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In the cold regions of China, the existing rural houses are widely distributed and in large numbers. There are widespread problems such as low thermal performance of building envelopes, high building energy consumption, and poor indoor thermal environments. Reducing the energy consumption of building heating by reforming the envelope structure can reduce the environmental pollution caused by heating. In this paper, the existing rural houses in Tongchuan City, Shaanxi Province are taken as the research object, and EnergyPlus software is used to calculate building heating energy consumption, and the schemes are compared and selected via the entropy value method. Based on a comprehensive benefit evaluation, the best scheme for the renovation of building envelopes of rural houses in Tongchuan City is put forward. The research results show that the energy saving rate of buildings can reach more than 50% after renovation. In the evaluation of energy saving, incremental cost, return on investment, carbon emission reduction and unguaranteed hours, the weights are 0.1915, 0.2104, 0.2312, 1755, and 0.187, respectively. The best renovation scheme for rural housing is as follows: the thickness of the XPS board is 90 mm for exterior wall insulation; the thickness of the XPS board is 80 mm for roof insulation; the window-to-wall ratio of additional sunspace is 0.6; and the type of exterior windows is a broken-bridge hollow aluminum window of 6 + 12A + 6 (mm). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most farm houses in China are self-built. The process of design and construction of these houses generally lack theoretical and technical support logic and they do not comply with national standards. The objective of this research was to improve the thermal properties of farm houses in hot summer and cold winter regions of China. A rural house in Zijin Zhuang village, Hubei Province was selected to identify ways to improve its enclosure and the thermal performance of its building envelope. This paper considers the relationship between enclosure structure and thermal comfort, by quantitative comparison and analysis of thermal environmental data before and after refurbishment. DesignBuilder software was used to simulate the amount of energy consumed to attain the same indoor thermal comfort before and after the refurbishment. This study provides a reference exemplar for the construction of these farm houses in hot summer and cold winter areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It results in equally fresh, and urgent, conceptions of building for our students and engenders novel interpretations of building activities and flows that can better achieve ecologically sane and socially just practices of architecture. The excessively complicated assembly of contemporary building enclosures, as now taught in schools of architecture, only exacerbates these forms of sociological and economic enclosure through a pernicious neoliberal political economy of building. For instance, non-Western histories of building have meaningfully challenged the North American bias of twentieth-century pedagogy in very welcome ways and have enriched and broadened our conception of architecture and building on this planet. [Extracted from the article]

With the continuous implementation of a plan for reconstruction of "Beautiful Countryside" in China, the rural environment and appearance of rural houses have been significantly improved. However, those houses in cold areas of China have great trouble with indoor temperature and heating-related energy consumption. After investigating the current situation of the layout, building envelope, indoor temperature, and energy consumption of the rural houses renovated by the plan of "Beautiful Countryside" in Shandong Province, this paper puts forward the improvement measures of raising indoor temperature and reducing energy consumption. On this basis, a typical rural house was selected, and DesignBuilder was utilized to simulate the effects before and after the application of different renovation measures for this house. The results show that the main way to raise indoor temperature and reduce energy consumption is to improve the thermal insulation performance of the building envelope, including renovation of the roof, exterior walls, doors and windows, and attached sunspace. In addition, combined with the achievements of "Beautiful Countryside" reconstruction, this paper shall propose specific renovation practices which are suitable for different rural houses. Based on the level of economic development in rural areas, it also puts forward some feasible renovation paths for different rural areas, and further provides references for other areas to carry out relevant work in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]