Immersive virtual reality (VR) holds immense potential, and its applications in the field of education have garnered close attention from numerous researchers, sparking widespread and in-depth research interest. This study attempts to illustrate the impact of virtual reality in the classroom on student experience and concentration. In the experimental design, students used a virtual reality teaching system to replicate ceramic production in a porcelain factory in Jingdezhen. To compare the effects of VR interactivity with traditional video teaching, students were divided into three groups and tested in three separate studies: sense of experience and emotion (immersion, empathy, and sense of presence), cognition and concentration, and quiz scores for students with and without a relevant knowledge base. The findings revealed that the interactive Jingdezhen Ceramics VR education system group outperformed the no-interaction and traditional video groups in terms of sense of experience and emotion; the interactive VR education system group scored higher in terms of course concentration and knowledge mastery; and the students’ scores were positively correlated with their knowledge base. Furthermore, examining the disparities between boys and females on the indicators found that female students scored better in empathy. These findings indicate that immersive and interactive VR education may give students with novel experiences that have emotional, attentional, and cognitive benefits.

As a theory in ancient China, Feng Shui is used in terrain exploring to find ideal living environments. In this study, 62 traditional villages documented on China’s and Jiangxi’s protection lists in Jinxi County, Jiangxi Province were divided into four categories according to their landscape patterns and were simulated by CFD (computational fluid dynamics) with PHOENICS and quantitatively analyzed based on their wind and thermal environments. The results showed that hills greatly improve the wind environment of villages when they are in the windward direction. Concerning thermal environments, water and vegetation effectively reduced the summer temperatures in villages, while hills kept villages warm in winter. This paper verified the positive effect of elements such as mountains, water and forests on the improvement of wind and thermal environments of villages and the rationality of the site election principle of Bei Shan Mian Shui, also known as back mountain facing water, which is upheld by Feng Shui. This paper explored the philosophy of traditional village location selection, demonstrating the ecological wisdom of ancient Chinese people in creating a good living environment, and provides a new direction for current sustainable development planning.

The design of street canyons has become a focus of attention under the requirements of high-quality urban modernization, while existing research has gradually broken through the basic norms of aesthetic design to include ecological considerations. However, it is only in recent decades that relevant research has been carried out in super and super-large cities in China. In this article, we take Nanchang, one of the largest cities in China, as an example, and use ENVI-met software (v5.5.1.) to simulate and analyze the street canyon of the city. Certain measurements were made and verified to compare the microclimatic conditions of street canyons at different scales. The relationship between street canyon morphology and outdoor thermal comfort was explored in terms of near-surface air temperature, wind speed, and thermal comfort indicators. The results show that there is a high correlation between the morphology of street canyons, such as orientation, aspect ratio interface continuity, and outdoor thermal comfort. Therefore, starting from adjusting the morphological characteristics of street canyons, practical suggestions can be provided for urban planners to guide the sustainable development of contemporary cities and improve the comfort of urban street spaces.

Energy conservation and carbon reduction in buildings have become important concerns and, at the same time, the value of low-tech approaches employed in indigenous architecture is increasingly acknowledged as a pertinent reference for contemporary design practices. The research on vernacular dwellings in Jiangxi has many perspectives and fruitful results, but not enough attention has been paid to the research on climate adaptation. This article verifies the vernacular dwellings’ climate adaptation and summarizes the low-tech methods embedded in vernacular dwellings, aiming to provide guidelines for future exploration of energy-saving and carbon-reducing practices in architecture. By selecting different types of vernacular dwellings in Nanfeng County, this article verifies three aspects of the ecological characteristics of vernacular dwellings: the light environment, wind environment, and energy consumption, by comparing them with those of local modern residential buildings. It is concluded that the average daylight factor of the hall area of vernacular dwellings is better than that of the modern residential buildings in rural areas, and the vernacular dwellings regulate the indoor wind environment and maintain indoor comfort through natural ventilation in winter and summer seasons. Also, the annual energy consumption of the vernacular dwellings per unit area per year can be reduced by up to about 32% in comparison with modern residential buildings. Subsequently, the article concludes that patio space has a positive impact on the indoor physical environment through comparative experiments. Vernacular dwellings are well adapted to the local climate in terms of form, structure, and materials, and these low-tech methods should be applied to the design of rural dwellings in the future.

Adaptive construction techniques in traditional vernacular dwellings play an important role in improving the wind–thermal microclimate of buildings. However, comparative studies on such techniques across different regions remain limited. Moving beyond a static regional perspective, this study selects six representative skywell dwellings along the historical migration route from Jiangxi to Hunan. Through field monitoring and CFD numerical simulation using PHOENICS, the wind–thermal performance of these dwellings under extreme summer high-temperature conditions is comparatively analyzed. The results reveal case-based regional differences characterized by “shared origins and regional differentiation.” The western Jiangxi dwellings tend to adopt ventilation as the main spatial logic, using open spaces to enhance convective heat dissipation. In contrast, the northern Hunan dwellings show more prominent shading and heat control characteristics, relying on optimized skywell geometry to achieve geometric shading and reduce radiative heat gain. This study clarifies that adaptive construction techniques vary significantly under regional influences, and the findings may provide quantitative data support and design references for optimizing the microenvironment of contemporary buildings.