Inevitably, the 21st century has initiated a series of developments in the construction industry, leading to its digitalization and resulting in a series of innovative approaches and practices. At the same time, the construction industry, being one of the main global environment polluters, should fulfil well-established, as well as novel, sustainability requirements in order to evolve in harmony with the rising concerns on the availability of natural resources. This overview study aims to present the main developments, research, and scientific challenges in the field of sustainable construction, emphasizing the field of energy. The study aims to present a state-of-the-art scientific discussion on the sustainable built environment topic by analyzing cutting edge topics in the fields of building elements and whole building energy assessment, of indoor air quality and low carbon buildings, as well as on sustainable energy systems and smart buildings. The study also presents the state-of-the-art in existing tools which are adopted for the assessment of the sustainable built environment, including the use of digital tools and building information modelling for the energy assessment of the built environment, as well as the application of Life Cycle Assessment on building-related processes. Cross cutting issues related to the analysis of the building sector in the Industry 4.0 era, such as sustainability management topics and environmental geomatics are also discussed. The study concludes in those fields which will be of interest of the scientific community in the following years, towards achieving the goals of the sustainable development of the building sector.

Automated construction progress monitoring using as-planned building information modeling (BIM) and as-built point cloud data integration has substantial potential and could lead to the fast-tracking of construction work and identifying discrepancies. Laser scanning is becoming mainstream for conducting construction surveys due to the accuracy of the data obtained and the speed of the process; however, construction progress monitoring techniques are still limited because of the complexity of the methods, incompleteness of the scanned areas, or the obstructions by temporary objects in construction sites. The novel method proposed within this study enables the extracting of BIM data, calculating the plane equation of the faces, and performing a point-to-plane distance estimation, which successfully overcomes some limitations reported in previous studies, including automated object detection in an occluded environment. Six datasets consisting of point clouds collected by static and mobile laser scanning techniques including the corresponding BIM models were analyzed. In all the analyzed cases, the proposed method automatically detected whether the construction of an object was completed or not in the as-built point cloud compared to the provided as-planned BIM model.

Similar to other cold climate countries, space heating and domestic hot water (DHW) accounts form the largest share of household energy demand in Lithuania. Heat pump technology is considered to be one of the environmentally friendly solutions to increase energy efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. Heat pumps have been finding their way into the Lithuanian market since 2002, and currently there are many good practice examples present in the country, especially in the residential and public sectors. Heat pump use is economically advantageous in the Baltic Region, and the market share of these systems is growing. Studies have reported seasonal performance factor (SPF) ranges within 1.8 and 5.6. The lower SPF values are typically attributable to air source heat pumps, whereas the higher efficiency is achieved by ground or water source heat pump applications. While the traditional heat pump techniques are well established in the region, there is a slow uptake of new technologies, such as solar-assisted heat pumps, absorption heat pumps and heat pumps integrated into foundations, tunnels or diaphragm walls. This paper provides a critical review of different heat pump technologies, using Lithuania as a cold climate case study to overview the market trends within the European context. Potential trends for the heat pump technology development in terms of application areas, cost-benefit predictions, as well as environmental aspects, are discussed.

Indoor climate affects health and productivity of the occupants in office buildings, yet in many buildings of this type indoor climate conditions are not well-controlled due to insufficient heating or cooling capacity, high swings of external or internal heat loads, improper control or operation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, etc. However, maintenance of good indoor environmental conditions in buildings requires increased investments and possible higher energy consumption. This paper focuses on the relation between investment costs for retrofitting HVAC equipment as well as decreased energy use and improved performance of occupants in office buildings. The cost-benefit analysis implementation algorithm is presented in this paper, including energy survey of the building, estimation of occupants dissatisfied by key indoor climate indicators using questionnaire survey and measurements. Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) analysis is used in the proposed method for data processing. A case study of an office building is presented in order to introduce an application example of the proposed method. Results of the study verify the applicability of the proposed algorithm and TOPSIS analysis as a practical tool for office building surveys in order to maximize productivity by means of cost efficient technical building retrofitting solutions.

During the past decades, large windows and glazed façades have become an important part of modern architecture and they are designed frequently in both public and residential buildings. However, besides the positive effect of such a design on building occupants, large windows may cause thermal discomfort. Cold inner window surface may generate draught in the occupied zone. Thermal comfort in rooms is usually assessed by measuring air temperature, relative humidity, air velocity and heat transfer due to radiation. In this study computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods have been used to investigate these phenomena. Air movement caused by cold vertical window surfaces was evaluated and its impact on thermal comfort conditions in rooms have been outlined. Windows of different constructions and having different heat transmission coefficients were modelled (2.4, 1.6 and 1.0 W/m2K). CFD predictions showed that even in cases of low window thermal transmittance coefficient (U value), thermal discomfort ... Santrauka Dideli langai ir stiklo fasadai tapo neatsiejama šiuolaikiškos architektūros dalis. Jie projektuojami ne tik visuomeniniuose, bet ir individualiuose namuose. Nekalbant apie teigiamus tokios architektūros aspektus, dideliu matmenu langai gali tapti šiluminio diskomforto priežastis. Už patalpos ora vesesnis vidinis stiklo paviršius sukelia žemyn nukreipta oro srauta, kuris tam tikru greičiu patenka i žmoniu gyvenamaja arba darbo zona. Vesiu stiklo paviršiu sukeltu oro sroviu intensyvumas priklauso nuo lango šiluminiu savybiu, jo konstrukcijos bei šildymo prietaisu irengimo vietu. Dažniausiai mikroklimato salygos patalpose vertinamos matuojant oro temperatūra, santykini dregni, oro judruma ir šilumos mainus spinduliavimu. Straipsnyje pristatomas tyrimas, kuriam buvo pasitelktas kompiuterinis oro judejimo modeliavimas (skaitiniai skysčiu ir duju dinamikos metodai). Buvo tiriama oro judejimo patalpose priklausomybe nuo langu bei stiklo fasadu konstrukciju ir šiluminiu savybiu. Modeliuojant ivertinti ...

The article presents the results of analysis and perspectives for the application of Building Information Modeling (BIM) for the selection of effective organizational, technological, and technical solutions in the elimination of the emergency destruction of large-panel buildings as a result of military actions. It has been established that information–mathematical modeling and the usage of a database on typical destructions can improve the work efficiency and safety of the liquidation of emergency destructions of buildings. Moreover, it enables the scaling and identification of the optimal option of emergency stabilization, as well as organizational, technological, and technical actions that have to be urgently taken to prevent the loss of life or collapse of large-panel buildings after massive damage due to shelling and other military actions. Information–mathematical modeling is explored as the key enabler of assessment and decision-making, while typically there is limited access to the survey object and a lack of information about its condition. The case of a large-panel building in Ukraine damaged as a result of a gas explosion was used for the development of the information–mathematical model and for demonstrating the proposed approach. In post-war times, the use of the presented methodology will allow a rapid assessment of the technical condition of buildings and stabilization strategy selection, including the periodicity of monitoring needs and times of repairs.