The editorial
Doan, D. T., GhaffarianHoseini, A., Ghaffarianhoseini, AH., and Jalali, Z. (2026). Guest editorial: Energy efficiency, risk, and resilience in the built environment. Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, 15(4), 1413 to 1415.
The theme
The special issue joins two agendas that are often pursued separately. Energy efficiency asks how buildings and cities can use less; risk and resilience ask how they withstand shocks, from earthquakes and floods to heat and supply disruption. Treated apart, the two can conflict: a highly efficient building that fails in a heatwave or loses function after a disaster has not served its occupants. The issue gathers research that considers them together.
Context
The papers were first presented at SASBE 2024 in Auckland, which he chaired with CIB W116, and were developed for journal publication through the special issue process. The guest editors selected, reviewed and shaped the collection, and the editorial sets out how the papers relate to one another and to the field.
Its publication was announced alongside the call for abstracts for GDI 2026 and DigiBUILT 2026, the next stages of the conference programme he leads, which shows the cycle by which the School’s conferences feed the international journal literature.
The guest editor’s role
Guest editing a special issue involves more than writing its editorial. The guest editors define the call for papers, invite and screen submissions, manage peer review with the journal’s editors, and decide which papers belong together. For a conference based special issue, they must also judge which presentations can become journal articles, and guide authors through substantial revision to meet journal standards.
Doing that work for a journal published by Emerald, with research first presented in Auckland, extends the reach of the conference and of the researchers who presented there.