Optimizing solar radiation and daylighting performance is a fundamental concern in architectural design, as these factors are directly linked to enhancing building energy efficiency and environmental comfort. This study seeks to balance solar radiation and daylighting performance through architectural geometry optimization, includes building’s length, width, height, orientation, and mass distribution. Parametric modeling based on the additive and subtractive design generation algorithms included in EvoMass on the Grasshopper platform, with the goal of minimizing the solar radiation variation between summer and winter on building envelopes and maximizing useful daylight illuminance (UDI). A multi-objective evolutionary algorithm named Steady-State Island Evolutionary Algorithm (SSIEA) was applied to optimize the building geometry, ultimately yielding the Pareto front optimal solution. When compared to the reference building, the optimized design enables the building to achieve a more balanced solar radiation distribution across different seasons, resulting in a 26.89% improvement in performance. Additionally, the building’s daylighting performance is enhanced by 19.85%. The results demonstrate that leveraging the Pareto front in the early stages of building geometric form design provides architects with effective strategies and solutions for geometry optimization, enabling performance-based design decisions in subsequent stages.

This study explores the use of solar chimneys to harness solar radiation, generating a chimney effect that promotes natural ventilation in buildings. However, the performance of double-channel solar chimneys is heavily influenced by their installation conditions. We propose an optimized double-channel solar chimney with a deflector placed at the base of the collector. Through numerical simulations, we analyze how different deflector installation conditions affect the ventilation performance of the optimized system. Key parameters for the deflector installation include its angle and length. Our findings reveal that the optimal configuration for the double-channel solar chimney occurs when the deflector has a horizontal angle of γ = 35° and a length-to-diameter ratio (l/D) of 0.3. Under a solar radiation intensity of 800 W/m², the optimized system achieved a ventilation rate of 0.185 kg/s and a thermal efficiency of 41.2%. Compared with conventional double-channel solar chimneys, this configuration enhanced ventilation performance by 8.2% and increased thermal efficiency by 7.4%. In the calculations, the optimized system resulted in a 13.6% reduction in energy consumption, underscoring its potential for sustainable architectural design.

This study investigates the synergistic effects between High-quality Urban Economic Development (HUED) and Integrated Urban–Rural Development (IURD) in Zhejiang Province (2014–2023). The research methodology incorporates the entropy weighting technique, the coupling coordination degree (CCD) model, and the relative development evaluation model. The results show that: (1) The two systems exhibit asynchronous evolution—HUED shows a slight downward trend, whereas IURD increases by 35.94%. (2) The mean CCD rises from 0.596 to 0.633, indicating a transition to moderate coordination, with a distinct “high north, low south” spatial pattern. (3) The spatial integration subsystem shows the lowest coordination with urban economic development, representing a key structural constraint. (4) Ten coupling coordination types are identified, among which “moderate coordination with slight lag in economic quality” is the most dominant. Overall, Zhejiang’s urban–rural relationship faces dual constraints: insufficient spatial integration at the subsystem level and lagged high-quality economic development at the system level. Accordingly, targeted spatial optimization and place-based policies are proposed.

Using panel data from 11 prefecture-level cities in Zhejiang Province (2014–2023), this study applies the entropy method, spatial autocorrelation analysis, and an obstacle-factor diagnosis model to examine the spatiotemporal evolution, regional disparities, and constraints on urban–rural integration. The results show a steady upward trend in urban–rural integration alongside significant regional disparities. This reveals a complex pattern marked by the coexistence of convergence and divergence. Spatially, a clear “northeast–high, southwest–low” pattern is observed, with local adjustments within a stable framework, reflecting a “stable core and entrenched low-value areas.” Spatial agglomeration is characterized by “dual-core agglomeration with a predominantly non-significant periphery,” dominated by homogeneous “high–high” and “low–low” clusters, with no statistically significant spatial outliers. Obstacle factor diagnosis indicates markedly uneven constraining effects across subsystems, with spatial integration exhibiting the highest degree of obstacles. The composition of primary obstacle factors is highly stable, and obstacle structures differ significantly across city tiers. These findings elucidate the spatiotemporal evolution and core constraints of urban–rural integration in Zhejiang, offering a theoretical and decision-making basis for advancing high-quality urban–rural integration in the region.

To evaluate the potential of phase-change materials (PCMs) in improving the indoor thermal and airflow environment of Trombe walls under solar energy limitations, a computational fluid dynamics (CFDs) model was employed in this study to perform comparative simulations. Taking traditional Trombe walls (TWs) as the control group and PCM-Trombe walls (PCM-TWs) as the experimental group, the simulation analysis was carried out based on meteorological data from a typical spring day in Hangzhou in 2024. The results indicate that the application of PCM significantly reduced temperature fluctuations in the air channel, lowering the peak temperature by 8.3 °C. Meanwhile, it delayed the decline in ventilation rate, extending the effective ventilation time by approximately one hour. Moreover, by calculating the Grashof number and ventilation rate, it was observed that the buoyancy effect of PCM-TWs is weaker than that of TWs at the peak wind speed, resulting in a lower natural convection intensity. The ventilation rate variation trend of PCM-TWs was smoother, with its peak ventilation rate slightly lower than that of TWs by 0.008 kg/s.