Increasing attention is being directed toward understanding the impact of urban built environments on children’s health. The concept of the 15-minute city, or “15-minute life circle”, in China is significant; however, the needs of the pediatric population are often overlooked. Walkability and accessibility to urban service facilities are crucial for promoting children’s well-being. This paper focuses on the old city of Guilin in western China as a case study. It investigates the service facilities within a 15-minute life circle that affect children’s physical health, mental health, and social engagement. Utilizing the Walking Index method, this study assesses the walkability and rationality of these facilities in 621 neighborhoods. Data were gathered from 200 questionnaires and interviews with children, concentrating on their daily use of these facilities, supplemented by a multi-source analysis. The findings reveal that the Walking Index in the study area is generally low, with an uneven distribution, primarily influenced by road network density, block size, and urban landscape patterns. This study proposes the development of a “Children’s Healthy 15-minute Life Circle”, which would increase child-friendly service facilities, pedestrian infrastructure, and urban road network density. It also advocates for constructing service facilities that enhance children’s health and the optimization of the spatial arrangement of these facilities. Furthermore, it suggests the effective utilization of urban landscapes to create a diverse system of leisure spaces for children. This study offers valuable insights for enhancing the walkability of urban life circle service facilities and establishing a child-friendly city.

The need for privacy, recognized as a fundamental psychological requirement, has garnered increasing attention as researchers explore the restorative effects of privacy driven activities (PDA). This study employs quantitative experiments and analyses to assess the restorative benefits of PDA within three classical Chinese gardens, demonstrating their superiority over conventional leisure activities in promoting emotional recovery, reducing stress, and restoring attention. The experiment quantifies the restorative effects of PDA versus standard leisure activities using a classic restorative scale and physiological indicators reflecting emotional relief. Regression analyses then identify five key factors influencing the occurrence of PDA, derived from preferred locations and behavioral tendencies observed in the three gardens. Further analyses reveal significant differences in the impacts of these five environmental feature dimensions on the evaluation indicators of “preference for privacy-oriented activities” and “restorative effects”. Among these dimensions, “spatial scale and accessibility” has the greatest impact on the “preference for privacy-oriented environments”, while “spatial atmosphere” and “activity facilities” have the most significant impact on “restorative effects”. The findings suggest that behavioral activities mediate the relationship between environmental factors and restorative effects, highlighting the potential of PDA as a mediating variable for a comprehensive investigation into the pathways and mechanisms influencing restorative environments in research and design.

Nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB) are considered a key measure to reduce energy consumption in buildings. However, there is growing evidence that nZEB design strategies may impact indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Most of the current research on nZEB has focused on the energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness of nZEB, with less research on the IEQ of nZEB. This literature reviewed 25 case studies on IEQ assessment to determine the actual IEQ performance in nZEB and the impact of design strategies on IEQ. The results showed that all four parameters of IEQ performance assessment have yet to be included in the scope of IEQ assessment. In addition to physical parameter measurements and criteria, subjective measurements should be the primary determinant of IEQ. Moreover, the analysis shows that overheating, poor air quality, thermal discomfort, and Sick Building Syndrome (SBS) are common IEQ risk factors reported. At the same time, the building envelope, HVAC system, and control system are the main factors contributing to the increase in IEQ risk factors. This review will provide practical reference values and recommendations for building professionals in future studies.

Currently, China has entered the development stage of a “low birth rate” demographically. There is a huge contradiction between the unbalanced and inadequate distribution of preschool education facilities (PEFs) and the people’s expectations for “full and good education for children”. This study took the Lingui New District, a typical new urban area in West China as the research area, and through the introduction of POI big data and GIS analysis methods, supplemented by GeoDA Bivariate Moran index analyses, established a kindergarten spatial database. The study found that preschool education facilities have problems such as insufficient quantity, uneven quality, low service coverage, poor accessibility, etc. Therefore, it is suggested to increase the proportion of public affordable preschool education facilities including kindergartens and nurseries, optimize the spatial distribution of preschool education, and improve the accessibility of preschool services to promote affordable, safe, and high-quality development of preschool education and to provide reference suggestions for the revision of relevant standards and the adjustment of the layout of preschool education in undeveloped regions of China.

Accurately assessing the accessibility of fire services is critical for enhancing urban safety and the resilience of the built environment. However, existing studies often lack a systematic analysis of spatiotemporal dynamics across an entire municipality. To address this gap, this study develops a citywide dynamic assessment framework for Shanghai, integrating GIS with real-time traffic data across 240 consecutive intervals to assess the service accessibility of 195 fire stations in relation to 7973 key units of fire safety. The principal findings are threefold. First, the results reveal significant urban–suburban heterogeneity in emergency response times. Notably, the proximity advantage of fire stations in central urban areas is offset by traffic congestion, and the marginal benefit of traffic speed improvement exhibits a sharp decline once the average speed exceeds a critical threshold of 13.7–21.0 km/h. Second, the accessibility ratio demonstrates a clear temporal pattern, being highest on holidays and lowest during weekday peak hours, and follows a nonlinear spatial decline from the urban centre to the periphery. This pattern is influenced more critically by the matching of supply and demand than by fire station density alone. Third, the analysis identifies dynamic vulnerability hotspots, which display a ‘bimodal (M-shaped)’ pattern on weekdays and a ‘unimodal (A-shaped)’ pattern on weekends and holidays. This spatiotemporal mismatch shows that central urban areas, despite higher station density, can suffer from both high fire risk and low accessibility, revealing structural patterns consistent with the ‘Inverse Care Law’ in emergency service provision. This study concludes that merely improving traffic conditions is insufficient; optimising the spatial matching of resources is paramount for effective urban disaster prevention. By developing a refined dynamic assessment framework, this study advances current knowledge by focusing on demand locations consistent with actual fire regulatory priorities and examining spatiotemporal patterns across both urban and suburban areas, thereby providing quantitative, evidence-based support for the strategic planning of fire stations and the enhancement of infrastructure resilience.