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This book presents articles from the International Conference on Sustainable Design, Engineering, Management, and Sciences (ICSDEMS 2020), held in Bali, Indonesia. It highlights recent advances in civil engineering and sustainability, bringing together researchers and professionals to address the latest, most relevant issues in these areas.

The sustainability challenges of yesterday have become today's resilience crises. National and global efforts have failed to stop climate change, transition from fossil fuels, and reduce inequality. We must now confront these and other increasingly complex problems by building resilience at the community level. But what does that mean in practice, and how can it be done in a way that's effective and equitable? The Community Resilience Reader offers a new vision for creating resilience, through e...

The suburban dream of a single-family house with a white picket fence no longer describes how most North Americans want to live. The dynamics that powered sprawl have all but disappeared. Instead, new forces are transforming real estate markets, reinforced by new ideas of what constitutes healthy and environmentally responsible living. Investment has flooded back to cities because dense, walkable, mixed-use urban environments offer choices that support diverse dreams. Auto-oriented, single-use...

It's already impossible to imagine energy-efficient construction without photovoltaics and solar thermal. Yet, the EU-wide introduction of low energy standards for new buildings stipulates that buildings must meet their energy needs in whole or in part from the sun by 2021 at the latest. The integration of solar systems into buildings is no longer just a technical matter, but also a structural and aesthetic challenge. This book provides the necessary expertise for this purpose. In addition to ba...

There is a dearth of collections of scholarly works dedicated wholly to African issues, that comes out of the work done by African scholars and practitioners with both African collaborators and from elsewhere. This volume brings together scholarly works and thoughts that cut across and intertwine the tripods-environment-consciousness, socially just development and African development into options that could deliver on the promise of the SDGs. The book project is an initiative of the Centre for H...

The last in Tony Fry's celebrated trilogy of books continues his radical rethinking of design. Becoming Human by Design's provocative argument presents a revised reading of human 'evolution' centred on ontological design. Examining the relation of design to the nature of the human species - where the species came from, how it was created, what it became and its likely future - Fry asserts that current biological and social models of evolution are an insufficient explanation of how 'we humans'...

This is the first book designed to help planners, municipal staff and officials, citizens and others working at local levels to develop Climate Action Plans (CAPs). CAPs are strategic plans that establish policies and programmes for mitigating a community's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. They typically focus on transportation, energy use, and solid waste. CAPs are usually based on GHG emissions inventories, which identify the sources of emissions from the community and quantify amounts. CAPs ma...

This title offers a fascinating look at how the ubiquitous shipping container can be used to create inexpensive sustainable living spaces. Shipping containers were designed to provide an economically viable way to store and transport goods over long distances in watertight conditions. Their dimensions were internationally standardized, particularly in terms of height and the shape of the enclosure itself. These standardized dimensions - as well as being economic and secure - also happen to be al...

Want to keep up with emerging design thinking and issues worldwide? Design Studio is a new thematic series that distils the most topical work and ideas from schools and practices globally. Everything needs to change. Every minute we pollute the air and rivers using resources that we cannot replenish. Each newly erected building aggravates by consuming additional materials and energy. Exploring architecture and the climate emergency, editors So­fie Pelsmakers (sustainable architect, educator an...

Heating with wood is often considered a natural and economical alternative to electricity or fossil fuels. However, even with a fairly new and efficient woodstove, many cords of wood are required for burning over the course of a single winter, and incomplete combustion can contribute to poor air quality. A rocket mass heater is an earthen masonry heating system which provides clean, safe, and efficient warmth for your home, all while using 70 to 90 percent less fuel than a traditional woodstove....

Wood is one of the very best materials for building construction because of its versatility, its capacity as a thermal and acoustic insulator, its warm appearance, pleasant texture and feel and its ecological character. Architects love to use this natural material for exterior design and decoration, aided by new ways of fixing and joining wood thanks to modern technology. Today's criteria for sustainable housing (“living”) and offices (“working”) also benefit greatly from the use of wood. The...