The construction industry is considered to have a high potential in achieving the sustainable development goals. The circular economy is a promising framework that supports the shift from a linear-construction industry to an environmental-friendly and efficient sector. On the other hand, there is a lack of effort in measuring the impact of construction-related activities on users and society. The gap is greater when the context of social impacts is related to circular and bio-based construction. For this purpose, a social impact assessment framework was developed in the Interreg 2 seas CBCI project and tested on a residential prototype: Living Lab (LL) Ghent. Under 13 impact categories relevant to 4 stakeholder categories, circular and bio-based construction materials and methods were assessed for production and construction phases. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through expert workshops and questionnaires. The results include identification of new indicators (urban mining, social economy, and post-intervention manuals) for several circular construction methods. The social impacts of the LL were discussed depending on each stakeholder category. It was seen that there are several positive impacts related to workers and the local community. Certain recommendations were also provided specifically on a construction-sector basis which may be integrated into existing social impact assessment guidelines.

The test lecture rooms on Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) Ghent Technology Campus (Belgium) are a demonstration case of Annex 62: Ventilative Cooling of the International Energy Agency’s Energy in Buildings and Communities programme (IEA EBC). The building is cooled by natural night ventilation and indirect evaporative cooling (IEC). Thermal comfort and the performances of ventilative cooling are evaluated. Long-term measurements of internal temperatures, occupancy, opening of windows and IEC were carried out in the cooling season of 2017. The airflow rates through the windows in cross- and single-sided ventilation mode were measured by both tracer gas concentration decay and air velocity measurements. In addition, the air flow pattern is visualized by measuring air temperatures in the room. The results show that good thermal summer comfort was measured except during heat waves and/or periods with high occupancy. Both nighttime ventilation and IEC operate very well. IEC can lower the supply temperature by day significantly compared to the outdoor temperature. The Air Changes Rates (ACR) of the night ventilation greatly depends on wind direction and velocity. The air temperature profile showed that the air is cooled down in the whole lecture but more in the upper zone. The extensive data monitoring system was important to detect malfunctions and to optimize the whole building performance.

One possible solution that mitigates the effects of climate change is the implementation of vertical greenery systems, which have the potential to reduce the need for cooling and provide energy savings for heating. This paper evaluates the effects of an innovative modular green wall on indoor temperature and energy use in a residential case study building. This research was carried out on a residential house in the city of Ghent, Belgium, whose southwest facade is covered with a specific type of modular green wall (a structure with a specific substrate and plants that have the ability to purify water so that it can be reused in the house). The monitoring process included four different temperatures (in front of and behind the green wall, in the substrate, and on the wall without greenery) during winter and summer periods. To analyze the effect on the internal temperature and energy use, a DesignBuilder simulation model was built and validated against these experimental results. This green wall has proven to have the greatest effect during the hottest summer days by reducing the indoor temperature by up to 3.5 °C. It also effectively increases the indoor temperature by up to 1.4 °C on a cold winter day, leading to energy savings of 6% on an annual basis.