Energy-efficient renovation (EER) is a complex process essential for reducing emissions in the built environment. This research identifies homeowners as the main decision-makers, whereas intermediaries and social interactions between peers are highly influential in home renovations. It investigates information and communication barriers encountered during the initial phases of EERs. The study reviews AI tools developed within the EERs domain to assess their capabilities in overcoming these barriers and identifies areas needing improvement. This research examines stakeholders, barriers, and the AI tools in the literature for EERs. The discussion compares the functionalities of these tools against stakeholder needs and the challenges they face. Findings show that tools often overlook methodologies in human–computer interaction and the potential of textual and visual AI methods. Digital tool development also lacks insights from social science and user feedback, potentially limiting the practical impact of these innovations. This article contributes to the EERs literature by proposing an AI-supported framework and outlining potential research areas for future exploration, particularly improving tool effectiveness and stakeholder engagement to scale up the EER practice. ... Read more

The quality of communication with a computer impacts how the designer performs during the design process. Today, Artificial Intelligence (AI) empowers the designer by expanding the solution space using the expertise from previous knowledge. However, the developments in AI-powered design tools mainly focus on visual and spatial enhancements. In the last decade, AI-powered design tools mostly experimented with image transformation models (GANs) to provide fast insights to designers using learned experiences, simulations, or datasets. The studies on the design process using verbal language with the help of AI are limited. Therefore, designers’ capacity to communicate with intelligent machines would lead us to envision the future of AI-powered design tools. In design practice, designers develop individual and contextual studies through digital tools. This study investigates the process of architectural visual generation and verbal communication to describe architectural images by architecture graduates with prior experience or no experience in prior with Midjourney. The research focuses on the designers’ semantic language during the design process with the AI-powered tool and analysis of the verbal part of the communication. The results of this study show that participants’ first impressions of the image and how they express their impressions through description do not correspond with how Midjourney interprets those descriptions. Furthermore, architects’ image generation process using the tool is nonlinear. As architects develop a deeper understanding of changing modes of interactions, they are more likely to benefit from AI-powered tools as collaborative entities. ... Read more

This paper focuses on the information and communication challenges in the Dutch energy transition in the built environment, with a specific focus on energy-efficient retrofits (EER) in homeowners’ associations (HOAs). The research surveyed the literature on barriers and drivers related to information and communication in EERs. It systematically investigated the information sources and communication channels provided by governmental and non-governmental institutions on financial subsidies, step-by-step guidelines, home evaluation tools, and participation guidelines. Lastly, the research categorised and evaluated the interfaces designed to deliver the information to the Dutch homeowners’ associations. The research also explored the barriers and drivers related to trust issues in EERs as the correlation between trust and information and communication emerged as one of the most prominent factors affecting EERs' acceptance. The paper analysed the online information sources based on readability, credibility, and interactivity, focusing on accessibility and the ability to generate tailor-made suggestions. The analysis revealed that the online information sources are disorganised and dispersed. The online platforms rarely provide information on prior case studies and more on financial subsidies, guidelines, and EER benefits. Lastly, we discussed the main barriers and potential solutions for these challenges. ... Read more