This study reviews the global trends, developments, and challenges in the conservation of historic districts through CiteSpace analysis. Since the dawn of the 21st century, research on historic districts has witnessed rapid growth. The research mainly focuses on fields such as urban studies, heritage conservation, and sustainable development. Although the concept of the Historic Urban Landscape has emerged, its local application remains challenging. Research findings on economic impacts are complex, and resilience assessment and community participation have become important topics. However, issues like inconsistent definitions and low community participation still exist. Future research should focus on narrowing the gap between theory and practice to better protect cultural heritage in the context of urban development.

This study focuses on buildings in the Chinese–Baroque Historic Shopping District in Harbin. In view of global climate change and high carbon emissions from the construction industry, this study aims to quantify carbon emissions during the decoration process and explore low-carbon decoration strategies that suit the local characteristics. This research adopts a four-stage framework of “data collection–quantitative analysis–strategy design–verification and optimization” and integrates Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and multi-objective optimization theory. Data are collected through questionnaires and field investigations, and simulations and analyses are carried out using Grasshopper and Honeybee. The results show that there are differences in carbon emissions between different decoration schemes. The chosen scheme of raw concrete and paint results in relatively low carbon emissions over the 10.12-year usage cycle. Based on this, design strategies such as extending the service life of decorations, rationally renovating windows, and preferentially selecting local low-carbon materials are proposed and applied to practical projects. This study not only fills a gap in the research on the low-carbon renovation of historical commercial blocks from the perspective of LCA but also provides practical solutions for the sustainable development of historical shopping blocks in Harbin and similar regions, promoting the low-carbon transformation of cities.

Against the backdrop of global rural decline and China’s Rural Revitalization Strategy (2017–2050), this study examines the spatial form evolution and development mechanism of Central Village in Huotong Town, Ningde. To achieve this, it employs field surveys, spatial mapping, and hierarchical element analysis to analyze the village’s scale, architectural texture, street interfaces, and landscape nodes. Results show three evolutionary stages: pre-2017 traffic-guided disorderly expansion, 2017–2020 policy-driven orderly planning, and post-2020 stock optimization, forming an “oval radial” structure constrained by the southern hills and Huotong River. The spatial structure shifted from a “kinship-based agglomeration” to a multi-center model, yet contradictions like historical texture damage and excessive street commercialization emerged. Its development is driven by four linked factors: policy, the market, socio-culture issues, and nature. This study offers references for similar rural settlements’ spatial planning and sustainability.

Amid long-term human consumption of surface resources and the intensifying climate crisis, underground space has increasingly attracted attention as a viable alternative for habitation, survival, and urban resilience. Historical and contemporary examples—from the Derinkuyu Underground City in Cappadocia, Turkey, to Iran’s “Shavadan” cooling system, as well as subterranean dwellings in hot arid regions such as the Berbers’ homes in Tunisia and miners’ settlements in Coober Pedy, Australia, and underground complexes in cold regions like Harbin, Sapporo, and Helsinki—demonstrate the significant advantages of underground spaces in thermal regulation, protection from extreme weather, and efficient resource utilization. With climate change driving increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events, including tornadoes, typhoons, and prolonged droughts, surface buildings face growing vulnerability, further emphasizing the potential of underground space for sustainable urban development. In parallel, advances in science and technology, particularly in space exploration, have accumulated extensive practical knowledge, creating pathways to extend terrestrial construction experience into extraterrestrial environments. The Moon, despite its strategic significance and potential resource value, presents an extremely hostile surface environment characterized by microgravity, near-vacuum conditions, extreme diurnal temperature variations of several hundred degrees, and very low thermal conductivity, all of which render conventional surface habitation challenging and prohibitively costly. Consequently, contemporary research has gradually shifted focus from lunar surface facilities toward the development and utilization of lunar underground spaces, which could provide enhanced environmental stability and habitation potential. This paper reviews the historical development and current research on lunar underground space utilization, proposes five guiding principles for its progressive exploration and construction, and presents a phased “1.0–4.0 era” framework for systematic development. Additionally, based on an adaptive design theoretical framework, spatial, environmental, and climatic strategies are proposed to guide future lunar habitation and ensure sustainable extraterrestrial development, providing a comprehensive reference for long-term planning and construction of lunar underground habitats.