Navigating Climate Challenges in Modern Heritage

Editors: Özgün Özçakır, Mesut Dinler

Editors Special Issue :

Özgün Özçakır, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye
Mesut Dinler, Politecnico di Torino, Italy

Call for Papers for the Special Issue in the Built Heritage /Springer on Navigating Climate Challenges in Modern Heritage

Special Issue Information
As the climate crisis intensifies, historic environments are increasingly exposed to extreme weather events, rising temperatures, and environmental degradation. A growing body of research shows that climate change is accelerating the deterioration and loss of cultural heritage, while also revealing significant gaps in adaptation practices and policy integration. These impacts and responses remain unevenly distributed, with current approaches largely concentrated in high-income countries, underscoring the need for more inclusive and globally diverse perspectives.

Within this context, modern heritage occupies a critical yet insufficiently explored position. Materials such as reinforced concrete, central to modern heritage, have contributed significantly to global carbon emissions while also rendering these structures highly vulnerable to climate-induced risks. This dual condition positions modern heritage as both a contributor to and a victim of the climate crisis, raising fundamental questions about how environmental performance can be improved without compromising cultural significance.

Learn more about the call:

https://link.springer.com/journal/43238/updates/27851918

This Special Issue advances critical and interdisciplinary perspectives on climate-responsive approaches to modern heritage. It examines how intervention and governance strategies can address the tension between preservation and transformation under changing environmental conditions. We invite theoretical and empirical contributions that engage with modern heritage in relation to climate change. Topics include, but are not limited to:

Contributions examining the adaptive capacities of modern materials and construction systems, and the tensions between preservation requirements and climate-responsive interventions across scales—from building components to urban and landscape systems. Papers may also explore how modernist design principles, including function-driven approaches, shape both constraints and opportunities for adaptation.
Research addressing the institutional and regulatory frameworks that shape climate action in modern heritage, including policy gaps, governance challenges, and barriers to implementation. Contributions that critically examine the disconnect between climate commitments and practical application are particularly encouraged.
Studies investigating the relationships between building-scale interventions and broader urban and landscape strategies, as well as comparative perspectives that move beyond Eurocentric narratives and incorporate diverse geographic and socio-political contexts.
By bringing together diverse approaches, this Special Issue seeks to advance a more integrated and critical understanding of climate-responsive transformation in modern heritage. It aims to position modern heritage at the centre of climate debates in conservation and to contribute to more inclusive and actionable frameworks for resilient futures.

Abstract submission due: 30 June 2026
Communication of abstract acceptance decision: 31 July 2026
Online Authors’ Workshop: October 2026 (TBC)
First draft submission: 31 Jan 2027
Final version due: 30 June 2027
Expected publication due: 30 Sep 2027

All submissions to this collection will go through rigorous peer review. Reviewers will follow Springer Nature's and the journal's more detailed Peer-Review Policy. Accepted articles will first be published online. The print issue is scheduled to be published in the third quarter of 2027.

Extended abstracts (500-800 words) should contain the title of the paper, research question(s) and how the paper responds to the Special Issue theme, methodology, main findings, and conclusions. Abstracts should be submitted to: built-heritage@tongji.edu.cn with the subject line: Navigating Climate Challenges in Modern Heritage.