The city’s rapid development would lead to irreversible changes in architectural heritage. As one of the ways to promote sustainable development, world heritage tourism has opened up a new perspective for the protection, inheritance and development of architectural heritage. Taking the study of architectural heritage in the Historic Centre of Macau as an example, employing eye-tracking experiment and semantic differential method (SD method) to explore the relationship between tourists’ perceptions of visual elements of architectural heritage, positive emotions, and behavioral intentions. The results show that in terms of visual elements, the architectural style of the wall (p = 0.013 < 0.05, B = 0.165), the proportional balance of the windows (p = 0.047 < 0.05, B = 0.120), the exquisite decoration of the door (p = 0.028 < 0.05, B = 0.125), and the proportional balance of other buildings (p = 0.042 < 0.05, B = 0.121) have a positive impact on tourists’ behavioral intention. In terms of positive emotions, positive (p = 0.001 < 0.05, B = 0.177), intense (p = 0.000 < 0.01, B = 0.228), and enthusiastic (p = 0.008 < 0.05, B = 0.156) emotions were positively correlated with behavioral intention. The research results can provide a scientific basis and decisional reference for the protection and tourism development of architectural heritage in the Historic Centre of Macau.

Confronting the age of artificial intelligence, exploring art through technology has become one of the directions of interdisciplinary development. Not only does artificial intelligence technology explore sustainability on a technical level; it can also take advantage of itself to focus on the visual perception of the living environment. People frequently interpret environmental features through their eyes, and the use of intuitive eye-tracking can provide effective data that can contribute to environmental sustainability in managing the environment and color planning to enhance the image of cities. This research investigates the visual responses of people viewing the historic city of Macau through an eye movement experiment to understand how the color characteristics of the physical environment are perceived. The research reveals that the buildings and plantings in the historic district of Macau are the most visible objects in the environment, while the smaller scale of St. Dominic’s Square, the Company of Jesus Square, and St. Augustine’s Square, which have a sense of spatial extension, have also become iconic environmental landscapes. This also draws visual attention and guides the direction of travel. The overall impressions of the Historic Centre of Macau, as expressed by the participants after the eye movement experiment, were mainly described as “multiculturalism”, “architectural style”, “traditional architecture”, “color scheme”, and “garden planting”. The 60 colors representing the urban color of Macau are then organized around these deep feelings about the environment. Therefore, for future inspiration, the 60 colors can be applied through design practice to create color expressions that fit the local characteristics, and thereby enhance the overall visual image of the city.

This study explored the overall visual elements of arcade buildings and streetscapes from the perspective of tourists and then evaluated their influence on the identity and emotion of places. The scope of the research was to take the arcade building in the port area of Shantou Small Park in Guangdong, China, and apply the eye-tracking experiment method and semantic difference method. This entailed collecting the eye-tracking data of 16 people, implementing 334 questionnaires for evaluation, verifying the correlation between the visual elements and place identity emotions, and then screening out the visual elements that affect place identity through correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. The results show that plaque text morphological richness (p = 0.045 < 0.05, and the regression coefficient B = 0.146), the color brightness of plaque text (p = 0.031 < 0.01, and the regression coefficient B = 0.171), window morphological richness (p = 0.038 < 0.05, and the regression coefficient B = 0.106), window color brilliance (p = 0.047 < 0.01, and regression coefficient B = 0.094), and plant color brilliance (p = 0.029 < 0.05, and the regression coefficient B = 0.154) are five visual element evaluation factors that have a significant correlation with the identity and emotion of places. Although the fineness of architectural decoration is negatively correlated with place identity, it is not obviously significant. The research results provide reference for the visual control design of arcade buildings.

The construction industry has become one of the main drivers of the increase in carbon emissions and subsequent climate change. In this study, we focused on building carbon neutrality design and used CiteSpace V.6.2.R2 to conduct bibliometric analysis of published papers (2008–2023). After the initial screening, 280 pieces of relevant literature were obtained, including reviews, research papers, and case studies. Following further screening and excluding duplicate literature articles, 50 pieces of literature were ultimately selected as references for this paper, covering various aspects of key scientific issues, implementation approaches, and emerging research frontiers in carbon-neutral design for buildings. The research results show that significant progress has been made in energy conservation, materials, structures, systems, and operations in the research on carbon-neutral design for buildings. However, there are still issues, such as unclear implementation paths for carbon-neutral design, incomplete lifecycle assessment of carbon-neutral design, and high cost of carbon neutrality technologies in current research. Therefore, further research on the overall concept of carbon-neutral design, the progress and implementation of carbon neutrality technologies, and the integration of carbon-neutral design with sustainable development concepts are necessary. To sum up, this paper presents a thorough overview of the advancements in carbon-neutral design for buildings, examines the existing research challenges, and suggests potential avenues for future research. This paper’s findings can provide guidance for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners to promote the development and application of carbon-neutral design for buildings and to achieve sustainable development goals.

In response to growing concerns about overtourism and the need for sustainable heritage tourism, this study investigates how external environmental stimuli affect tourists’ perceived value and behavioral intentions in historic urban environments. Using the Stimulus–Organism–Response (SOR) model as the theoretical framework, and based on 275 valid questionnaires collected from five major sites in the Historic Center of Macau, this study explores the direct and indirect relationships among four types of environmental stimuli (physical factors, social activities, environmental atmosphere, and information and services), perceived value, and behavioral intentions. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) indicate that all four stimuli significantly influence perceived value and behavioral intentions. Among them, physical factors exert the strongest influence on perceived value (β = 0.291, p < 0.001), while social activities are the most influential predictor of behavioral intentions (β = 0.225, p < 0.01). Perceived value plays a significant mediating role in all relationships, with the largest mediation effect found in the path from physical factors to behavioral intentions (27.99%), followed by environmental atmosphere (24.80%), information and services (22.62%), and social activities (11.66%). These findings validate the applicability of the SOR model in heritage tourism contexts and highlight the central role of perceived value in shaping tourist behavior. Theoretically, this study advances our understanding of how multidimensional environmental stimuli contribute to value-based decision-making in tourism. Practically, it provides actionable insights for urban planners and heritage managers to design environments that promote deeper engagement and foster sustainable tourist behavior in high-density historic destinations like Macau.

This study introduces a design transformation model for AI-generated Chinese traditional architectural images (SD Lora&Canny) based on Stable Diffusion (SD). By integrating parameterization techniques such as Low-Rank Adaptation (Lora) and edge detection algorithms (Canny), the model achieves precise restoration of the architectural form, color elements, and decorative symbols in Chinese traditional architecture. Using the Beijing Drum Tower as the experimental subject, statistical analysis software (SPSS V28.0) was employed to conduct a quantitative evaluation and comparative analysis of architectural images generated by the DALL-E, MidJourney, SD, and SD Lora&Canny models. The results demonstrate that the SD Lora&Canny model significantly outperforms traditional generation tools in restoration accuracy and visual fidelity. Finally, this study applied the SD Lora&Canny model to create the digital cultural product AR Drum and Bell Tower Fridge Magnet, showcasing its practical application in digital cultural creation and verifying its innovative potential in the digital preservation and transmission of Chinese traditional architecture.