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Person-Environment Fit (P-E Fit) theory is an important concept for studying the complex relationships between people and the environment and for explaining individual behaviors. Recent research regarding the built environment typically focuses on P-E Fit to achieve a harmonious relationship between people and their surroundings. However, comprehensive knowledge of this research topic is insufficient for practical applications and future developments. This paper adopts a scoping review method to summarize the bibliometric features and the core components (i.e. person, environment, fit, and outcomes) regarding P-E Fit theory in the context of built environments, and discusses several existing knowledge gaps: the narrow scope of the topics, the unclear mechanism, and the lack of proactive and dynamic views. Finally, a new P-E Fit model is developed, and its strengths for sustainable improvement of the built environment are discussed. This review deepens the understanding of the literature, refines the theoretical framework, and provides researchers, designers, and policymakers with tools for developing research programs and practices for providing people-centered built environments from a P-E Fit perspective.

The spontaneous transformation of traditional residential space is one of the important phenomena in urban development in China, which is generally considered as a disorderly, random, and individual spatial product derived from current life. However, are these transformations really random individual phenomena? With traditional residential dwellings of Sanyi Street in Jingzhou as research objects, this study revealed the inherited characteristics of the concept system of “Bright-Dark” in the process of contemporary transformation of traditional residential dwellings. Typical residential dwellings were selected for surveying and mapping and the expression of the “Bright-Dark” concept system in the current transformed residential space compared with traditional residential space patterns. The results demonstrated the traditional concept system (“Bright-Dark”) of residential space still exerts its spatial control function in the seemingly random transformation of contemporary dwellings. In addition, the study provided new perspectives and methods for understanding contemporary transformation of traditional dwellings from the perspective of the concept system of “Bright-Dark”.

As the transition between streets and houses, in-between spaces represent unique and important residential components in East Asia, which reflect the spontaneous spatial improvement awareness of users in traditional districts and the state of public-private relations. To fill a gap in prior research regarding in-between spaces after spontaneous spatial improvement in traditional districts, this study considered 97 houses on Jiazhi Street and evaluated the two expressions of spontaneous spatial improvement of in-between spaces by quantifying modification indicators and encroachment using field surveys and area statistical methods. The research examined the correlation between various modifications and encroachment using multiple regression analysis and evaluated the characteristics of spontaneous spatial improvement by users based on multi-group relationships. The results offer a new perspective for observing the changes in residential environments in the context of urbanization, thus providing a basis for developing renewal strategies for traditional districts in China.

The importance of external space in residential areas is well-established in academic circles, and the spatial feature and use pattern have emerged as key aspects for relevant discussion. Research regarding the external space in urban settlements primarily involves relational holistic studies by western scholars and micro-observations by oriental scholars; both approaches have their own limitations. The research presented herein (i) studies external space as a physical space, categorizes the external space characteristics of Chongqing’s Shibanpo traditional settlements at three microscopic levels (i.e., upper elements, side elements, and bottom elements), (ii) conducts on-site observations of the use pattern of external space, and (iii) evaluates the interactions between spatial features and use patterns, as well as their joint effects on the development of the external space in the traditional urban settlement. The results indicate that various spatial elements can influence utilization behavior, and this relationship is discussed in detail to provide a foundation to guide future research and decision-making efforts.

Alongside modern urbanization, traditional Lilong housing structures have undergone tremendous changes in internal and external spatial form and usage status in order to adapt to the needs of modern, social life. In these spontaneous transformations, the street “publicness” and the residential privacy create a set of contradictory relationships that affect the overall morphology of the neighborhood. Taking the traditional lane residential area of Xing’anli, Dongtai Road, Shanghai, China as an example, we analyze the relationship between street “activeness” and the rate of residential remodeling. We attempt to clarify the characteristics of street publicness and housing “privateness” in the traditional Lilong neighborhoods and their mutual effects. This contributes to a comprehensive, workable knowledge of traditional cities and has reference significance for future urban transformation. We analyze the space utilization characteristics of Lilong neighborhoods from two perspectives here. First, with the overflow articles as a medium, we explore the activeness characteristics of different types of roads using the SD method. Second, based on field surveying and mapping, we assess the remodeling characteristics of buildings around different types of roads through remodeling volume and rate statistics. We draw conclusions through careful analysis of the relationship between the street activeness and residential remodeling rate information.

Suzhou, a Chinese “water town”, has undergone an essential transformation in the spatial nature of its riverside area post-urbanization. This research focuses on the spatial characteristics and utilization patterns of the building boundary along the Shantang River in Suzhou through field investigation and correspondence analysis. The constituent elements are determined, and then spatial characteristics are analyzed in terms of space type, river encroachment, and urban connectivity. The relationships between these characteristics and four utilization patterns are discussed. The building boundaries along the river have undergone a fundamental change within the modern era. There are significant relationships between utilization patterns and space type, river encroachment, and urban connectivity. The results presented here can provide workable guidance for effective further development of riverside spaces in Suzhou and beyond.

Using a street in Shanghai as a case study, a strategy was developed to study an urban network space system by analyzing and interpreting street space from the microscopic perspective of urban composition elements. At the methodological level, this study, using research methods related to Space Syntax Theory, explored the process of establishing urban elements, element space, and a spatial network system for these elements. The analysis included the integration degree and its distribution (overall infiltration characteristics), the systematic degree, and an adjustment relationship graph for local typical areas. There are three conclusions drawn from the analysis: From the perspective of elements, the Tianzifang street space is annularly connected in circles on different scales and connected in parallel to form an overall spatial structure. At the global level, the distribution of integration degrees exhibits a dotted infiltration pattern from the street to the interior, with a local core. In terms of local and global correlations, spaces with higher traffic attributes tend to increase local and global integration, and spaces with stronger functional attributes tend to increase the separation of local from whole. The element space and its associated shallow space of buildings approximate the overall synergy degree.

Shantang Street in Suzhou serves as the object of this study; field investigation, street mapping, data statistics, and other methods are utilized to observe spatial elements, tourist density, and the relationships among them. The spatial elements of Shantang Street are divided into basic elements (store density, facade opening, water proximity, D/H) and activity elements (upper shelter, commercial overflow, life overflow). These characteristics are also analyzed quantitatively. Next, tourists on Shantang Street are counted on-site to analyze their basic density. The SPSS software Canonical Correlation tool is utilized to establish a relationship between basic elements and activity elements; a set of canonical variates with a significant correlation between the two are obtained. The SPSS Multiple Regression tool is then used to observe the correlation between tourist density and street space elements. Store density, D/H, water proximity, commercial overflow, life overflow, and tourist density are found to be significantly correlated.

The influence of the types of architectural space on the residents’ consciousness of shared space, targeting mixed-status-family traditional residential buildings in the West Street area of Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, China was studied. The research was conducted through surveying, mapping, and an investigation of the current state of the buildings’ atria by using data statistics and function-fitting analysis. The study included the following four stages: 1. Because of modernization and urbanization, traditional buildings have been transforming from single-family to multi-family, leading to amalgamation. 2. With the emergence of amalgamated buildings, the shared space between households has changed from a street space to an atrium space, which is the most influential and includes three types: porch enclosure, hallway connection, and direct pathway. 3. The shared space consciousness of occupants was simulated by investigating how the overflow (two- and three-dimensional) of the atrium has been used. 4. The influence of space types on the consciousness of shared space is elucidated using data statistics and function-fitting analysis.

Taking Shanghai Tianzifang as an example, this study attempted to utilize theories, such as the Space Syntax Theory, to build a multivariate model with street spatial characteristics as variables, and investigate the correlation between street spatial characteristics and pedestrian density in commercial blocks using multivariate regression analyses of the variables in this model. This study inspected two aspects of spatial characteristics of street space. First, in terms of commercial use characteristics, this study examined how pedestrian density is affected by three variables: store density, overflow ratio of store-front space. Density of building exits and entrances. Next, in terms of structural characteristics, this study probed the relationship between commercial pedestrian density and three other variables: street integration, height of buildings on both sides of the streets, and the stores’ distance from block entrances. Last, a multivariate regression analysis was conducted on the research data of the six variables. The results validated that four of the variables are correlated with commercial pedestrian density, in the order of their degree of influence: street integration, store density, density of building exits and entrances, and height of buildings on both sides of the streets.