Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. David Arditi, we wish to acknowledge our reviewers who so generously offer their time to review the papers submitted to Buildings by presenting an award to the reviewers who have demonstrated their dedication, professionalism, and timeliness in reviewing manuscripts for Buildings.

What are the pre-requisites to be eligible for this award?
All of the reviewers for Buildings in 2023 will be automatically included.

Selection Criteria:
– Number of review reports;
– The quality and timeliness of review reports.

What will the winners receive?
There will be two winners this year, and each will receive the following:
– CHF 500;
– An opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in 2024 after peer review;
– A certificate.

When will the winners be announced?
The winners will be announced in January 2024 on the journal website.

How can I make myself eligible?
If you have not yet reviewed papers for Buildings, but would like to do so, you can register as a reviewer at the following link: https://susy.mdpi.com/volunteer/profile/edit.

Kind regards,
Buildings Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that Buildings is now inviting nominations for the Buildings 2023 Young Investigator Award. This prize will be given to one young investigator in recognition of their excellence in the field of building science, building engineering, and architecture. All nominations will be assessed by an Award Evaluation Committee led by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. David Arditi.

The prize:
– CHF 2000;
– Option to publish one paper free of charge in Buildings after peer review before the end of 2023;
– An electronic certificate.

Eligibility and Requirements:
– Must have received their PhD no more than 10 years prior to 30 April 2023;
– Must have produced ground-breaking research and made a significant contribution to the advancement of building science, building engineering, and architecture;
– Candidates must be nominated by senior scientists.

List of Documents for Nomination
– Detailed Curriculum Vitae, including an updated publication list and a list of the researcher’s own research grants;
– Scanned copy of doctorate certificate;
– Signed nomination letters from two established senior scientists.

Schedule
– Nomination deadline: 30 April 2023;
– Winner announced: June 2023.

How to submit nominations?
The nominations must be submitted online.

Contact
Buildings Editorial Office
Email: buildings@mdpi.com

Kind regards,
Buildings Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that Buildings will be awarding the 2023 Travel Award for junior scientists. The applications will be assessed by an Evaluation Committee consisting of senior scholars from the Buildings Editorial Board.

This prize provides financial support for the winners to attend an international conference in the field of building science, building engineering, and architecture, to be held in 2023, in order to hold a presentation, present a poster, or both.

Candidate Requirements:

• Postdoctoral fellows or PhD students;
• Plans to attend an international conference in 2023 (oral presentation or poster).

Required Application Documents:

• Information of the conference the applicant is planning to attend and the abstract that will be submitted;
• Curriculum Vitae and list of publications;
• Justification letter describing the focus of the research (max. 800 words);
• Letter of recommendation from the supervisor, research director, or department head, which also confirms the applicant’s status as a postdoctoral fellow/PhD

The winners (two awardees) will each be awarded CHF 600 and a certificate.

Please submit your applications for the Buildings 2023 Travel Award online by 15 April 2023. Prizes will be awarded at the end of June 2023 and announced on the Buildings website.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Buildings 2022 Reviewer Award. The Buildings Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy dedicated by reviewers in checking the manuscripts submitted to Buildings. It is due to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick turnaround are maintained.

Dr. Paolo Blecich
Faculty of Engineering, University of Rijeka, Croatia
Research Interests: heat and mass transfer; buildings energy analysis; energy efficiency; energy conversion and management

Dr. Łukasz Ścislo
Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cracow University of Technology, Poland
Research Interests: noise and vibration measurement and suppression techniques; smart structures and sensing technologies; structural health monitoring; fault diagnosis

The Prize for Each Winner:
– CHF 500;
– An opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in Buildings in 2023 after peer review;
– A certificate.

Kind regards,
Buildings Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Buildings, I am pleased to announce the winner of the Buildings Travel Award for 2022.

The award has been granted to: Dr. Danilo D’Angela, who was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by University of Naples Federico II, Italy.

With so many high-quality applicants, the evaluation process and final decision were incredibly challenging. We would like to thank all the applicants for submitting their diverse and fascinating range of research topics. On behalf of the assessment committee, I would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the winner on his accomplishment.

Editor-in-Chief
Prof. Dr. David Arditi, Buildings

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winners of the Buildings 2022 Young Investigator Award are Dr. Umberto Berardi and Dr. Benedetto Nastasi.

Dr. Umberto Berardi is the Canada Research Chair in Building Science and the Director of the BeTOP center at Toronto Metropolitan University (Canada) and holds an appointment at Politecnico di Bari, Italy. His main research interests are related to the study of innovative solutions and new materials for improving the performance within the built environment, looking specifically at climate change issues. Dr. Berardi has an extensive publication record, including 150 peer-reviewed journals, 130 international conference papers, and 5 books. Dr. Berardi’s publications have received over 12,000 citations on Google Scholar, where he has an H-index of 49.

Dr. Benedetto Nastasi, PhD Summa cum Laude, is an Assistant Professor in Smart Energy Systems for the Built Environment at the Department of Planning, Design and Technology of Architecture at Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. His research interests are in innovative energy systems from the building to urban scale, transition pathways to zero-carbon built environments, pioneering hydrogen applications, open data, and energy analytics. Dr. Benedetto Nastasi’s Scopus Scientific Citations number is 1833 and his Hirsch index is 30. He has been ranked in the Top 2% Researchers worldwide in both “Building & Construction” and “Energy” fields by the Stanford University study in 2019 and in 2020.

As the awardees, Dr. Berardi and Dr. Nastasi will receive an honorarium of CHF 1000 each, an offer to publish a paper free of charge before the end of December 2022 in Buildings after peer-review, and an engraved plaque.

We would like to thank all the nominators from various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee Members for their evaluation of the many excellent nominations.

Dear Colleagues,

The editorial team would like to congratulate the winners of the Buildings 2021 Best Paper Award, who were chosen by a selection committee chaired by the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Dr. David Arditi. Following a review process by the Award Evaluation Committee, six winners were selected.

The First Prize: CHF 500 plus a chance to publish a paper free of charge after peer review in Buildings in 2023

Positioning Positive Energy Districts in European Cities
By Oscar Lindholm, Hassam ur Rehman and Francesco Reda.
Buildings 2021, 11(1), 19; doi:10.3390/buildings11010019

The Second Prize: CHF 400 plus a chance to publish a paper free of charge after peer review in Buildings in 2023

Practical Implementation of Structural Health Monitoring in Multi-Story Buildings
By Eugeniusz Koda, Arvindan Sivasuriyan, Dhanasingh Sivalinga Vijayan, Wojciech Górski, Łukasz Wodzyński and Magdalena Daria Vaverková.
Buildings 2021, 11(6), 263; doi:10.3390/buildings11060263

The Role of Blockchain Technology in Augmenting Supply Chain Resilience to Cybercrime
By David J. Edwards, Aya Bayramova and Chris Roberts.
Buildings 2021, 11(7), 283; doi:10.3390/buildings11070283

The Third Prize: CHF 300 plus a chance to publish a paper free of charge after peer review in Buildings in 2023

Application of Portable Air Purifiers for Mitigating COVID-19 in Large Public Spaces
By Zhiqiang (John), He Li, Robert Bahl and Keith Trace.
Buildings 2021, 11(8), 329; doi:10.3390/buildings11080329

Construction Waste Audit in the Framework of Sustainable Waste Management in Construction Projects—Case Study
By Tomáš Mandičák, Marcela Spišáková and Peter Mésároš.
Buildings 2021, 11(2), 61; doi:10.3390/buildings11020061

Facial Expression-Based Experimental Analysis of Human Reactions and Psychological Comfort on Glass Structures in Buildings
By Chiara Bedon and Silvana Mattei.
Buildings 2021, 11(5), 204; doi:10.3390/buildings11050204

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the Buildings 2021 Best Paper Award. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors for your continued support of Buildings.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the reviewers that have been selected as the winners of the Buildings 2021 Outstanding Reviewer Awards. This award is in appreciation of the high number, timeliness, and quality of reviews delivered in 2021. Both winners will receive CHF 500 (Swiss Francs) each, as well as a certificate and an opportunity to publish a paper, free of charge, in 2022. The winning reviewers are as follows:

Prof. Dr. Francesco Fiorito

Department of Civil, Environmental, Land, Building Engineering and Chemistry, Polytechnic University of Bari, Bari, Italy.

Prof. Fiorito graduated from Polytechnic University with a MSc in Building Engineering in 2001, and a Ph.D. in 2006. Before joining Polytechnic University of Bari as an Associate Professor of Architectural Engineering in 2016, he was an Associate Professor of High-Performance Architecture at the University of New South Wales (2016) and a Senior Lecturer in Architectural Technology at the University of Sydney (2011–2016). His research interests include building construction technologies, façade engineering and design, and the development of strategies and solutions for the mitigation of local and global climate change.

Dr. Paul G. O’Brien

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, Toronto, Canada

Dr. O’Brien holds a Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Toronto. He is currently the director of the Advanced Materials for Sustainable Energy Technologies Laboratory (AM-SET-Lab) at York University. At present, his research is focused on thermal energy storage integrated with HVAC systems for the electrification of heating, radiative cooling panels for building applications, building-integrated photovoltaics, energy harvesting windows, and passive solar heating and cooling.

Congratulations to the winners for their magnificent work. The Buildings Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy dedicated by the reviewers to checking the manuscripts submitted to Buildings. It is due to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick turnaround is maintained.

Kind regards,
Prof. Dr. David Arditi
Editor-in-Chief, Buildings

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Buildings, I am pleased to announce the winners of the Buildings Travel Awards for 2021.

The awards have been granted to: Dr. Karthik Panchabikesan and Mr. Xiaolei Yuan. They will each be awarded CHF 600 and a certificate.

Dr. Karthik Panchabikesan received his postdoc from the Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. His research interest focuses on:
1. Urban building energy modelling;
2. Occupancy modelling, user behavior feedback;
3. Smart energy management in buildings;
4. Data analysis and machine learning for building applications;
5. Time series analysis—energy and occupancy related;
6. Latent heat energy storage systems;
7. Peak shifting strategies using energy storage systems.

Mr. Xiaolei Yuan (Damon) is a double doctoral candidate at both Tongji University, Shanghai, China, and Aalto University, Espoo, Finland. Presently, he is mainly engaged in studying high-efficient cooling technologies and energy saving in data centers and building energy management and utilization.

With so many high-quality applicants, the evaluation process and final decision were challenging. We would like to thank all the applicants for submitting their diverse and fascinating range of research topics. On behalf of the Assessment Committee, I congratulate the winners on their accomplishment.

Kind regards,
Prof. Dr. David Arditi
Editor-in-Chief, Buildings

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Buildings 2020 Best Paper Award, as listed below. All papers published in 2020 in Buildings were considered for the award. After a thorough evaluation of the papers’ originality, impact, and number of citations and downloads, the six winning papers, as nominated by the Editor-in-Chief, have been selected.

First Award: (CHF 500 + one free publication)

Humans-as-a-Sensor for Buildings—Intensive Longitudinal Indoor Comfort Models (10.3390/buildings10100174)
By Prageeth Jayathissa, Matias Quintana, Mahmoud Abdelrahman and Clayton Miller

Second Award: (CHF 400 + one free publication)

Circular Building Design: An Analysis of Barriers and Drivers for a Circular Building Sector (10.3390/buildings10040077)
By Jouri Kanters

Building Information Modelling (BIM) to Enhance Occupational Safety in Construction Activities: Research Trends Emerging from One Decade of Studies (10.3390/buildings10060098)
By Mario Fargnoli and Mara Lombardi

Third Award: (CHF 300 + one free publication)

A SWOT Analysis of the Use of BIM Technology in the Polish Construction Industry (10.3390/buildings10010016) 
By Krzysztof Zima, Edyta Plebankiewicz and Damian Wieczorek

Durability and Climate Change—Implications for Service Life Prediction and the Maintainability of Buildings (10.3390/buildings10030053) 
By Michael A. Lacasse, Abhishek Gaur and Travis V. Moore

Worker 4.0: The Future of Sensored Construction Sites (10.3390/buildings10100169)
By Diego Calvetti, Pedro Mêda, Miguel Chichorro Gonçalves and Hipólito Sousa

Please join us in congratulating the winners of the Buildings 2020 Best Paper Award. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors for their continued support of Buildings.

Dear colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the following reviewers have been selected as the winners of the Buildings 2020 Outstanding Reviewer Award. This award is in appreciation of the high number, timeliness, and quality of reviews each delivered in 2020. Both winners will receive 500 Swiss Francs each, as well as a certificate, and an opportunity to publish a paper free of charge in 2021.

Dr. Ling-tim Wong
Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

Dr. Ling-tim Wong graduated from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University with a BEng (Hons, First Class) degree in Building Services Engineering in 1992, and a Ph.D. in 1997. He was the program leader of BEng (Hons) in Building Services Engineering (with specialism in Fire Engineering) in 1997–2002, and MSc/PgD in Fire and Safety Engineering in 2003–2008. His research interests include environmental systems, water systems, and safety systems in buildings.

Prof. Dr. Víctor Yepes
Institute of Concrete Science and Technology (ICITECH), Universitat Politècnica de València, 46022 Valencia, Spain.

Dr. Víctor Yepes holds a Ph.D. degree in civil engineering. He serves as Full Professor with tenure at the Department of Construction Engineering, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia, Valencia, Spain. His current lines of research are the as followsing: (1) multi-objective sustainable optimization and life cycle analysis of concrete structures, (2) decision making and multi-criteria evaluation of the social sustainability of infrastructures, and (3) innovation and competitiveness of construction companies in their processes.

Congratulations to the winners for their magnificent work. The Buildings Editorial Board and Editorial Team would like to gratefully acknowledge the time and energy dedicated by reviewers in checking the manuscripts submitted to Buildings. It is due to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick turnaround is maintained.

Kind regards,

Prof. Dr. David Arditi
Editor-in-Chief, Buildings
Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Illinois Institute of Technology, USA

Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309; https://www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings) is a journal published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland. Buildings maintains rigorous peer-review and a rapid publication process. All articles are published with a CC BY 4.0 license.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that the winner of the Buildings 2020 Young Investigator Award is Dr.Chiara Bedon.

Dr.Chiara Bedon is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Engineering and Architecture of University of Trieste, Italy. Her research activities focus on the numerical, experimental and analytical analysis of building components and materials.

Dr.Chiara Bedon received her PhD in 2012 and has an outstanding publication record, comprising 123 publications in peer-reviewed international journals. Her Google Scholar profile lists more than 2132 citations, with the h-index of 23. Her research project, as supported by a number of scientific publication and young researcher grants (best paper awards, mobility grants, editorial prizes), are also focused on the analysis of innovative solutions for conventional materials in buildings, like timber, concrete or steel structures. Please join us in congratulating Dr.Chiara Bedon for her outstanding achievements.

As the awardee, Dr.Chiara Bedon will receive an honorarium of 1000 CHF, an offer to publish a paper free of charge before December 31st, 2021 in Buildings after peer-review, and an engraved plaque.

We would like to thank all the nominators from various fields of study for their participation and all the Award Committee Members for their evaluation of the abundant excellent nominations.

Prof. Dr. David Arditi
Editor-in-Chief, Buildings
Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Illinois Institute of Technology, USA

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Buildings 2019 Best Paper Awards. All papers published in 2019 in Buildings were considered for the awards. After a thorough evaluation of the originality and significance of the papers, citations, and downloads, the four winning papers, which were nominated by the Editor-in-Chief, have been selected.

First Award: (300 CHF + one free publication)

A Review and Scientometric Analysis of Global Building Information Modeling (BIM) Research in the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) Industry (10.3390/buildings9100210)
By Ziwen Liu, Yujie Lu and Lu Chang Peh

Second Awards: (200 CHF + one free publication)

LCC Estimation Model: A Construction Material Perspective (10.3390/buildings9080182)
By Vojtěch Biolek and Tomáš Hanák

BIM-based and AR Application Combined with Location-Based Management System for the Improvement of the Construction Performance (10.3390/buildings9050118)
By Julia Ratajczak, Michael Riedl and Dominik T. Matt

Third Award: (100 CHF + one free publication)

The impact of Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Phases on Project Performance: A Case of Large-scale Residential Construction Project (10.3390/buildings9010015)
By Kamyar Kabirifar amd Mohammad Mojtahedi

Please join us in congratulating the winners of Buildings 2019 Best Paper Awards. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors for your continued support of Buildings.

Kind regards,
Buildings Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Buildings, I am pleased to announce that the winner of the 2019 Buildings Travel Award is: André Furtado, a PhD student in Seismic Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (Portugal), whose research focuses on the “Seismic vulnerability assessment and innovative retrofitting strategies for masonry infilled frame buildings considering in-plane and out-of-plane behaviour”. A presentation regarding to “Experimental assessment of a strengthening strategy to improve the masonry infills out-of-plane behaviour throught textile reinforced mortar” will be made by him at a conference in 2019.

On behalf of the Buildings team, I would like to congratulate Mr. André Furtado for all his achievements!

Prof. Dr. David Arditi
Editor-in-Chief, Buildings
Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
Illinois Institute of Technology, USA

Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309; https://www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings) is a journal published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland. Buildings maintains rigorous peer-review and a rapid publication process. All articles are published with a CC BY 4.0 license.

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Buildings, I am pleased to announce that the winner of the 2019 Buildings Travel Award is: Maria Teresa De Risi, a Postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Structures for Engineering and Architecture of the University of Naples Federico II (Italy), whose research focuses on the “Seismic performance assessment of reinforced concrete buildings accounting for structural and non-structural elements”. A presentation regarding to “Nonlinear Modelling Of Non-Conforming Concrete Frames Reinforced With Plain Bars” will be made by her at a conference in 2019.

On behalf of the Buildings team, I would like to congratulate Dr. Maria Teresa De Risi for all her achievements!

Prof. Dr. David Arditi
Editor-in-Chief, Buildings
Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
Illinois Institute of Technology, USA
Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309; https://www.mdpi.com/journal/buildings) is a journal published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland. Buildings maintains rigorous peer-review and a rapid publication process. All articles are published with a CC BY 4.0 license.

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the Buildings 2018 Best Paper Awards. All papers published in 2018 in Buildings were considered for the award. After a thorough evaluation of the originality and significance of the papers, citations, and downloads, the four winning papers, which were nominated by the Editor-in-Chief, have been selected.

First Award: (300 CHF + one free publication)

The Vertical Farm: A Review of Developments and Implications for the Vertical City (10.3390/buildings8020024)
By Kheir Al-Kodmany

Second Awards: (200 CHF + one free publication)

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Different Kinds of Concrete Containing Waste for Sustainable Construction (10.3390/buildings8050070)
By Francesco Colangelo, Antonio Forcina, Ilenia Farina and Antonella Petrillo

Strategies for Applying the Circular Economy to Prefabricated Buildings (10.3390/buildings8090125)
By Roberto Minunno, Timothy O’Grady, Gregory M. Morrison, Richard L. Gruner, and Michael Colling

Third Award: (100 CHF + one free publication)

Probabilistic Risk-Based Performance Evaluation of Seismically Base-Isolated Steel Structures Subjected to Far-Field Earthquakes (10.3390/buildings8090128)
By Aryan Rezaei Rad and Mehdi Banazadeh

Please join us in congratulating the winners of Buildings 2018 Best Paper Awards. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of our authors for your continued support of Buildings.

Kind regards,
Buildings Editorial Office

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Buildings, I am pleased to announce that the winner of the 2018 Buildings Travel Award is:

Sujith Mangalathu, a Postdoctoral Fellow at University of California, Los Angeles, whose research focuses on the “Big data analytics for sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems”. A presentation regarding to “Failure-dependent Shear Strength Model for RC Beam Column Joints using Machine Learning Techniques” will be made by him at a conference in 2018.

On behalf of the Buildings team, I would like to congratulate Dr. Sujith Mangalathu for all his achievements!

Prof. Dr. David Arditi
Editor-in-Chief, Buildings
Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering Illinois Institute of Technology, USA

Dear Authors,

We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2017 Buildings Best Paper Awards. Four articles were selected by the Evaluation Committee according to their originality and significance as well as citation and download rates in 2019 (Web of Science). The award recipients will each receive a certificate and an invitation to publish a paper in Buildings free of charge, after the normal peer review procedure. Each paper will additionally receive a bonus based on the award class. The winners are listed as follows:

First Award (one paper), 300 CHF;
Bland, A.; Khzouz, M.; Statheros, T.; Gkanas, E.I. PCMs for Residential Building Applications: A Short Review Focused on Disadvantages and Proposals for Future Development. Buildings 2017, 7, 78.
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/7/3/78

Second Award (two papers), 200 CHF each;
Della Spina, L.; Lorè, I.; Scrivo, R.; Viglianisi, A. An Integrated Assessment Approach as a Decision Support System for Urban Planning and Urban Regeneration Policies. Buildings 2017, 7, 85.
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/7/4/85

Casapulla, C.; Giresini, L.; Lourenço, P.B. Rocking and Kinematic Approaches for Rigid Block Analysis of Masonry Walls: State of the Art and Recent Developments. Buildings 2017, 7, 69.
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/7/3/69

Third Award (one paper), 100 CHF.
Saaty, T.L.; De Paola, P. Rethinking Design and Urban Planning for the Cities of the Future. Buildings 2017, 7, 76.
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-5309/7/3/76

We wish to congratulate all the authors and thank them for having chosen Buildings to publish their work.

Dear Colleagues,

As Editor-in-Chief of Buildings, I am pleased to announce that the winner of the 2017 Buildings Travel Award is:

Eleonora Brembilla, a Ph.D. student at Loughborough University, UK, whose research focuses on the “Applicability of CBDM (Climate-Based Daylight Modelling)”, which has produced valuable guidance on effective/resilient CBDM workflows.

On behalf of the Buildings team, I would like to congratulate Ms. Eleonora Brembilla for all her achievements!

Prof. Dr. Chimay J. Anumba
Editor-in-Chief
University of Florida, USA