TOPICS

Cities are becoming increasingly affected by climate change while also being one of its major contributors. Since more sustainable and resilient design approach represents a key challenge for the near future, the Next-Generation built environment will most likely focus on regenerative design, adaptation rather than mitigation, and the ability to deal with uncertainty in both acute and chronic ecosystems and communities’ status.
How to drive this transition? Which the key priorities and which the barriers?

Keywords:

Adapting building design, construction, and operation to climate goals
Improving resilience of the built environment
Regenerative design strategies for tomorrow cities
Coping with extreme climate conditions
Outdoor microclimate

The building sector accounts globally for about 33% of the total primary energy demand. This makes the achievement of the 2050 planned carbon neutrality very challenging according to the current decarbonization pathway. Both additional technological improvements and more conscious individual behaviours are expected to be integrated in forthcoming design solutions for achieving this goal.
Which ideas, design concepts, digital tools and innovations can accelerate the transition to a lower-carbon and more energy-efficient future?

keywords:

Efficient use of resources and passive strategies
Net-zero energy and carbon-neutrality in new and existing buildings
Monitoring devices and end-user energy feedback
Indoor comfort standards and perception
User-building interaction capacity

While sustainable design is driving buildings to become increasingly more efficient, the conventional relation between operational and embodied energy is progressively re-balancing. Furthermore, the service life of building systems and components is rapidly evolving according to a life cycle perspective. This requires adopting a positive attitude that goes beyond minimizing negative environmental impact, increasing the positive one on both the environment and society.
What measures, approaches, procedures, and tools can support this transition?

keywords:

Embodied Energy vs Operational Energy
Environmental Impact Assessment in buildings and cities
Life cycle assessment tools and procedures
Environmental impact assessment systems
Service life of building components and systems

The pace of innovation in the building sector as well as the extraordinary societal and climatic crisis that we are facing today call for a deep reflection about the way we conceive and manage the built environment. The complexity of the current socio-economic circumstances calls for multi-level and multi-criteria approaches to effectively predict, simulate, and assess the features of the built environment at the different scales particularly considering the need for circular systems.
Which tools and practices should be adopted to effectively manage this change?

keywords:

Integrative design process
Embedding circular principles into building design process
Strategies, decision-support tools and assessment methods
Predictive models and support strategies
Simulation tools and scenario modelling

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