Over the last few decades, energy efficiency has received increasing attention from the Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operation (AECO) industry. Digital Twins have the potential to advance the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) phase in different application fields. With the increasing industry interest, there is a need to review the current status of research developments in Digital Twins for building energy efficiency. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the applications of digital twins for building energy efficiency, analyze research trends and identify research gaps and potential future research directions. In this review, Sustainability and Energy and Buildings are among the most frequently cited sources of publications. Literature reviewed was classified into four different topics: topic 1. Optimization design; topic 2. Occupants’ comfort; topic 3. Building operation and maintenance; and topic 4. Energy consumption simulation.

Mass customization is being adopted in many housing contexts worldwide to provide families with dwellings that suit their individual needs at costs similar to mass-produced items. However, in many social housing contexts, there are barriers that can hinder the adoption of mass customization, despite the benefits it could bring to residents. This is the case in the Brazilian social housing context considering house units for families of the lowest income range. This paper explores the possibilities and limitations of applying mass customization in this context to improve the living conditions in these neighborhoods as they evolve over time. This study analyzes the ecology of the system of provision of social housing for the lowest income range, pre-occupancy, and post-occupancy in the neighborhood’s development over time. This study argues that it would be more feasible and bring more and longer-lasting benefits to the stakeholders involved if mass customization were applied post-occupancy.

Social housing customization in Brazil refers to the current processes of development and evolution of government-funded neighborhoods for the lowest-income population. The mass production of small housing units that do not satisfy family needs instigates a self-design and self-construction process post-occupancy to customize the units. Ultimately, these changes to the units bring unintended negative consequences for the families and the city. In this context, mass customization is seen as an alternative to address some of the problems related to unit design.

This paper describes an experiment in which a virtual learning environment was used in the context of an architectural design course. The objective was to evaluate the capability of the learning environment used to support the interactions needed, between teacher-student and between students, for the establishment of a process of discussion and development of architectural design. Some limitations were identified and also positive points, such as the possibility to register the whole design process. These registers allow the design teacher to evaluate his own teaching process and improve it and also the visualization of what kind of intervention the teacher makes and when, making it possible to identify the kind of design processes established by the student and the kind of structure of knowledge which is implicit in a process of teaching/learning architectural design according to the level of development of the design.

Esse trabalho propõe um sistema de customização em massa para o contexto de habitação de interesse social para as faixas de renda mais baixa dos programas habitacionais. Parte-se de estudos anteriores que analisaram este contexto em conjunto com as possibilidades da customização em massa. Este estudo utiliza a estrutura para customização em massa baseada em três atributos – desenvolvimento de espaço de soluções, design de processos robustos e navegação de escolhas – para desenvolver o sistema de customização em massa. Este trabalho argumenta que a diferenciação das casas deve acontecer pós-ocupação. Para tanto, estruturou-se processos e sistemas que permitem auxiliar as famílias em suas opções projetuais para que suas necessidades sejam atendidas, à medida que estas mudam ao longo do tempo, sem criar problemas para a cidade. Os processos propostos são vistos como uma estratégia para otimizar o uso de recursos para a melhoria dos ambientes das casas e da cidade. O sistema de customização em massa proposto tem potencial para ampliar o alcance das ações de assistência técnica, quanto ao projeto individual de reformas, permitindo atingir muitas famílias sem a necessidade de aumentar os recursos para tal fim na mesma proporção. Este sistema diferencia-se de outras estratégias de customização em massa para habitação por incluir os processos de pós-ocupação como parte da fabricação do produto customizado. Além disso, este trabalho mostra que é possível concentrar o objetivo da estratégia de customização em massa em benefícios mais amplos para a sociedade, além dos benefícios individuais.

This paper shows the result of a partnership between architects, cartographer and civil engineers, masters and undergraduate students, researchers focused on di...