En el ámbito arquitectónico y urbano, los temas de sustentabilidad y ahorro energético no solamente se han convertido en temas de investigación recurrente en los últimos años, sino que son una prioridad en la aplicación, por lo que toda práctica sustentable y con potencial de conservación o reducción del gasto energético debería considerarse como una opción prioritaria al momento de la toma de decisiones. Este artículo presenta una serie de reflexiones e información importante en torno a las posibilidades de reciclaje o reúso creativo que tienen los espacios, estructuras e inmuebles subutilizados o abandonados para, a partir de ellos, lograr reactivar sectores urbanos constituyendo una infraestructura detonadora favorecedora de procesos de resiliencia urbana. La intención es hacer reflexionar sobre las ventajas de la aplicación de esta práctica de reciclaje arquitectónico y urbano y resaltar los logros que ésta ha alcanzado.

El enfoque de movilidad sustentable considera, entre otros, el ciclo de vida de los medios de transporte utilizados. Al final de su vida útil, estos vehículos generan grandes volúmenes de residuos sólidos. En este artículo se analiza la posible extensión de la vida útil de medios de transporte público en desuso a través de un anteproyecto arquitectónico con una segunda alternativa de uso. Se propone el uso de equipamiento bioclimático en elementos con potencial de reutilización. Se aplican diversas herramientas, como la Matriz de Leopold, para ponderar sus potenciales impactos contrastando el uso de materiales comunes. Los hallazgos demuestran el impacto positivo significativo de la reutilización de las unidades. Se concluye que el desarrollo de la alternativa de reutilización es positivo en los tres componentes, físico, biológico y socioeconómico, en comparación con una alternativa similar analizada con especificaciones de materiales de uso común en la zona.

Passive design strategies in buildings have been lost over the years being replaced by active systems. The energy demand for active systems in buildings have increased more and more contributing extensively to the environmental problems. Return to passive strategies in buildings design is a promising way for improving comfort and reducing energy demand. Passive strategies can be learned from traditional or old buildings in each climate zone. In this study the focus was on testing the performance of night ventilation for cooling an old building with some optimal characteristics but under extreme summer conditions in a desert climate. That is why a kitchen, which usually performs without air conditioning, was selected and monitored. Three ventilation schemes were tested: with windows closed day and night, with windows opened day and night with assisted night ventilation and with controlled windows with assisted night ventilation. Based on the results of the three ventilation schemes it is seen that night ventilation together with controlled windows allows matching indoor with outdoor average temperatures, that is, decreasing indoor average temperature about 3.6°C compared with the no ventilation scheme. It also helps to decrease indoor maximum temperatures in about 1.3°C compared with the no ventilation scheme. Although night ventilation helped lower indoor temperatures under extreme summer conditions it was not enough to achieve comfort during the usage hours even for acclimatized local people, which suggest the opportunity of application in transition periods, when temperatures are not extreme but still hot, giving the possibility of achieving the full effectiveness under hot but not extreme conditions.

Purpose: To evaluate the thermal performance of a green roof in a scale prototype under extreme heat conditions in a dry hot climate. Methodological design: The study is experimental and was developed in five phases: A state of the art review to choose prototype design criteria, design of the base prototype and green roof, construction of the prototypes, measurement of variables, and statistical analysis of the results. Results: The results demonstrated that the green roof significantly reduced the average daily indoor dry bulb temperature, 4.03°C on average, being within the thermal comfort zone 42.71 % of the measured time, in contrast to 18.75 % for base module. A decrease factor of 0.55 was obtained in the green roof and 1.30 in the base module, as well as a delay in reaching the maximum temperature on the interior surface of the slab of 4.86 hours for the green roof and 1.16 for the base module. Research Limitations: The results obtained describe the behavior of the prototype under the extreme heat of summer; in future studies, measurements should be taken throughout the four seasons. Findings: During the measured time, the green prototype maintained more stable and lower temperatures compared to the base module, demonstrating its effectiveness in reducing heat transfer and improving thermal comfort under extreme heat conditions in hot dry climates.

Ante la crisis hídrica, los sistemas de tratamiento y reutilización de aguas grises domésticas pueden representar una alternativa beneficiosa, por lo que este estudio propone explorar el mercado potencial para estos sistemas. El objetivo es analizar la aceptación y voluntad de pago para estos sistemas con el fin de detectar los factores que influyen en tales decisiones. Se diseñó y aplicó un cuestionario y los datos obtenidos se procesaron por medio de modelos de regresión logística ordinal. Los resultados muestran que la mayor aceptación está relacionada con un mayor grado de estudios y con el reconocimiento de las condiciones locales de escasez de agua, y la mayor voluntad de pago está relacionada con un mayor nivel de ingresos y con la convicción de poner un buen ejemplo al entorno y a las futuras generaciones.

A new micropolar peridynamic framework incorporating stress- and stretch-based failure criteria was developed for simulating concrete structures. The micropolar peridynamic stress tensor was postulated for plane stress problems, in which the material horizon was expressed as a function of Poisson’s ratio, the material strength, and the fracture toughness. A direct one-to-one correspondence was established between the classical constitutive stress–strain tensor and the associated micropolar peridynamic stress tensor for linearly elastic materials. In addition, a numerical matrix-based scheme was implemented to model concrete problems using an explicit nonlinear explicit dynamic relaxation solver. To assess the model’s performance, concrete structures under plane stress were examined and the results were compared with experimental data, showing good agreement with the model predictions.