Buildings & Cities is an international, open access, peer-reviewed academic journal publishing high-quality research and analysis on the interplay between the different scales of the built environment: buildings, blocks, neighbourhoods, cities, building stocks and infrastructures. The journal focuses on built environment policy, practices and outcomes and the range of human development, economic, environmental, political, social and technological issues occurring over the full life cycle in urban, suburban and rural contexts. It provides a platform for insights that can help improve the built environment.
Buildings & Cities aims to make research accessible and relevant to academics, policymakers, practitioners, clients, and occupants.
More detailed information can be found at www.buildingsandcities.org.
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:
Topics include:
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
Posted on 11 Feb 2021
We are pleased to announce that B&C has been formally approved for inclusion in The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The journal has been awarded DOAJ's 'SEAL OF APPROVAL' that is given to only 10% of eligible publications.
DOAJ is a long-standing mark of journal quality. Inclusion is only open to journals with high quality editorial process and transparency, complexity of peer review, easy and freely available articles in open access publishing mode.
All peer-reviewed content in Buildings & Cities will be indexed in the DOAJ. This means B&C is Plan S compliant.
Buildings & Cities was awarded the DOAJ Seal of Approval for demonstrating best practice in open access publishing.
Posted on 07 Sep 2020
Guest Editors: Jonathon Taylor (Tampere U) and Philippa Howden-Chapman (U of Otago)
Deadline for abstract submission: 30 July 2020
Cities are complex systems with interactions between various factors e.g.: urban density, ‘green’ infrastructure and open space, housing, transport, waste management, water and sanitation, air quality, health systems, and city governance. With an increasing majority of the global population now inhabiting urban areas, it is essential that cities reduce their environmental footprints and increase their resilience to environmental change whilst protecting and promoting planetary health.
This special issue seeks to explore how cities can address the multiple challenges of health and sustainability. This involves the development and implementation of evidence-informed solutions in a variety of different contexts (mature cities, rapidly expanding urban areas, shrinking cities, and informal settlements; Global North and Global South); political systems (high centralised, decentralised, autocratic, democratic) and scales (city, neighbourhood, street, building). Papers are sought on a variety of topics that model, track or evaluate the effectiveness and outcomes of different policies or practices, as well as the interaction between various systems.
Evidence is sought from different contexts from which we expect distinctions, complementarities and comparisons to be drawn for informing equitable development pathways for improving sustainability and public health in cities. In particular, we are interested in research that accelerates the implementation of large-scale ‘transformational’ changes that improve health and sustainability in low-, middle- and high-income settings, and across different socioeconomic and demographic groups.
Papers in this special issue address key urban topics including but not limited to:
Timeline
Deadline for abstract submission: 30 July 2020
Full papers due: 30 January 2021
Referees’ comments: 09 April 2021
Final version due: 01 June 2021
Publication: August 2021
Download the full Call for Papers here.
Posted on 27 Apr 2020
Guest Editors: Faye Wade (U of Edinburgh) and Henk Visscher (TU Delft)
Deadline for abstract submission: 13 July 2020
What are the capabilities and capacities for delivering retrofit at scale?
This special issue explores the accelerated delivery of domestic energy retrofitting at different scales – national, municipal, neighbourhood and individual sites. It will interrogate governance, economic / business, organisational, social and technical aspects and their interactions: existing planning capabilities; available building stock data and what more is needed; rural and urban retrofit strategies; the roles, capabilities and capacities of existing and new actors / enterprises in delivering retrofit (e.g. local authorities, urban planners, construction professionals, contractors and subcontractors); how can renovation elements be produced in an industrialised way to increase capacity and reduce costs; the economic, social, political, legislative, regulatory aspects of delivery models; what owners or inhabitants require; forms of user engagement; what future proofing is appropriate; what requirements and guarantees will ensure performance in use. There will be insights across different scales and geographical contexts as well as top-down vs bottom-up models. Distinctions & complementarities will be drawn for policies and delivery strategies for different scales, stakeholders, inhabitants and disciplines.
Papers in this special issue will address key questions and offer solutions in these areas:
Timeline
Deadline for abstract submission: 13 July 2020
Full papers due: 11 January 2021
Referees’ comments: 22 March 2021
Final version due: 10 May 2021
Publication: July 2021
Download the full Call for Papers here.
Posted on 26 Apr 2020