Scholarly Publications in Peer-Reviewed Journals

Ben-Alon, L., & Rempel, A. R. (2023). Thermal comfort and passive survivability in earthen buildings. Building and Environment, 110339.  Link︎︎︎
Habert G., Ben-Alon L., (2023) Nature-Based Solutions Should Not Stop at Our Door Step. One Earth (under review).
Maghlakelidze M., Mesa A., Omidfar Sawyer A., Gath Morad M., and Ben-Alon L. (2023) Biophilic Design and Natural Materials in Healthcare Environments. Architectural Science Reviews (under review).
Gath-Morad M., Grubel J., Holscher C., Streemers K., Ben-Alon L., and Aguilar Melgar L E. (2023) How Strategic Visibility Informs Wayfinding in Multilevel Buildings. Building and Environment (under review).
Ben-Alon L., Yavo Ayalon, S., (2023) Can We Eat Earth? The mineralogical common of earth building and edible earth practices. UOU Scientific Journal.  Link︎︎︎
Ben-Alon L., Loftness V., Cochran H E., Harries K. A. (2021). Life cycle assessment (LCA) of natural vs conventional building assemblies. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 144, 110951.  Link︎︎︎
Ben-Alon, L., Loftness, V., Harries, K. A., & Hameen, E. C. (2020). Integrating Earthen Building Materials and Methods into Mainstream Construction. Journal of Green Building, 15(1), 87-106.  Link︎︎︎
Ben-Alon, L., Loftness, V., Harries, K. A., Hameen, E. C., & Di-Pierto G. (2019). Cradle to Site Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of Natural vs Conventional Building Materials: A Case Study on Cob Earthen
Construction. Journal of Building and Environment, 160, 106150.  Link︎︎︎
Ben-Alon, L., & Sacks, R. (2017). Simulating the Behavior of Trade Crews in Construction using Agents and Building Information Modeling. Automation in Construction, 74, 12-27.  Link︎︎︎

Commentaries in Journals and Magazines

Ben-Alon, L., (2023). Earth Magic: Earth Building and Earth Eating as Alchemy. In UrbanNext Journal by Actar. (forthcoming)
Ben-Alon, L., (2022). Can – and should – we imagine a world without concrete? In Buildings and Cities Journal.  Link︎︎︎

Book Chapters

Ben-Alon, L. (2022). The Reversible Metamorphosis Possible by Earth Concretes. Forthcoming in Allais L. and Maggers F. (Editors), “After Concrete”. Princeton Press.
Ben-Alon, L., (2022). Natural Building Materials in Architecture Pedagogy: Challenging Conventions Hands-On. Forthcoming in Johan Tandberg J., Scelsa J., Atak T., and Callejas L. (Editors), “Learning Limits”. Routledge.
Ben-Alon, L. (2022). Farm to Building: Catalyzing the Use of Natural, Net-Zero, and Healthier Building Materials. Forthcoming in Azari R. (Editor), "Handbook on Embodied Carbon in the Built Environment". Routledge.
Ben-Alon, L. (2022). Earthen and bio-based materials: a healthy future for building. In Build Beyond Zero: New Ideas for Carbon-Smart Architecture by Bruce King and Chris Magwood (Eds.). Island Press.  Link︎︎︎
Harries, K. A., Ben-Alon, L., & Sharma, B. (2019). Chapter 4: Codes and Standards Development for
Nonconventional and Vernacular Materials. In K. A. Harries & B. Sharma (Eds.), Nonconventional and
Vernacular Construction Materials: Characterization, Properties and Applications, (2nd ed.). Woodhead (Elsevier) Publishing Series in Civil and Structural Engineering.  Link︎︎︎

Referred Papers in Conference Proceedings

Akemah,T., Ben-Alon, L., (2023). Towards Novel 3D-Printed Natural Fiber Insulation. In the 5th International Conference on Bio-Based Building Materials (ICBBM 2023). Vienna, Austria.   Link︎︎︎
Berrada, Z., Ben-Alon, L. (2022). The social life cycle of earth- and bio-based materials compared to
conventional materials. In the 11th International Conference on Architecture & Construction with Earthen Materials (EarthUSA 2022). Santa Fe, NM.  Link︎︎︎
Ben-Alon, L., (2022). Pedagogical and Research Frameworks for Earth Architecture. In the 11th International Conference on Architecture & Construction with Earthen Materials (EarthUSA 2022). Santa Fe, NM.  Link︎︎︎
Bryson, Z., Srubar, W., Kawashima, S., & Ben-Alon, L. (2022). Towards 3D Printed Earth- and Bio-Based Insulation Materials: A Case Study on Light Straw Clay. In the 18th International Conference on Non-conventional Materials and Technologies NOCMAT 2022.  Link︎︎︎
Ben-Alon, L., Loftness, V., Harries, K. A., & Hameen, E. C. (2022). Overcoming the Perceptual Gap:
Worldwide Perceived Comfort Survey of Earthen Building Experts and Homeowners. In Construction
Technologies and Architecture (Vol. 1, pp. 521-528). Trans Tech Publications Ltd.  Link︎︎︎
Ben-Alon L. (2021). Down to Earth: Using Natural Building Materials for Community Resiliency. In 2021 ACSA/EAAE Teachers Conference: Curriculum for Climate Agency: Design (in)Action.  Link︎︎︎
Maghlakelidze M., Ben-Alon L. (2021). Biophilic Daylight Design in Healthcare Environments: A Critical Review. In SimAud 2021: Symposium on Simulation for Architecture and Urban Design.
Ben-Alon, L., Loftness, V., Harries, K. A., & Hameen, E. C. (2020). Integrating Earthen Building Materials and Methods Using Perception Surveys and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). Proceedings of LEHM 2020: 8th International Conference on Building with Earth.
Gupta P., Cupkova D., Ben-Alon L., Cochran Hameen E. (2020). Evaluation of Rammed Earth Assemblies as Thermal Mass Through Whole-Building Simulations. The Building Performance Analysis & SimBuild Conference by ASHRAE and IBPSA-USA, Chicago IL, USA.
Ben-Alon, L. (2020). Down to Earth: Design Build Methodology for Academic and Community Connections. Community Built Association: Fostering Human Connection. San-Gregorio, CA, USA.
Ben-Alon, L., Johndrow L., Magill A. (2019). Providing Building Skills While Respecting Culture, Community, and Tradition – Overview of the TERRA Collaborative, Inc. and The Pueblo Project Organization’s mission and activities. Earth USA 2019. Santa Fe, NM, USA.
Ben-Alon, L., Loftness, V., (2019). The biophilic power and environmental urgency of earthen construction. Presented in Central Europe towards Sustainable Building, Prague, Czech Republic. Published in IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 290, No. 1, p. 012006).
Ben-Alon, L., Loftness, V., Harries, K. A., & Hameen, E. C. (2019). Integrating Earthen Building Materials and Methods into Mainstream Construction Using Environmental and Policy Measures. Earth USA 2019. Santa Fe, NM, USA.
Ben-Alon, L., Loftness, V., Harries, K. A., & Hameen, E. C. (2019). Integrating Earthen Building Materials and Methods into Mainstream Construction Using Environmental Performance Assessment and Building Policy. Presented in Sustainable Built Environment, Graz, Austria. Published in IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 323, No. 1, p. 012139).
Harries, K.A., Ben-Alon, L., and Sharma, B., (2019). Grand Challenge or Oxymoron? Codes and Standards Development for Nonconventional Materials. Forthcoming in the 18th International Conference on Non- Conventional Materials and Technologies, Nairobi, Kenya.
Ben-Alon, L., Loftness, V., Harries, K. A., & Hameen, E. C. (2017). Integrating Earthen Building Materials and Methods into Mainstream Housing Projects Throughout Design, Construction, and Commissioning Stages. In Earth USA: 8th International Conference on Architecture & Construction with Earthen Materials, Santa Fe, NM, USA (pp. 16-25).
Fordice, J., Ben-Alon, L. (2017). Cob Technical White Paper for the International Residential Code Appendix U on Cob Construction. In Earth USA: 8th International Conference on Architecture & Construction with Earthen Materials, Santa Fe, NM, USA (pp. 27-36).
Ben-Alon, L. & Sacks, R. (2015). Simulating and Vizualising Emergent Production in Construction (EPIC) Using Agents and BIM. In 23rd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC). Perth, Australia. (pp 371-380).
González, V. A., Sacks, R., Pavez, I., Poshdar, M., & Ben-Alon, L. (2015). Interplay of lean thinking and
social dynamics in construction. In 23rd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC). Perth, Australia. (pp. 29-31).
Ben-Alon, L., Sacks, R., & Grobman, Y. J. (2014). Similarities and Differences between Humans' and Social Insects' Building Processes and Building Behaviors. In Construction Research Congress 2014: Construction in a Global Network, Atlanta, GA USA. (pp. 51-60).

Theses

PhD Dissertation. Natural Buildings: Integrating Earthen Building Materials and Methods into Mainstream Construction. Doctoral Committee: Vivian Loftness, Erica Cochran Hameen, Kent A Harries, Carnegie Mellon University 2020
MS Thesis. Simulating the Behavior of Construction Trades Using Agents, Building Information Modeling (BIM), and Virtual Reality (VR). Advisors: Prof. Rafael Sacks, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Technion 2015

Exhibition Catalogues

Ben-Alon, L. (2022). Laminated Earth: A Multimedia Installation by Sharon Yavo Ayalon. In ZAZ10TS
Gallery, NYC.  Link︎︎︎
Ben-Alon, L., Talia P., Jeremy F. (2020). Curatorial Note. In Ben-Alon L., Sarah R., Talia P., Jeremy F. (Eds) EX-CHANGE Exhibition Catalogue, Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture (pp 10-11).  Link︎︎︎

Documentaries and Film Footage

Women of Carbon, 2022. Documentary film by sOlar eye publishers. Supported by the International
Documentary Association.
GSAPP Historic Preservation Video Series on materials, 2022. In collaboration with the Association of North American Graduate Programs in Conservation.
Documentary Video Footing, as part of the International Symposium Return to Nature. Presented in Tokyo, April 26, 2022.