This study explores the role of virtual immersive public art in improving the psychological well-being of urban residents. The research is set in the context of urban environments, where virtual immersive public art has the potential to foster innovation, integrate technology, and organically blend into public spaces. The study evaluates the impact of such art on psychological restoration by focusing on three key dimensions: interactive themes, interactive mechanisms, and artistic characteristics. A questionnaire survey was conducted to collect participants’ real-life experiences and reactions to these art installations. The results show that virtual immersive public art significantly contributes to the restorative experience of urban residents, offering valuable insights into how these installations can promote mental health. Based on the findings, the study provides practical design recommendations for incorporating virtual immersive public art into future urban planning and design projects to enhance urban living conditions and support psychological recovery.

There has been a significant gap in the comprehensive literature review of teaching reform of design history in the Chinese context. In order to bridge this gap, the literature bibliometric method is adopted to review the existing research on design history curriculum reform based on the CNKI database. A keyword review perspective was used to clarify the existing topics in this field, as well as the hotspots of research. Our results reveal that design history, industrial design history and teaching reform are the three main topics that Chinese scholars are more concerned with. As a specific discipline of design history curriculum, curriculum reform of industrial design history is the hotspot of existing research, and teaching reform is an influential research direction.

Urbanization has significantly transformed ecological landscapes and created challenges in sustaining both environmental functionality and cultural values. In response, China’s Sponge City Infrastructure (SPI) aims to enhance urban water resilience by integrating green and blue infrastructure. While the ecological benefits of SPI have been widely studied, the cultural ecosystem services (CES) it provides remain underexplored. This study systematically reviews 61 empirical articles to evaluate how CES has been addressed in SPI-related research. Bibliometric analysis was conducted to identify CES research trends and to systematically categorize CES types, assessment methods, and evaluation indicators in SPI-related studies. The findings reveal a dominant use of non-monetary assessment methods, led by questionnaire surveys (47.5%), while monetary approaches were rarely applied. However, several limitations were identified, including the geographic concentration of studies in a few major cities, the scarcity of research on abstract CES categories (e.g., inspiration and sense of place), and the lack of measurable indicators in nearly half of the reviewed studies. To address these issues, this study proposes a context-specific CES assessment framework aligned with China’s socio-cultural conditions and planning priorities in sponge city development. The framework, based on the reviewed literature, provides a preliminary tool for evaluating CES in sponge city contexts. This work contributes to the integration of cultural ecosystem services into urban ecological planning and offers insights for sustainable development in rapidly urbanizing regions.

Ecovillages are communities designed through locally owned, participatory processes to integrate social, cultural, ecological, and economic dimensions of sustainability, aiming for development that meets current needs without compromising future generations. Critics argue that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) face challenges due to vague action plans. In contrast, as experimental grounds for sustainable living, ecovillages provide concrete explorations of the SDGs. However, comprehensive analyses of their contributions to the SDGs remain limited. This study addresses this gap through a thematic review of literature published between 2020 and 2024 in Scopus and Web of Science. Using inductive coding and axial grouping with ATLAS.ti, the analysis reveals five key themes, encompassing the domains of Rural Development, Educational Approaches and Learning, Social and Innovative Economic Practices, Sustainability Models and Practices, and Landscape and Rural Design. The findings demonstrate that social and economic practices are the most frequently addressed themes, while spatial and design-oriented strategies have gained increasing attention in recent years. Ecovillages promote SDG advancement through grassroots innovation, place-based learning, renewable energy experimentation, and culturally grounded practices, despite notable regional disparities in research. This study also highlights the policy relevance of ecovillages as bottom-up alternatives to top-down SDG implementation, underscoring the need for adaptive governance frameworks that support community autonomy and context-sensitive sustainability transitions.

This study aims to investigate how environmental self-identity, perceived risk, and frugal innovation interact to shape low-carbon behavior among urban professionals in China. The primary objective is to examine the mediating role of perceived risk and the moderating influence of frugal innovation in the relationship between environmental self-identity and low-carbon behavior. Using a quantitative, cross-sectional research design, data were collected from 279 park and garden managers and urban planners in Changsha City through structured questionnaires adapted from validated scales. The data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) via the ADANCO software to assess direct, mediated, and moderated relationships among variables. The findings reveal that environmental self-identity significantly predicts low-carbon behavior, and this relationship is partially mediated by perceived risk. Moreover, frugal innovation strengthens the effect of environmental self-identity on low-carbon behavior, demonstrating that affordable, practical innovations enhance sustainable actions. The study contributes novel insights into how psychological and technological factors jointly influence sustainability practices within urban landscapes. It expands existing theories by integrating self-identity and innovation perspectives and provides practical implications for policymakers to promote sustainable behavior through risk communication and the diffusion of frugal, eco-friendly innovations.