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The aim of this study is to understand the environmental benefits and economic savings associated with adoption of circular economy in the construction sector. The research findings will support different stakeholders and decision makers to develop business models based on responsible consumption of resources and build sustainable business models.

The research uses mixed methodology wherein inventory for life cycle assessment and life cycle costing for environmental and economic impacts is based on primary data using on-site visits for qualitative and quantitative data.

Different types of land transportation infrastructures are compared for their environmental impacts. It is found that bridges have the highest environmental impacts as compared to tunnels, roads and railways. Further, the results affirm the environmental and economic benefits of adopting circular economy practices.

This is one of a kind research that compares the environmental and economic tradeoffs of adopting circular economy in different types of land transportation infrastructures.

VTT DIGITALO is an office building built for use by the VTT Technical research centre of Finland. The building project aimed at producing an office building and a modern workspace that supports an interactive way of working, emphasises the image of the user as a provider of high‐end technology solutions, and is in accordance with the principles of sustainable construction. The paper sets out to assess the project from the viewpoints of user‐requirements management and sustainable construction.

The study includes the following aspects: life‐cycle impacts, building performance and user satisfaction. The paper introduces the project targets, summarises the results, discusses the lessons learned, and makes recommendations for further research.

DIGITALO succeeded in achieving the targets stated for energy‐efficiency, adaptability, indoor conditions and service life, but there are problems with reference to pursued interactive and innovative workspaces. The results of the study emphasise the importance to develop requirement management methods that support the identification and understanding of user needs. The users' own understanding about the nature of work rather than directly expressed needs for workspaces should be considered as the starting‐point.

The DIGITALO project was considered as a milestone in a long‐term process that aims at the development of high‐quality facility and space services that are in accordance with the user needs, and based on understanding the strategic goals of the user. The DIGITALO case did not manage to achieve all the stated requirements, and the paper discusses the problematics of requirement management especially from the viewpoint of methods and tools needed.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate “best practice” building strategies and sustainability‐oriented techniques and tools used to assess the energy performance of housing developments. The objective is to propose guidelines that can integrate futures thinking into the selection of energy‐related design responses, such as materials, building components and energy systems, from the early project stages.

An interdisciplinary approach is adopted with the inclusion of social, economic and environmental aspects of the energy supply and demand. A multiple case study approach is employed, which focuses on the residential sector of European mixed‐use developments that represent sustainable communities of “best practice”.

The investigation of “best practice” housing developments reveals that the majority of design responses cover mainstream environmental design strategies. Energy efficiency measures are still the “low hanging fruit” towards meeting the sustainability objectives. In addition, established sustainability‐oriented techniques and tools used focus mostly on projections of almost certain facts rather than explorations of a portfolio of plausible futures.

The paper represents a shift away from the short‐term mindset that still dominates design and construction practices. It provides an overview of building strategies and decision‐support techniques and tools for improving and incentivising sustainable energy solutions over the long term.

This paper aims to highlight lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic for planning for the future of our ageing society. It looks at trends, changes in our society and implications for people of all ages. It focusses on the importance of planning and whether COVID-19 will lead to long-term changes.

This paper draws on the author’s experiences running an intergenerational organisation during the pandemic and other work associated with ageing well.

This paper highlights some of the risks and unknowns we face going forwards and points to lessons and opportunities for “building back better”.

This paper is based on a review of published articles and viewpoints.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged people of all ages in different ways, some of which have tested intergenerational solidarity. At the same time, the pandemic has raised issues which we must all address going forward: planning for future pandemics, planning for an ageing society and ensuring that future planning works for all generations. This paper explores all these themes in the light of lessons from COVID-19. Firstly, despite much risk assessment and scenario planning, we were not well placed in the UK or across the world to respond to the multiple challenges of COVID-19. Have we learned the lessons to be able to deal better with the inevitable pandemics that will follow in the future? It is also well documented that the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities in our society. What will the long-term impact be for longevity and will less healthy lives reverse the trend of increasing life expectancy? Secondly, what are the lessons for our ageing society? As life expectancy rises, what will the quality of life be like in those added years? Many of today’s babies can expect to have a 100-year life. What does that mean for the way we lead our lives and can we ensure that everyone can age well? Third, these are not just issues for older people, but for people of all ages and generations. The Covid-19 experience has been different for younger and older people – whether it has been health or job security, income, taxation or housing. Questions of intergenerational fairness have again raised their heads, alongside the longer term impact for future generations.

Firstly, despite much risk assessment and scenario planning, we were not well placed in the UK or across the world to respond to the multiple challenges of COVID-19. Have we learned the lessons to be able to deal better with the inevitable pandemics that will follow in the future? It is also well documented that the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities in our society. What will the long-term impact be for longevity and will less healthy lives reverse the trend of increasing life expectancy? Secondly, what are the lessons for our ageing society? As life expectancy rises, what will the quality of life be like in those added years? Many of today’s babies can expect to have a 100-year life. What does that mean for the way we lead our lives and can we ensure that everyone can age well? Thirdly, these are not just issues for older people, but for people of all ages and generations. Measures that bring older and younger people together and encourage meaningful mixing will help increase understanding and awareness between generations. This has huge implications for our society and communities.

This paper reaches two main conclusions. Firstly, the well-known saying: “failing to plan is planning to fail”. This applies to all the issues discussed in this paper re future pandemics, our ageing society and future generations. Secondly, the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic should be the catalyst for changing the way we live and lead to new beginnings. We cannot just carry on as before.

Sustainability is well understood to encapsulate economic, environmental and societal parameters. The efficiency of maintenance interventions for historic buildings is no exception and also conforms to these broad factors. Recently, environmental considerations for masonry repair have become increasingly important and this work supports this growing area. The purpose of this paper is to give insight on how an option appraisal approach of “Green Maintenance” modelling for historic masonry buildings repair practically determine and ultimately substantiate the decision-making process using a calculation procedures of life cycle assessment, within delineated boundaries.

Calculation procedures of the model enables an assessment of embodied carbon that is expended from different stone masonry wall repair techniques and scenarios for historic masonry buildings during the maintenance phase.

It recognises the importance roles Green Maintenance model can play in reducing carbon emissions and underpins rational decision making for repair selection.

It must be emphasised that the calculation procedures presented here, is not confined to historic masonry buildings and can be applied to any repair types and building form. The decisions made as a result of the utilisation of this model practically support environmentally focused conservation decisions.

The implementation of the model highlights the efficacy of repairs that may be adopted.

The paper is a rigorous application and testing of the Green Maintenance model. The model relays the “true” carbon cost of repairs contextualised within the longevity of the materials and its embodied carbon that consequently allows rational appraisal of repair and maintenance options.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the ability of “adaptable buildings” to respond to future potential built environment changes in sustainable way.

A detailed literature review and a case study were undertaken to identify the life cycle changes of typical buildings over a period of more than 100 years. In total, 12 semi-structured interviews were conducted among construction industry professionals to identify how adaptable buildings enhance sustainability within the built environment. Case study data were analysed through a Morphological Analysis, and the interview data were analysed through discourse analysis.

Out of the many adaptable features, the results revealed “change of use” as the dominant trend within the buildings of the selected urban cluster. More than 60 per cent of buildings have changed their original use during their life cycle. Around 10 per cent of them have changed their use frequently (every six year) during the last 20 years thereby signalling an increase in the rate of change. The positive contribution of adaptable buildings in achieving sustainability in terms of economic, social and environmental considerations, were confirmed through the analysis of semi-structured interviews.

This paper reports a longitudinal study spanning over 100 years, exploring the extent of building adaptation within a selected cluster of Liverpool city centre, UK. The study further confirms the need to incorporate adaptability as a key criterion when designing buildings. The increased rate at which “change of use” has occurred further reinforces the need. Lack of a track record of designing for reuse makes this an interesting challenge for the construction industry, hence likely to have significant implications for policy/strategy formulation.

For coastal bridges, the ability to recover traffic functions after the earthquake has crucial implications for post-disaster reconstruction, which makes resilience become a significant index to evaluate the seismic behavior. However, the deterioration of the material is particularly prominent in coastal bridge, which causes the degradation of the seismic behavior. As far, the research studies on resilience of coastal bridges considering multiple degradation factors and different disaster prevention capability are scarce. For further evaluating the seismic behavior of coastal bridge in the long-term context, the seismic resilience is conducted in this paper with considering multiple durability damage.

The fuzzy theory and time-varying fragility analysis are combined in this paper to obtain the life-cycle resilience of coastal bridges.

The results show that durability damage has a remarkable impact on the resilience. After 100 years of service, the seismic resilience of bridge with poor disaster-prevention capability has greatest reduction, about 18%. In addition, the improvement of the disaster prevention capability can stabilize the resilience of the bridge at a higher level.

In this paper, the time-varying fragility analysis of case bridge are evaluated with considering chloride ion erosion and concrete carbonization, firstly. Then, combining fuzzy theory and fragility analysis, the triangular fuzzy values of resilience parameters under different service period are obtained. Finally, the life-cycle resilience of bridge in different disaster prevention capability is analyzed.

Facility management (FM) is important to the business success of companies and organizations. Nowadays, teaching FM is often spread over several disciplines, including architecture, management, business, and construction. The purpose of this paper is to present a case study completed by a team of three graduate students in the course “Introduction to Facility Management,” offered by a large southern university in the USA in the spring 2007 semester.

The students studied several aspects of FM, such as strategic and tactical planning, space allocation, maintenance and repair, operations and energy management, benchmarking and condition assessment, and life cycle costs, in buildings on the university's campus. Assisted by the Office of the Vice President for Facilities and using software contributed by an external commercial engineering and construction company, the students collected the data and conducted the analyses shown in this paper as part of their tasks for the course.

Structured and organized FM has the potential to improve the physical performance and appearance of a building and its systems, as well as to increase the users' level of satisfaction, and to improve the efficiency with which the building is maintained and operated.

This course offered the students an opportunity to encounter real problems and dilemmas that facility managers witness on a daily basis. Students were asked to offer creative solutions to these dilemmas.

The concepts of teaching FM are discussed in this paper, and demonstrated through real life cases.