ZEMCH is an acronym of zero energy mass custom home that reflects socially, economically, environmentally, and humanly sustainable built environments that have been applied to developed and developing countries. Today's sociodemographic changes are leading to the emergence of non-traditional households and societal shifts are affecting housing design in regard to configuration, functionality, and ornamentation. Customisation and personalisation of the built environment can be considered as a means to help accommodate such diversity over the building’s lifespan. A house is a system of both energy and environment. Thus, it also has an impact on the consequences of climate change. The mass production of zero energy homes in the global context, may help to build a positive pathway towards changing the tide of climate change. Nevertheless, housing affordability is a prominent issue around the globe, and the volume of delivery of high-performance low-cost homes may contribute to this alleviation.

This first volume embraces these sustainable housing delivery challenges by encompassing a wide spectrum of theoretical and pragmatic design, production, communication, and marketing strategies, as well as educational attempts within the context of ZEMCH R&D activities.

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Volume

Forthcoming Volume : 3 Entries
Japanese Prefabricated Housing Manufacturers
By Hing-Wah Chau , Elmira Jamei , Nitin Muttil , Masa Noguchi
Encyclopedia 2024, 4(3), 1073-1090; https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia4030069
Japanese prefabricated housing manufacturers have gained international recognition for their innovative approaches to the whole design process, ranging from initial design to innovative cutting-edge technologies, state-of-the-art automated production lines, meticulous w [...] Read more
Japanese prefabricated housing manufacturers have gained international recognition for their innovative approaches to the whole design process, ranging from initial design to innovative cutting-edge technologies, state-of-the-art automated production lines, meticulous workmanship, and mass customisation. In this entry, three manufacturers (Daiwa House, Sekisui House, and Misawa Homes) were selected as case studies for close examination. By studying these leading companies, researchers and industry professionals can gain valuable insights into best practices, challenges, and innovations within the Japanese prefabricated housing sector. The research methods involved a desktop study of available information on websites, articles, and reports, as well as undertaking two study tours on residential sustainable design in Japan in 2022 and 2023. These three manufacturers were discussed and compared with respect to their development trajectories, design customisation, research capabilities and technological advancements, sustainable initiatives and procurement, as well as their after-sale services. They have demonstrated their adaptability and flexibility in response to natural disasters and the transformation of the needs in society. They are all keen on reducing the environmental impacts of their work towards zero carbon emissions and a sustainable future.
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Techno-Economic Analysis of State-of-the-Art Carbon Capture Technologies and Their Applications: Scient Metric Review
By Raghad Adam , Bertug Ozarisoy
Encyclopedia 2023, 3(4), 1270-1305; https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3040092
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are a serious hazard to human life and the ecosystem. This is the reason that many measures have been put in place by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to reduce the anthropogenic-derived CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Today, the [...] Read more
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are a serious hazard to human life and the ecosystem. This is the reason that many measures have been put in place by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to reduce the anthropogenic-derived CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. Today, the potential of renewable energy sources has led to an increased interest in investment in carbon capture and storage technologies worldwide. The aim of this paper is to investigate state-of-the-art carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies and their derivations for the identification of effective methods during the implementation of evidence-based energy policies. To this extent, this study reviews the current methods in three concepts: post-combustion; pre-combustion; and oxy-fuel combustion processes. The objective of this study is to explore the knowledge gap in recent carbon capture methods and provide a comparison between the most influential methods with high potential to aid in carbon capture. The study presents the importance of using all available technologies during the post-combustion process. To accomplish this, an ontological approach was adopted to analyze the feasibility of the CCS technologies available on the market. The study findings demonstrate that priority should be given to the applicability of certain methods for both industrial and domestic applications. On the contrary, the study also suggests that using the post-combustion method has the greatest potential, whereas other studies recommend the efficiency of the oxy-fuel process. Furthermore, the study findings also highlight the importance of using life cycle assessment (LCA) methods for the implementation of carbon capture technologies in buildings. This study contributes to the energy policy design related to carbon capture technologies in buildings.
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Merging Smart and Healthy Cities to Support Community Wellbeing and Social Connection
By Susan Thompson , Homa Rahmat , Nancy Marshall , Christine Steinmetz-Weiss , Kate Bishop , Linda Corkery , Miles Park , Christian Tietz
Encyclopedia 2023, 3(3), 1067-1084; https://doi.org/10.3390/encyclopedia3030078
Urban planning has long pursued the improvement of health and wellbeing through the rapidly evolving scholarship and practice of health-supportive environments, underpinned by the seminal World Health Organization’s Healthy Cities Framework. Although a much more recent [...] Read more
Urban planning has long pursued the improvement of health and wellbeing through the rapidly evolving scholarship and practice of health-supportive environments, underpinned by the seminal World Health Organization’s Healthy Cities Framework. Although a much more recent development, technology has been informing urban planning, as well as advancing healthcare and personal wellbeing monitoring and assessment. Known as the Smart City movement, it has much to offer regarding life in towns and cities, as well as how they are managed, maintained, and developed. There is also a growing appreciation of the potential for smart city technology to enhance human and environmental health in the context of urban planning and public place making. This has been reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic with its reawakening of community interest in health and wellbeing, including mental illness, a greater awareness of the importance of local environments, and an explosion of technological knowhow in the embrace of remote working, online shopping, and education. Using the example of the authors’ “Smart Social Spaces” project, this entry discusses the potential benefits of an evolving integrative concept called “Smart Healthy Social Spaces”. The aim is to support community wellbeing as part of everyday living, especially associated with social connection, in densely populated and culturally diverse urban environments, where locally situated public spaces are increasingly important for all citizens.
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Masa Noguchi

Institution: Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia

Interests: zero energy mass customised housing; low carbon emission sustainable community development; design engineering; ZEMCH Network

Antonio Frattari

Institution: Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, 38123 Trento, Italy

Interests: building automation; ecological design; universal design; smart home; vernacular architecture; wooden architecture; life cycle assessment

Carlos Formoso

Institution: Building Innovation Research Unit (NORIE), Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre 90040-060, Brazil

Interests: mass customisation; lean construction; design management; BIM; social housing development; healthcare projects

Hasim Altan

Institution: Department of Architecture, Faculty of Design, Arkin University of Creative Arts and Design, Girne 9935, Cyprus

Interests: building performance and simulation; indoor environmental quality; passive design; sustainable architecture; architectural engineering; urban regeneration; building information modelling; healthy buildings

John Onyango

Institution: Department of Architectural Engineering, Kongju National University, Cheonan 31080, Korea

Interests: photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T); building-integrated PV/T (BIPVT); zero energy buildings; vaccuum insulation panel (VIP)

Jun-Tae Kim

Institution: Department of Architectural Engineering, Kongju National University, Cheonan 31080, Korea

Interests: photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T); building-integrated PV/T (BIPVT); zero energy buildings; vaccuum insulation panel (VIP)

Kheira Anissa Tabet Aoul

Institution: Department of Architectural Engineering, College of Engineering, United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain PO Box 15551, United Arab Emirates

Interests: carbon neutral design; building performance under extreme hot climate; energy performance; daylighting; environmental experience design; sustainability and human factors in the built environment

Mehdi Amirkhani

Institution: UniSA Online, Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia

Interests: retrofitting; renewable energy; innovative technology; indoor environmental comfort; lighting system; sustainability planning; architectural design

Sara Wilkinson

Institution: School of Built Environment, Faculty of Desgin Architecture & Building, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia

Interests: building sustainability; retrofit; adaptive reuse

Shaila Bantanur

Institution: Department of Architecture, BMS School of Architecture, Bengaluru 560064, India

Interests: traditional housing; socio-economic sustainability; sustainable built environment; habitat design; building performance evaluation; energy efficient building

© 2026 by the authors. Contents in this reprint book are Open Access and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon published articles, as long as the author and publisher are properly credited, which ensures maximum dissemination and a wider impact of our publications. The reprint book as a whole is distributed by MDPI under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND.

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