Innovations in Low-Carbon and Intelligent Building Materials, Ecological Engineering, and Sustainable Design

The global building industry is rapidly evolving in response to the urgent need for carbon neutrality and sustainable development. Low-carbon and green building materials, together with ecological engineering and sustainable design strategies, have become fundamental to reducing carbon emissions across the entire lifecycle of constructed environments. At the same time, advanced tools such as artificial intelligence, digital twins, and intelligent construction technologies offer new possibilities for enhancing materials, structures, project management, and building performance. This Research Topic brings together interdisciplinary research aimed at accelerating the development of greener, smarter, and low-carbon buildings.This Research Topic explores the potential of innovative green materials, ecological engineering strategies, and sustainable design practices to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings from inception to operation. These solutions also enhance resilience and overall engineering performance. Key challenges remain, including the high emissions associated with traditional building materials, limited efficiency in existing design approaches, insufficient evaluation of ecological engineering benefits, and practical barriers to implementing low-carbon construction in real-world projects. Addressing these issues, this Research Topic highlights novel intelligent construction technologies, such as AI-based prediction of material emissions, digital twin applications for low-carbon design optimization, and intelligent systems for dynamic management of building carbon outputs. We encourage multidisciplinary contributions, merging materials science, engineering, automation, and computational approaches to deliver scalable, verifiable solutions for low-carbon buildings.To further advance the field, this Research Topic welcomes original research, reviews, and case studies on, but not limited to, the following themes:• Low-carbon and green building materials: green, renewable, and recycled materials; development, characterization, and application; life-cycle assessment and circular economy pathways.• Ecological and environmental engineering: nature-based solutions, ecological restoration, urban ecological resilience, stormwater management, blue-green infrastructure, and improving urban environmental quality.• Sustainable architectural and urban design: low-carbon design strategies, performance optimization, sustainable communities, multi-scale planning, building energy efficiency, and renewable energy integration.• Intelligent built-environment technologies: AI-driven material prediction, structural optimization, environmental simulation, digital twins, BIM, GIS, construction robotics, and intelligent operation and control.• Engineering cases and interdisciplinary studies: low-carbon demonstration projects, intelligent construction pilots, ecological engineering applications, building-ecology-environment interactions, methodological advancements, and system innovations.• Other topics related to green buildings and the ecological environment. Topic editors: Liyun Zeng, Yi Dou Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/77610/innovations-in-low-carbon-and-intelligent-building-materials-ecological-engineering-and-sustainable-design