Advances in Building Adaptive Re-design and Retrofit for Sustainable, Resilient Property

Dear Colleagues,

Building and retrofittng our built environment has to take into account the chronic and acute stresses that impact our built environment. These forces of change include floods, heatwaves, climate change, pandemics, and economic stagnation, and the result is premature obsolesence. Whilst a building may not have reached the end of its physcial life, obsolescence renders it partially or fully vacant. Vacancy can result in demolition, with serviceable materials going to landfill. Sustainable and resilient adaptive reuse and retorftting offer the opportunity to extend the life of the building, thereby retaining some embodied energy and materials and a means of meeting sustainable development goals.

Recent COVID-19 experiences have raised awaresness of the need for resilience and crisis preparedness in society. This Special Issue covers the known future risks affecting the built environment globally and uncovers emerging trends. The research incorporated investigates the effects of chronic and acute stresses concerning requirements for space and land use and explores various viewpoints in resilience strategies and management.

This Special Issue covers impacts caused by different chronic and acute crisis factors to gain a deeper understanding of the ways buildings could, and should, be used and managed to support different stakeholders (including households, office workers, owners, renters, occupants, and public and private sector organisations). Papers should cover theoretical aspects and present options and solutions at the space, building, and community level to promote a sustainable resilient built environment. 

Factors such as location, design, materials, technical solutions, and community structures should be used to evaluate different land and property solutions from floor plans, to space allocation, flexibility and adaptive reuse potential. Critical services that support towns and cities, such as food and energy supply, will be included. This Special Issue will feature contributions that develop sustainable, resilient policies, regulations, management practices and solutions for our built environment, helping to develop a deeper understanding of chronic and acute crises and studying their impacts. 

Prof. Dr. Sara Jane Wilkinson
Dr. Anahita Rashidfarokhi
Dr. Hilde Remøy
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• sustainability
• resilience
• adaptive reuse
• social sustainability
• real estate
• urban food
• resilience policies
• resilience strategies
• retrofit