Current Issue

Systemic inequalities in indoor air pollution exposure

Buildings and Cities in partnership with UCL, have launched a press release on their recent publication "Systemic inequalities in indoor air pollution exposure in London, UK" by Ferguson et al.

Exposure to air pollution is one of the greatest health risks in many countries, for example causing an estimated 28,000 – 36,000 premature deaths a year in the UK. Low-income households are exposed to higher levels of outdoor and indoor air pollution. What leads to these indoor exposure inequalities and what can be done to reduce them?

Read the full report on the Buildings and Cities website.

Housing Adaptability

Guest Editors: Sofie Pelsmakers (Tampere U) and Elanor Warwick (Clarion Housing Association)

Deadline for abstract submission: 7 JUNE 2021

Full details downloadable here

Over the past 40+ years, the size of urban dwellings has diminished in many Western and Asian countries, resulting in negative impacts on residents’ needs and activities. At the same time, an increasing range of activities is expected to be performed at home. One set of possible solutions involves increasing the adaptability of spaces within the dwelling. Other solutions may reconsider the relation between domestic privacy and public cohabitation / shared facilities.

Aims
This special issue will explore multiple perspectives for both developed and developing countries:

• concepts of adaptability in housing and their implications across a range of issues, scales (e.g internal or external rooms, dwelling, building, immediate neighbourhood and city scale).
• the potential for existing and new housing to become more adaptable over time and its implications at different scales and for different stakeholders.
• drivers and barriers to implementing housing adaptability, including Open Building lessons (Habraken 1972, Kendall 1999).
• improving the longevity of buildings and the circular economy through adaptability (cf. ISO 20887:2020).
• how residents may overcome unadaptable spaces.
• the benefits and unintended consequences that may arise.
• what shapes inhabitants’ needs, perceptions and expectations for adaptable spaces.
• the trade-offs of adaptable designs (e.g. costs, embodied / operational energy, redundant features, smaller units …).

Many different drivers (and approaches) exist including the following areas:

• Environmental adaptability
• Spatial adaptability
• Social adaptability
• Multi-use and multi-user adaptability
• Adaptability across scales and disciplines

Papers in this special issue address topics including but not limited to:Concepts and evidence

• Forensic historical studies investigating adaptations in the housing stock over time and how this can inform the future.
• Identifying historical trends in adaptation and how changing housing typologies shape the nature of domestic activities.
• Adaptable characteristics that contribute to the longevity of housing.
• Evidence about the need, desirability, advantages, disadvantages, drivers and barriers for adaptable living environments now and in the future.
• Different concepts of housing adaptability and the contribution to ‘social infrastructure’, occupants’ health, long-term sustainability and future-proofing of housing stock and how it shapes the nature of domestic activities.
• What are the (environmental, social, societal, financial) costs of providing (and not providing) adaptable housing?
• New housing models (e.g. shared spaces, cohousing, sharing economy, airbnb) and facilitating social adaptability.
• Defining criteria for housing adaptability and tools for assessing it.
• Defining standards e.g. for space (internal, external, storage), daylight, etc. that acknowledge future adaptability.

Policy and governance

• What is the role of policy-makers in creating the conditions for delivering adaptable housing?
• What policy mechanisms (planning, regulations, space standards) are needed to support adaptable housing design?
• What policy shortcomings obstruct flexible housing?
• What current standards prevent or facilitate future adaptability (e.g. building services, daylight, planning use classes, etc.)?

Design and construction

• What are the roles of the supply side (clients, developers, urban planners, architects, building service engineers, contractors, estate management, furniture makers, etc) in creating and delivering adaptable housing?
• What barriers within the supply side inhibit adaptable housing? How can these be overcome?
• Co-creation: adapting housing delivery and increasing residents’ personalisation of their homes i.e. self-build / self-finish.
• Design and construction stages being responsive to in-use / post-occupancy flexibility.
• Reconciling potential trade-offs between different adaptability concepts.

Inhabitants

• Demand: what is the value to residents? What economic value is placed on housing flexibility?
• What is the importance to occupants to modify mass housing?
• Analysis of the connection between adaptability concepts and post-occupancy evaluation; how residents adapt their behaviours to accommodate physical housing limitations.

Timeline

Deadline for abstract submission: 07 June 2021
Full papers due: 04 October 2021
Referees' comments: 24 January 2022
Final version due: 28 February 2022
Publication: April 2022
Note: papers are published as soon as they are accepted and therefore some papers will progress faster and appear in advance of the whole issue.

MORE INFORMATION
Submission details and further information:
https://www.buildingsandcities.org/calls-for-papers/housing-adaptability.html

Modern methods of construction: beyond productivity improvement

Guest Editor: Stuart D. Green (University of Reading)

Deadline for abstract submission: 13 SEPTEMBER 2021

Full details downloadable here

What are the potential unintended consequences of modern methods of construction which are not currently considered?

This special issue investigates the externalities of modern methods of construction (MMC). It examines the dominant narrative used to promote MMC. Although an increased proportion of pre-manufactured value (PMV) may improve narrowly-defined site-based ‘productivity’, evidence is needed on the associated externalities and potential long-term adverse systemic consequences. What can be learned from previous attempts to modernise the construction process with industrialised methods?

Aim

The aim of this special issue is to examine the assumptions underpinning the prevailing ‘presumption in favour’ of MMC. Contributions will provide evidence about the externalities which lie beyond the narrowly-defined construct of productivity. Priority will be given to empirical papers aimed at exploring the systemic consequences of an ever-increasing proportion of PMV in construction. The special issue is open to a range of quantitative and qualitative research methods using primary and/or secondary data. Contextualised case studies are especially welcome.

Beyond productivity improvement

The definition of MMC remains problematic, but an emerging consensus is that MMC is best understood on the basis of pre-manufactured value (PMV) – i.e. the proportion of offsite construction as a percentage of the total measured works. But as yet there is little research which extends beyond the traditional drivers of time, cost, quality and productivity. Much of the research which does exist comprises opinion surveys on levels of adoption, and perceived barriers to implementation. What remains largely unexplored are the temporal externalities which extend beyond the construction phase. Little evidence exists on the implications of MMC for the material fabric of the built environment. There is also a recurring reluctance to learn the lessons of the past. This is of particular concern within the context of housing, although it applies equally to other sectors.

Scant research and data exist on the implications of MMC for the performance and longevity of buildings, and their ability to respond over time to shifting societal and occupant needs. The durability and adaptability of buildings are of central importance for resource consumption and for the achievement of a net-zero carbon economy. Particular concerns relate to environmental performance and occupant wellbeing After London’s Grenfell Tower fire, there are also significant concerns regarding the implications of MMC for fire safety.

Notwithstanding the above, any significant increase in the proportion of PMV is also likely to have systemic consequences for the economic structure of the sector. Particular concerns relate to employment practices and the potentially adverse implications for skills within local communities. The increasing emphasis on PMV further exposes the construction sector to competition from global manufacturing firms, with significant implications for the barriers to entry and the national balance of payments. Additional questions relate to lack of transparency in global supply chains, with direct implications for the risk of labour exploitation. Outsourcing sub-assembly processes to geographically remote locations can reduce standards of environmental protection.

Topics include:

• Business models
• Macro-economic implications
• Environmental impacts
• Building fabric
• Quality and liability
• Governance
• Employment and skills

Timeline

Deadline for abstract submission: 13 September 2021
Full papers due: 01 February 2022
Referees' comments: 29 March 2022
Final version due: 27 May 2022
Publication: July 2022
Note: papers are published as soon as they are accepted and therefore some papers will progress faster and appear in advance of the whole issue.

MORE INFORMATION
Submission details and further information:
https://www.buildingsandcities.org/calls-for-papers/cfp-mmc.html

Alternatives to air conditioning: policies, design, technologies, behaviours

Guest Editors:
Brian Ford (Nottingham U), Dean Mumovic (UCL), Rajan Rawal (CEPT University)

Deadline for abstract submission: 12 APRIL 2021

Full details downloadable here

This special issue explores alternative approaches to providing thermal comfort and ventilation in different climatic zones across the world at the scales of building, neighbourhood and city. It considers the implications of these alternatives across a range of issues: health, wellbeing, air quality and heat stress; technical / design solutions; social expectations and practices; climate change; policy and regulation; supply chain and procurement; education and training. It includes a range of disciplines: geography, sociology, anthropology, behavioural sciences, architecture, engineering, public health, economics, energy and environmental assessment.

In urbanised areas, there is an opportunity to break the current dependency on air conditioning. The design of cities, neighbourhoods and buildings can ensure ventilation and thermal comfort by climate friendly means. Retrofit opportunities for the existing building stock can make existing buildings comfortable without increasing energy demand. The design of new buildings and their environs can reduce or eliminate the need for air conditioning.

Equally important are the responses of the many different actors that promote or inhibit adoption - policy makers, clients, construction professions and the supply chain (development and procurement). Key questions include:

• What constitutes a national cooling action plan?
• How resilient should buildings and cities be to a warmer world?
• How resilient to heat should buildings be if energy supply is disrupted?
• What role do professionals and the supply chain have in implementing change?

Topics include:

• Urban design issues - planning (building height, configuration, materials, external shading, over-shadowing, urban heat island, vegetation and open spaces, etc), effects on ventilation and cooling.
• Neighbourhood design - particularly microclimates (scale, shading, air movement, open space, trees and vegetation, urban ‘oases’).
• Building design – spatial configurations of buildings to help achieve comfort, the performance and outcomes of new build and retrofit across a range of building types and technologies (see below), their design integration aspects, their impact on building morphologies, occupant agency (see below) and feedback. Reduction of loads e.g. shading, buffer zones, orientation, optimal window opening sizes, etc), advanced natural ventilation, wind tower systems, etc. Building materials and techniques.
• Social behaviours & inhabitant agency - how people actually inhabit buildings and cities. Patterns of occupation and practices inside and outside buildings include seasonal and diurnal adaptation which impact the need for cooling (e.g. the traditional siesta), communication of appropriate information on how to operate the building.
• Cooling technologies and their application - examination different technologies (performance, economics, whole life impacts, etc) and their integration: natural ventilation, evaporative cooling, radiant cooling, night time cooling , ice cooling, ground water cooling, thermal mass and cooling, negawatt cooling.
• Demographics - analysis increasing demand for air conditioning due to affluence, disparities within countries of a/c unit ownership, people adversely affected / made vulnerable now or in future climate scenarios.
• Economics - macro analysis of different thermal comfort scenarios (capital and operating costs vs societal costs e.g. health, environmental, social impacts).
• Policy, regulation & standards - what shifts & incentives are needed at individual building, neighbourhood and city scales to encourage buildings without mechanical systems, to create appropriate internal temperature targets, to protect the “commons” (e.g. eliminate waste heat from a/c), to provide planning for appropriate shading, ventilation, green infrastructure at neighbourhood & city scales.
• Public health - comparison of mechanical vs non-mechanical ventilation: airborne infectious transmission rates, air movement patterns in rooms and buildings, CO2 concentration & air pollutants, the physiology of adaptive comfort, the influence of neighbourhood microclimate and the incidence/transmission of infectious disease.
• Energy use and environment impacts – impacts of a/c on energy demand, peak energy and GHG emissions.
• Public attitudes – the anthropology of cooling, the current and changing expectations for cooling: thermal pleasure, cooling desire, air conditioning and ‘development’, public attitudes to cooling in warm places.
• Market transformation – analysis of current and alternative development & procurement models. Standard models reward developers for creating a/c buildings. What new models are needed for rewarding low energy alternatives, e.g cooling as a service (CAAS)? The business case for alternative approaches.
• Education & training - What are the roles of individual teachers / staff in leading change? What resistance and difficulties do they meet? How can educators overcome these barriers?
• Certification - are different / alternative processes of certification required for alternative cooling systems? Do professionals and vocational workers need different / additional / alternative qualifications to show they have appropriate skills?

Timeline

Deadline for abstract submission: 12 April 2021
Full papers due: 01 September 2021
Referees' comments: 01 December 2021
Final version due: 01 February 2022
Publication: April 2022
Note: papers are published as soon as they are accepted and therefore some papers will progress faster and appear in advance of the whole issue.

MORE INFORMATION
Submission details and further information:
https://www.buildingsandcities.org/calls-for-papers/alternatives-air-conditioning.html