From Systems Awareness to Situated Action: Pathways Toward Sustainable Built Environments

Abstract

The rapidly growing environmental, social, and technological challenges facing the built environment demand renewed attention to how sustainability is conceptualised, operationalised, and evaluated across scales of practice and research. Architecture, construction, and urban development are increasingly called upon to counter climate change and resource constraints, in addition to questions about social value, institutional capacity, and long-term resilience. This editorial article frames the contributions of the present issue of ABC2: Journal of Architecture, Building, Construction, and Cities (2026 – 02) within these broader imperatives.  It situates them as requirements for achieving Sustainable Development Goals and within contemporary debates on systems thinking, circularity, digitalisation, and urban well-being. The articles jointly demonstrate how sustainability is pursued through material and biological innovation, digital construction and data-driven systems, neighbourhood-scale decision support, circular performance assessment, public space analysis, and pedagogical experimentation. Rather than advancing an exclusive model or solution, the issue highlights multiple pathways through which sustainability is translated from conceptual ambition into situated action. Therefore, it reinforces the role of interdisciplinary scholarship, institutional learning, and inquiry-based practice in shaping more responsive, inclusive, and resilient built environments.