way has been recognised as a major problem among facilities managers in practice for a long time. In the building industry, there has been a hype for some years about Building Information Modelling (BIM) being the solution to bridge the information gap between building projects and building operation. The second paper focuses on construction management with the aim to improve project performance and building operation, including involvement of facilities managers in the construction process. [Extracted from the article]

Earthquakes could be a hazard to human lives and the economy, leading to catastrophic disaster unless proper preparation is not made for buildings and infrastructures. To prevent catastrophes from earthquakes, new engineering technologies and seismic evaluation methods have been being developed [[1]]. This Special Issue also included three important topics on seismic performance evaluation of building structures: (1) novel seismic performance evaluation methods, (2) advanced numerical model and analysis methods to conduct seismic performance evaluation, (3) seismic hazard estimation methods, and (4) seismic loss estimation. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: This paper explores the patterns of the current needs of users' social characteristics in post occupancy evaluation (POE) associated with the environmental performance of green buildings using systematic literature review (SLR). This paper aims to establish a conceptual nexus between environmental performance mandates and the current needs of the users' social characteristics. Design/methodology/Approach: This paper adopts a SLR approach designed using Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for 21 articles that were selected as qualitative synthesis in this study. The search parameter for the selected articles in this review was limited to publications in three databases, Scopus, Web of Science and Emerald, between January 2016 and January 2023, with the help of qualitative software ATLAS.ti 9© in the presentation of the network codes. The initial literature search has retrieved 99 papers which sequentially excluded 42 papers due to exclusion criteria, and the researcher was left with 57 papers. Out of 57, 14 papers were then removed due to duplication of records found in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, and 43 articles were further screened for qualitative synthesis. A thorough critical appraisal was applied to ensure that only selected papers were included, consensus was achieved among the authors and 22 papers were excluded. The qualitative synthesis has finalized 21 studies, and they are selected as confirmative findings. Findings: Using network codes presentation of ATLAS.ti 9©, the result shows that the social characteristics are influenced by the evaluated building category and the users' category – the stakeholders (owners, designers) and the occupants. New-fangled elements in environmental performance mandates are legitimacy and accessibility. The users' social characteristics are derived from the category of users, where the stakeholders (designers, owners) are relatively a novel benchmark in meeting the POE objectives towards environmental performance. The least attention on the users' social characteristics based on the findings shows that image, experiential (conjoint), happiness, interactive behaviour, morale and values are depicted as the social current needs in the environmental performance using POE. However, all stakeholders and the building occupants' social characteristics must have a confirmative relation to the performance mandates, especially for newly performance mandates elements: legitimacy and accessibility. Research limitations/implications: The research limits the literature search between the recent January 2016 and January 2023 in Scopus, Web of Science and Emerald databases. Limiting the year of publication to the recent years is important to select and rank relevant scientific papers which encompass the reviewed subject. Other limitations include the selection of papers focusing on the POE approach and environmental performance as the main subject of evaluation. Other evaluation purposes that are not related to environmental objectives are excluded in this study. Originality/value: The characteristics of the social elements become a challenging subject in meeting the environmental performance needs as they lean more towards intangible elements. The novelty of the findings is drawn from the new pattern and current needs of users' social characteristics in POE for environmental performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global navigation satellite system radio occultation (GNSS-RO) is an important means of space-based meteorological observation. It is necessary to test the Global Navigation Satellite System Occultation signal receiver on the ground before the deployment of space-based occultation detection systems. The current approach of testing the GNSS signal receiver on the ground is mainly the mountaintop-based testing approach, which has problems such as high cost and large simulation error. In order to overcome the limitations of the mountaintop-based test approach, this paper proposes an accurate, repeatable, and controllable GNSS atmospheric occultation simulation system and builds a load performance evaluation approach based on the ground-based GNSS atmospheric occultation simulation system on the basis of it. The GNSS atmospheric occultation simulation system consists of the visualization and interaction module, the GNSS-RO simulation signal generation module, the GNSS-RO simulator module, the GNSS-RO signal receiver module, and the GNSS-RO inversion and evaluation module, combined with the preset atmospheric model to generate GNSS-RO simulation signals with a high degree of simulation, and comparing the atmospheric parameters of the inversion performance of the GNSS-RO signal receiver with the parameters of the preset atmospheric model to obtain the error data. The overall performance of the GNSS-RO signal receiver can be evaluated based on the error information. The novel approach to evaluate the GNSS-RO signal receiver performance proposed in this paper is validated by using the FY-3E (FengYun-3E) receiver qualification parts that have been verified in orbit, and the results confirm that the approach can meet the requirements of the GNSS-RO receiver performance test. This study shows that the novel approach to evaluate the GNSS-RO signal receiver performance in terms of the ground-based atmospheric occultation simulation system can efficiently and accurately be used to carry out the receiver test and provides an effective solution for the ground-based test of GNSS-RO signal receivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The number of occupancy and occupant behaviour models developed for building performance simulation (BPS) has steadily increased for the past four decades. However, their use is still limited in practice. This is partly due to the difficulty in understanding their utility and to the challenges related to their implementation into BPS. Both problems can be attributed to the lack of a framework for their description and communication. In this paper, we fill this gap by introducing a framework to document occupant models, that represents the state-of-the-art of available information on the topic. The framework consists of four blocks (description, development, evaluation, and implementation) and can also be regarded as a guideline to help researchers communicate their models transparently. Based on a systematic review, we verify to which degree existing academic papers on occupant models meet the framework, thus providing a self-critical assessment of the state-of-the-art of occupant models' documentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessment methodologies such as BREEAM and LEED allocate points based on prescribed interventions that promote design features or strategies considered to be more sustainable than others. A focus on accumulating numerical scores, however, often fails to address pertinent contextual issues, particularly within developing countries. This paper examines the use of four assessment systems in Kenya—two international systems, LEED-US and Green Star SA-Kenya; and two locally developed systems, Green Mark Kenya and the Safari Green Building Index. The paper compares the relative weighting of different categories under each system, and assesses their appropriateness to a Kenyan context, with reference to the suitability of active technology versus passive design approaches. The paper examines selected examples of 'green' buildings in Nairobi, reflecting on the influence of different methods of assessment on the adopted design approaches. The paper argues that international rating systems, such as LEED, often focus on a Western construct of sustainability featuring a systematic bias towards global rather than local perspectives, with an emphasis on physical environmental factors. In pursuit of objectivity, the measurement of non-contextual parameters untailored to local circumstances (e.g., energy performance) is prioritised at the expense of those contingent on local conditions or climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to highlight the regulatory barriers to achieving sustainable buildings in Kosovo. The present paper focuses on regulatory barriers viewed from the perspective of construction industry experts in achieving sustainable buildings. Design/methodology/approach: The present study uses a qualitative research method and semi-structured interviews as a research instrument. The present study interviews around 20 experts in construction and property management, property development, spatial planning and energy management. Findings: The study finds that Kosovo building laws and regulations provide for the materials assessment criteria, but the materials assessment criteria are only for mechanic strength. The study further finds that the sustainability concept is not included and incorporated in Kosovo's urban planning laws and regulations. The study also finds that despite specific clauses mentioning energy performance certificates in the Law on Energy Performance of Buildings in Kosovo, energy performance certificates appears to be not enforced and the nature of the barrier is more organizational rather than regulatory. Finally, the study finds that Kosovo laws are silent as far as green labeling of building materials is concerned. Practical implications: The implication of the present finding is that policymakers in Kosovo not only should include clear sustainable materials assessment criteria in the law, but also enforce those criteria through testing and inspection mechanisms included in the law and implemented in practice through funding and organizational support. Nonetheless, policymakers in Kosovo should contemplate amending the urban planning laws in Kosovo and include both the term of sustainability at the planning level and conformity guidelines for sustainable design that can be done at the administrative directive level. Further, the clauses in the law do not suffice if the clauses are not accompanied by specific systemic and organizational support in the issuance of energy performance certificates. Policymakers in Kosovo should be proactive in designing clauses that specify green labeling standards for materials; however, these labeling standards should not adversely affect the cost of construction and reduce the demand for real estate. Originality/value: The study is the first qualitative study about the perception of construction professionals in Kosovo, regarding the regulatory barriers of sustainable buildings in Kosovo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically reviews the current building seismic design approach based on the observed performance of modern building stock in recent earthquakes, highlights the inability of the current design approach in controlling seismic damage and losses, and proposes a conceptual framework for next generation seismic design codes that is likely to meet public expectations. In addition to ensuring life-safety in rare earthquakes, the proposed loss-optimization seismic design approach also aims to ensure quick functional recovery and minimum loss (i.e. repair, downtime, and injury/fatality) in moderate-strong earthquakes by limiting damage to building's structural and non-structural components. Based on comparison of performances of building stock in some recent major earthquakes in different countries, the paper presents some simple strategies to render buildings more resilient and suffer significantly less seismic damage (and consequentially incur less loss). Finally, the paper scrutinizes the efficacy of some commonly used low-damage technologies in minimizing building seismic losses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building performance is a widely held goal in the architecture, engineering and construction industries, driven by a shared pursuit of the triple bottom line. This research paper re-examined the term 'performance' and its characterization in post-occupancy evaluation (POE) literature using a semi-systematic review of 160 articles published since 2008. The review identified how performance parameters have been defined, what the dominant attributes of studies are and what metrics have been used to measure them. A thematic content analysis found that many new priorities had emerged in recent years, problematizing Preiser et al.'s 1988 construct of the concept. The main contribution of this paper is a new expanded definition of 'performance' in terms of three interrelated domains: building, people and organization, and the development of subcategories for more nuanced analysis. This definition builds on the building performance-people performance paradigm first established by the UK's PROBE initiative and responds to several shifts in thinking the review results revealed, including a shift from deterministic thinking towards a more bidirectional understanding of the person-environment relationship. Results were further distilled into recommendations to be used by researchers, practitioners and policymakers to identify performance areas of interest and develop more adaptive, integrated approaches to POE work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper elaborates a future vision for building performance simulation and the contributions planned by IBPSA to enable it over time. The premise is that truly powerful support for the design and operation of the built environment can best be enabled by task sharing developments directed by an overarching vision of the ultimate goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A framework for color control in multiprimary tunable LED lighting systems is presented. Lighting performance measures for color, circadian, and temporal characteristics are reviewed, and color system modeling and solution approaches are introduced. Example multiprimary drive intensity solutions for three commercial LED systems are optimized for different lighting performance characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The special collection on Twenty Years of Advances in Disproportionate Collapse Research and Best Practices since 9/11/2001 is available in the ASCE Library (https://ascelibrary.org/jsendh/twenty years disproportionate collapse). Kong et al. ([8]) report their experimental and numerical findings on the progressive collapse behavior of scaled six-column subframe composite floor systems subjected to the removal of a side column. Beck et al. ([2]) target optimal required ratios of column-to-beam strengths in column loss situations, considering several failure modes and providing conceptual design recommendations to mitigate disproportionate collapse of frame structures. Three papers focus on advances in analysis and design methods for disproportionate collapse ([2]; [7]; [18]) and show that their limitations no longer are a barrier to disproportionate collapse-resistant design that they once were. [Extracted from the article]

This paper presents the development of the Workplace Survey on Occupant Perception, Satisfaction, and Adaptive Behavior (WSOPSAB) framework designed in the context of Indian office buildings. It is developed as a potential communication tool, providing a platform for occupants to share their valuable experiences, preferences, and comfort requirements with building operators. It also serves as a means to educate, build awareness, influence, and motivate occupants for pro-environmental behaviors, further contributing positively to building energy performance. The development of WSOPSAB is based on the energy performance gap between actual operational energy use and preconstruction energy performance predictions in green buildings. The selective literature review presented in this paper explores the performance gap and identifies occupants as key stakeholders whose actions and interaction systems within the building need an evaluation for achieving the projected performance targets. The paper also highlights the limitations in existing established methods to investigate various inquiry levels of building and occupant interaction systems like understanding occupants' perception and satisfaction scores, identifying uncomfortable conditions with preferences, linking uncomfortable conditions to adaptive behavior, and its overall impact on building energy performance, thus completing the whole loop of evaluations. The design of WSOPSAB aims to evaluate this complete loop of interaction system of occupants within the building space. Further, the paper discusses the parametric survey sections/domains, various uncomfortable conditions, and possible adaptive behavior that occupants may adopt through available space interfaces. At last, the paper concludes by discussing the further development and implementation of the WSOPSAB tool for various building typologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy-efficient and sustainable building management has always been a key concern surrounding buildings. The rise of environmental and social concern in today's world has brought more attention to the issue of sustainable and smart building management. This paper aims to review the state-of-the-art research and performance on building management that aims to make more sustainable and energy-efficient decisions. This paper classifies building management based on technologies utilized for management and different aspects of management that should be considered when regarding the larger picture of "sustainability". Additionally, while keeping in mind that long-term sustainability cannot be achieved through energy management alone, this research investigates previous works that also mention diverse aspects that must be taken into consideration when creating a truly successful smart building environment: costs, occupant comfort, and security. Of course, each field deserves an extensive analysis, but the purpose of this review paper is to deliver current research that has brought attention to the rapidly shifting and developing field of smart buildings to provide a macro-level holistic viewpoint on how smart buildings and homes should be approached from a sustainability viewpoint. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is in the transition period of urbanization, and the imbalance of land use generated during the original rapid development of megacities still exists, resulting in the preservation of a large number of urban villages in the peripheral areas of cities. Unlike formal housing, these villages are heavily influenced by the confrontation and interweaving between top-down policies of local governments and bottom-up spontaneous construction by local villagers, resulting in a diverse and complex status quo. At the same time, self-built housing in urban villages has become a gathering place for a large number of low-income migrants due to its relatively low rental prices. In terms of the research of urban villages on the current situation of housing, the real needs of users and housing performance are mostly subjective judgments and conclusions. Therefore, the entry point of this paper is the leased space and the leasers, taking Laojuntang Village in Chaoyang District of Beijing as the research object and analyzing its current problems and the real needs of users. This paper adopts an integrated approach of fuzzy Kano model evaluation and building performance simulation. After analyzing the data and discussing the influencing factors, this paper identifies the specific problems and user needs that exist in leased spaces in Laojuntang Village: (1) The architectural performance of leased space is a Must-be Quality, which is the bottom-line requirement and must be improved. (2) The quality of the basic facilities and equipment of the leased space is mostly a One-dimensional Quality, Attractive Quality, and the degree of importance is lower than that of the building performance. (3) The external activity facilities of the leased space are mostly undifferentiated needs, for which the local users are not particularly prominent. (4) The scale and plot ratio of local housing is relatively high, and users are dissatisfied and complaining, which falls under the category of Reverse Quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence highlighted the vulnerability of New Zealand light-frame wood buildings that are the predominant typology in residential construction. While life-safety performance was excellent, many buildings experienced widespread cracking of internal wall linings that resulted in costly repairs and disruption. Despite the widespread use of light-frame wood construction in New Zealand, no known shake table tests have been documented for this construction typology. Additionally, New Zealand light-frame wood building performance cannot simply be inferred from international testing because New Zealand adopts a different design philosophy from those of the US and Canada by relying on gypsum sheathing as the primary lateral resisting element. To further investigate New Zealand light-frame wood building performance, this paper discusses shake table testing of a light-frame wood building specimen, constructed on the University of Canterbury unidirectional shake table using modern New Zealand design and construction approaches. The observed damages during the tests were consistent with those observed in similarly built structures that were investigated after the 2010–2011 Canterbury earthquake sequence. This paper also presents a modeling approach using the state-of-the-art software Timber3D, which was verified by simulating the shake table specimen and comparing the observed and predicted dynamic response from the test specimen and model, respectively. The Timber3D modeling approach included analysis and parameterization of screw-slip data using the Evolutionary Parameter Hysteretic Model, formulation of two-dimensional wall component models, and nonlinear time history analysis of a three-dimensional model of the shake table specimen. The model was shown to reasonably predict the displacement response of the shake table specimen and the strength degradation from cracking damage through repeated earthquakes. The modeling approach described is intended to further the development of residential building models toward the performance-based seismic design of light-frame wood buildings in New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to climate change, Egypt has recently suffered from recurring electricity crises. Despite efforts made to increase electricity production in Egypt, recently, in the summer months, the energy demand has increased at unprecedented rates, especially in the housing sector. Therefore, the government and homeowners should work together to improve the energy performance of residential buildings. This paper aimed to develop a decision-making tool that helps homeowners choose optimal energy retrofit measures that suit their priorities. The study began with the data-collection and case study selection. Then, the thermal evaluation of the base case for dwellings in the case study was conducted through simulation runs using the DesignBuilder v7.1 software. Then, the optimal envelope energy retrofitting measures were determined, followed by a retrofitting-measure scenario simulation process. Then, the payback periods were calculated for all scenarios, and the tool database was developed using an Excel spreadsheet. Finally, the user interface for envelope energy retrofitting measures for gated communities (EERMGCs) tool was designed by Visual Basic for Applications. EERMGCs, the tool developed in this paper, is a simple, multi-objective and interactive tool that provides the optimal envelope retrofit measures according to user priorities, either a specific budget, the shortest payback period, the lowest possible costs, or the highest energy saving rate. The outcome of this research is developing a framework that can be considered a basis for developing decision-making tools for gated community housing in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent destructive earthquakes in Turkey (2023) with devastating effects have reawakened the discussion about seismic activity in Brazil and the vulnerability of the Brazilian buildings. Despite the lower magnitudes, national records should not be disregarded, as earthquakes with a magnitude below five may still cause loss of life and property damage. The assessment of existing RC buildings allows us to understand the performance of a structure during an earthquake and the adoption of mitigating measures. This paper preliminarily investigates the seismic vulnerability of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Brasilia, which was recognized as a World Heritage Site by ONU in 1987. The Rapid Visual Screening (RVS) procedure has been adopted for qualitative vulnerability assessment through the guidelines of the Japan Building Disaster Prevention Association at the procedure updated in accordance with the Brazilian reality. This research examined the structure under horizontal acceleration defined by national seismic code, and various scenarios are assumed as time aging, structural irregularities, and the level of importance of the structure. In this study, the Monte Carlo simulation is carried out to evaluate the level of safety. A performed analysis has shown that the examined building possesses the seismic capacity required against the expected earthquake motions. Even with reliability analysis, the structure achieves an acceptable level of safety. The results highlight the importance of a probabilistic approach to make reliable decisions on the conservation and rehabilitation of architectural heritage buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]