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Urbanization and climate change have significantly contributed to the emergence of urban heat island (UHI) effects, posing challenges to urban sustainability and human well-being. Despite growing awareness, there remains a lack of comprehensive assessment tools to evaluate the thermal sustainability of buildings and mitigate UHI effects effectively. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap by developing an assessment framework called BUILDthermo to integrate into the construction permit approval process. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the study analyzes various building heat elements influencing surface temperatures in the surrounding areas, develops a framework model for the building heat index, and designs a model to integrate the building heat index into the construction permit approval process. This study adopts a mixed-mode approach that involves both qualitative and quantitative methods. Hence, there are three main phases of research involved in achieving all research objectives. To fulfill the first phase of research, determinants of significant indicators were initially compiled from the literature review and previous studies in building assessment tools. The indicators were further gathered and confirmed through semi-structured interviews involving six experts from industries and academia. The findings identified 20 indicators to be incorporated into the list of building heat assessment. For the second phase, field measurements have been conducted at Menara DBKL 1, 2, and 3 to test the framework model. The data will then be used to design a proposed building heat index model and verify its adaptability by local authorities through semi-structured interviews. The proposed building heat index significantly contributes to the assessment of thermal sustainability in building construction, with the potential to mitigate UHI effects and enhance urban thermal comfort.