Due to global warming, the overheating risk in the severe cold region of China has attracted attention, but so far, no studies have examined summer overheating in this region. This paper aims to reveal the overheating risk in recent and future climates in the severe cold region of China. An 18-storey residential building in the severe cold region of China was monitored from May to September 2021 to validate the simulation data of the indoor temperature. Weather files of the typical meteorological year (TMY) from 2007 to 2020, observations in 2021, and forecasts for the climate in different carbon emission scenarios (2030, 2060) were used to simulate the indoor temperature and assess the overheating risk. The results revealed the severity of the overheating risk; the overheating hours in the south-facing bedroom were recorded as 884 h (24.07%) with the TMY weather data and 1043 h (28.40%) in 2030 and 1719 h (46.81%) in 2060 under the RCP8.5 carbon emission scenario. Thus, the low carbon emissions policy may significantly alleviate overheating. Moreover, to cope with climate change, it is suggested that the Chinese local design standards should consider the summer overheating risk and make the necessary adjustments.

Bamboo is a construction material with excellent mechanical and thermal properties. It also has excellent carbon storage capacity and is already widely recognized as a sustainable construction material. This study quantifies the bamboo’s potential for energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction throughout the building life cycle in the cold and severe cold regions of China. A six-storey residential building is applied as a case study for a comparison between reinforced concrete (RC) and laminated bamboo lumber (LBL) construction in five representative cities. The comparison considers the inventory analysis of the materialization, operation, and end-of-life (EoL) stage, energy consumption as simulated by the commercial software IES-VE, and carbon emissions assessed by a process-based method. The results for the five cities show that the use of bamboo instead of the conventional reinforced concrete structure would reduce energy consumption by 3%∼5% and reduce CO₂ emissions by 7%∼20%. The analyse of results demonstrates that bamboo residential buildings are more carbon-efficient in cold climates. Furthermore, this study clarifies the applicability and sustainability of bamboo construction materials and contributes to suggesting alternatives for the life cycle carbon reduction for residential buildings.

Affected by the development strategy of Rural Space Reconstruction in China, the demand for rural mass housing has peaked in the North China Plain in the past 20 years. However, due to the inefficiency of conventional design methods, the rural houses built appear to have a noticeable trend of urbanization and homogeneity. To propose a more effective design approach to change the hitherto unsuccessful homogenized phenomenon of rural design, the study is based on investigating the composition, configuration and characteristics of the dwellings in some traditional villages of the eastern Shandong Province, and it compares and analyzes the differences between conventional methods and generation methods through three design tests: Test 1 is for the reappearance of a general mode of planning, Test 2 is based on the definition of shape-grammar-based rules and Test 3 is mainly used for the optimizing and programming of rules. Furthermore, based on the three prototypes of homestead combination, three-level rules are determined through the three tests mentioned above: Level-1 describes the housing prototype consisting of four homesteads, which generates a variety of spatial relations through the translation of homesteads. Level-2 describes a neighborhood prototype consisting of 16 homesteads, which generates various samples through splitting prototypes and expanding homesteads. Level-3 describes a block prototype consisting of 64 homesteads, which controls open space and identifies a given base during sample filling. Through the analysis of the tests results, the rationality and feasibility of the generative design approach are verified, proving that this approach effectively solves the design monotony problem that commonly exists in rural mass housing in the North China Plain.

Carbon emissions and land use intensity serve as crucial indicators of land management. This paper proposes a methodological framework to elucidate the sustainability of carbon emissions in rural areas via a coordination model, scrutinizes the correlation with land use intensity, and investigates the significance of influential factors. The study focuses on village-level units within Ningde City, and finds the pronounced spatial heterogeneity characterizing the distribution of carbon emissions across different villages: (1) Villages exhibiting high levels of carbon emissions are predominantly concentrated in the southeast region, whereas those with low carbon emission levels are primarily clustered in the northwest region. The majority of the villages serve as net carbon emission sources. (2) Spatial disparities exist in the impact of land use intensity on economic benefits from carbon sources, ecological benefits from carbon sinks, and carbon emission sustainability. (3) Significant variations exist in the influence of factors affecting land use intensity, economic benefits of carbon sources, ecological benefits of carbon sinks, and the sustainability of carbon emissions in rural areas. These findings could guide governments in implementing distinct land use control policies and provide a framework for assessing carbon emission sustainability within land management strategies.

As the impact of climate change intensifies, meeting the energy demand of buildings in China’s cold regions is becoming increasingly challenging, particularly in terms of cooling energy consumption. The effectiveness of integrating phase change material (PCM) into building envelopes for energy saving in China’s cold regions is unclear. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of PCM integration in building enclosures for energy efficiency in these regions. The research monitored and recorded indoor temperature data from typical residential cases from May to September. This measured data was then used to validate the accuracy of EnergyPlus22-1 software simulation models. Subsequently, the calibrated model was utilized to conduct a comparative analysis on the effects of PCM on indoor temperatures and cooling energy consumption across these regions. The results of these comparative analyses indicated that PCM can alleviate indoor overheating to varying degrees in severe cold regions of China. Focusing on north-facing bedrooms, applying PCMs reduced the duration of overheating in non-air-conditioned buildings in severe cold regions of China by 136 h (Yichun), 340 h (Harbin), 356 h (Shenyang), and 153 h (Dalian). In terms of cooling energy consumption, the energy saved by applying PCMs ranged from 1.48 to 13.83 kWh/m². These results emphasize that the performance of PCM varies with climate change, with the most significant energy-saving effects observed in severe cold regions. In north-facing bedrooms in Harbin, the energy-saving rate was as high as 60.30%. Based on these results, the study offers guidance and recommendations for feasible passive energy-saving strategies for buildings in severe cold and cold regions of China in the face of climate change. Additionally, it provides practical guidance for applying PCMs in different climatic zones in China.