Journal of Building Design and Environment

Resource Sustainability and Circular Economy in Construction

Submission Deadline: 06 Dec 2026

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Guest Editor(s)

Prof. Jian Zuo

School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia.

Prof. Rodney Stewart

School of Engineering and Built Environment, Griffith Sciences, Gold Coast campus, QLD, Australia.

Prof. Yang Wang

School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, Hubei, China.

Special Issue Information

The sustainable development of human society depends on resources. Addressing critical societal challenges, such as climate change, resource depletion, and environmental protection, requires sustainable management of resources using interdisciplinary approaches. The International Conference on Resource Sustainability (icRS) series serve as an international platform for researchers and practitioners around the world with diverse background and expertise to share the most recent ideas, outcomes, and practices on resource sustainability. About the conference: https://www.icrsconf.com/icrs_2025.html

This special issue features selected papers presented at the 2025 International Conference on Resource Sustainability (icRS 2025), hosted by The University of Adelaide, Australia. All submissions are subject to standard peer review procedures and must align with the journal’s scope.

This special issue particularly welcomes contributions on topics such as:
• Resource-efficient building design and construction
• Recycling and reuse of construction and demolition waste
• Sustainable building materials and composites
• Integration of renewable energy systems in buildings
• Low-carbon and net-zero energy building strategies
• Digital tools for resource optimization in the built environment (e.g., BIM, digital twins)
• Lifecycle assessment (LCA) of building materials and systems
• Intelligent systems for energy and resource management in buildings
• Indoor environmental quality and resource-related performance
• Urban-scale resource planning and sustainable infrastructure
• Environmental impacts of “misplaced” resources in cities (e.g., emissions, wastewater, solid waste)
• Circular economy applications in architecture and construction
• Nature-based solutions and green infrastructure in the built environment
• Materials innovation for energy efficiency and environmental performance

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Published Articles

From digital blueprints to virtual brains: Evolutionary trajectory and process logic in circular construction

While digitalization is fundamentally reshaping circular construction, the specific evolutionary trajectory from static building information modeling (BIM) toward dynamic Digital Twins (DT) remains unclear. To unpack this complexity, a PRISMA-guided ... More.

While digitalization is fundamentally reshaping circular construction, the specific evolutionary trajectory from static building information modeling (BIM) toward dynamic Digital Twins (DT) remains unclear. To unpack this complexity, a PRISMA-guided systematic review and scientometric mapping of 271 publications (2019-2025) was performed using VOSviewer and CiteSpace. The analysis identifies a four-phase pathway: (i) strategic foundations focused on circular frameworks and material reuse; (ii) design integration emphasizing tool implementation and BIM workflows; (iii) dynamic integration toward digital twins enabling lifecycle data continuity; and (iv) systemic management and lifecycle assessment for real-time control and compliance. Critical turning points in this journey are marked by burst terms such as “framework” (2021), “integration” (2022), and the current emphasis on “management” (2023-2025). Crucially, the review synthesizes conflicting paradigms to identify three fundamental gaps hindering the BIM-to-DT shift: the ontological schism in data sufficiency, the agency gap between digital shadows and twins, and the logistical gap in stochastic reverse flows. To bridge these divides, a three-layer architecture is proposed in which BIM serves as the static product backbone, process information modelling as the essential logic bridge, and DT as the operational decision core. This constructs a time-indexed evolution model that quantifies the shift from process optimization to systemic value creation and provides an adoption roadmap prioritizing interoperability to support policy instruments.
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Kaiyi Li, ... Yonghong Chen
DOI: https://doi.org/10.70401/jbde.2026.0030 - March 02, 2026
This article belongs to the Special Issue Resource Sustainability and Circular Economy in Construction

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