As urbanization has accelerated, rail transit has evolved from being a mere means of transportation to a public area that houses the city’s cultural memory and serves as a crucial portal for the public to understand the culture of the city. As an urban public space with huge passenger flow, the metro (or subway) cultural space has also become a public cultural space, serving communal welfare and representing the image of the city. It is currently attracting more and more attention from the academic community. Wuhan, located in central China, has many subway lines and its engineering construction has set several national firsts, which is a typical sample of urban subway development in China. In this study, we use Python 3.13.0 crawler technology to capture the public’s comments on cultural space of Wuhan metro in social media and adopt SnowNLP sentiment score and LDA thematic clustering analysis to explore the overall quality, distinct characteristics, and deficiencies of Wuhan metro cultural space construction, and propose targeted design optimization strategies based on this study. The main findings are as follows: (1) The metro cultural space is an important window for the public to perceive the city culture, and the public in general shows positive perception of emotions: among the 16,316 data samples, 47.7% are positive comments, 17.8% are neutral comments, and 34.5% are negative comments. (2) Based on the frequency of content in the sample data for metro station exit and entrance space, metro train space, metro concourse and platform space, they are ranked as weak cultural spaces (18%), medium cultural spaces (33%), and strong cultural spaces (49%) in terms of the public’s perception of urban culture. (3) At present, there are certain deficiencies in Wuhan metro cultural space: the circulation paths in concourses and platforms are overly dominant, leaving little space for rest or interaction; the cultural symbols of metro train space are fragmented; the way of articulation between cultural and functional space in the metro station exit and entrance space is weak, and the space is single in form. (4) Wuhan metro cultural space needs to be based on locality landscape expression, functional zoning reorganization, innovative scene creation to optimize the visual symbol system and behavioral symbol system in the space, to establish a good image of the space, and to strengthen the public’s cultural identity and emotional resonance.

Since its inception, the theory of urban image cognition has become one of the most important theoretical frameworks in the field of urban planning and design. It emphasizes people’s subjective perception and cognition of the urban environment, and states that the city is not only a collection of material space but also a place with a specific meaning and image in people’s minds. This study explored the history and current situation of the Hubei Institute of Fine Arts (HIFA) campus and analyzed six aspects based on urban image theory: road imagery characteristics, boundary imagery characteristics, node imagery characteristics, the imagery characteristics of landmarks, the imagery characteristics of buildings, and the imagery characteristics of regions. We then summarized its existing spatial layout, architectural features, and cultural elements. The researchers employed three methodologies—the investigation of historical archives, the field survey method, and a technique that combines cognitive mapping with questionnaire surveys—to assess the strengths and shortcomings of existing campuses regarding the urban image theory. These findings resulted in the concept for an extensive renewal design plan that integrates the cognitive principles of urban imagery. The strategies included the following: (1) optimizing the spatial structure to enhance the connectivity and visibility of the campus; (2) renovating and upgrading existing buildings to reflect the artistic characteristics of the HIFA; and (3) designing unique landscapes and public spaces to create a rich and vibrant campus atmosphere. At the same time, researchers and design teams carried out design practice projects for four sub-projects on the HIFA campus: Aesthetic Education Avenue, Long Scroll by the Lake, Nine-Curved Corridor Bridge, and Open Campus–Urban Life Plaza. Through a case study of the HIFA, this research aims to provide a valuable reference for the campus renewal of other art universities, and to promote the application and innovation of urban image theory in the field of campus planning and design. It ultimately emphasizes the importance of creating a campus environment that not only meets the functional needs of education and research, but also enriches urban cultural imagery and enhances the sense of identity and belonging in the campus community.

With the rapid development of Chinese universities and the expansion of the number of students, how to use urban design analysis to study the built campus environment has become a primary issue. Based on the quantitative investigation and analysis of urban image theory, this paper compares the quantitative analysis results of the cognitive map of Hubei University of Technology campus, and obtains the cognitive intensity of five image elements on the campus of Hubei University of Technology (HBUT). The study found that mention rate of various elements of the campus gradually decreased along the two main axes of Chenxi Road and Zhongyang Avenue in the north and south directions; the imageability of various elements in the central area was significantly higher than that in other areas; the natural landscape element was the lake. An important feature of the campus image of the University of Technology; the campus lacks an environmental space with a strong cultural atmosphere. Finally, the results of space syntax analysis are compared and discussed, in order to improve the use efficiency and attractiveness of the campus environment space by Hugong University students, thereby improving the quality of the campus environment.

An exhibition is a complex organic system. The spatial design of an exhibition aims to visualize the ideology of this complex system in space, a process known as visual spatialization. How to integrate landmark buildings in a city into the visual design of large exhibition spaces is an academic and practical issue worth exploring. This study examined the exhibition space design of the Wuhan Design Biennale as a typical case. We conducted a limited survey on Wuhan’s image using the theory of urban image cognition, employing methods such as drawing cognitive maps, interviews, and network search image analysis to extract elements that could represent the image of Wuhan city and reflect Wuhan design in the minds of the public. The study found that: (1) whether it is an image map or a questionnaire, the mention rate of many bridges in Wuhan was very high, becoming an important element of the image of the river city today; (2) in the survey on internet images, the key elements of the “river city image” were more prominent; and (3) the urban image survey helped designers understand the characteristics of the public’s cognition of urban space more comprehensively and meticulously, thereby providing a focus for creative design. This innovative design method has been applied to the exhibition space design of the Wuhan Design Biennale, garnering significant praise for its implementation. This study summarizes the mechanism of integrating landmark buildings in cities into the visual design of large exhibition spaces, hoping to provide a reference for the design of future large exhibition spaces.

As the global population continues to age, mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, stress, loneliness, and social isolation among older adults are receiving increasing attention. The built environment is closely associated with older adults’ daily mobility, environmental perception, social participation, and mental health and well-being, but the evidence remains heterogeneous across spatial contexts, environmental indicators, and study designs. Previous umbrella reviews have summarized broad links between the built environment and healthy aging, but less attention has been paid to recent original empirical studies published after the COVID-19 pandemic, the distinction between objective environmental exposure and subjective environmental perception, and the role of social participation as a pathway linking environmental conditions to mental health and well-being. This study employs a systematic literature review approach, searching and screening peer-reviewed empirical studies published between 2015 and January 2026 that focus on the associations between the built environment and older adults’ mental health and well-being. PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases were used for searching, supplemented by manual searching. After title and abstract screening and full-text evaluation, a total of 60 studies were included. Subsequently, a comprehensive analysis was conducted on aspects such as research design, spatial scale, environmental indicators, types of mental health outcomes, and potential pathways of action. In this review, core mental health and well-being outcomes included negative outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, stress, psychological distress, loneliness, and social isolation, and positive outcomes, such as life satisfaction, subjective well-being, psychological well-being, and mental well-being. Social participation was examined as a behavioral and psychosocial pathway rather than as a core outcome. Emerging methods, including street-view image analysis, FCN-based semantic segmentation, and XGBoost-SHAP, were examined because they can refine environmental exposure measurement and support variable-importance interpretation, rather than because they provide causal evidence. The main synthesis suggests that several built environment factors are associated with older adults’ mental health and well-being, although the strength and consistency of evidence vary across outcome types, spatial contexts, and study designs. (1) Exposure to green and blue spaces, quality of public open spaces, walkability and accessibility, accessibility of neighborhood facilities and services, housing and living conditions, and positive environmental perception are mostly associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety, stress, and loneliness, as well as higher levels of life satisfaction, subjective well-being, and psychological well-being. (2) Conversely, adverse environmental exposures such as proximity to roads, pollution, non-vegetated spaces, and high-intensity urbanization are more likely to exacerbate negative psychological outcomes. Existing evidence also suggests that social participation is one of the important behavioral pathways through which the built environment is linked to the mental health of older adults, but it is not the only mechanism. (3) In addition, the direction and intensity of environmental associations remain heterogeneous under different spatial scales, indicator types, and research methods. Overall, this review contributes by organizing recent empirical evidence into a built environment–social participation–mental health and well-being framework, while emphasizing that most findings should be interpreted primarily as evidence of association rather than as stable or uniform causal effects.