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Every country in the world, except for African nations, faces significant challenges due to the increasing older population, with China being particularly affected. This issue is more pronounced in rural areas compared to urban centers. To better understand consumer attitudes and willingness to pay (WTP) for age-friendly retrofitting and to identify industry development shortcomings, this study designed a retrofitting scenario and organized a questionnaire survey to collect WTP and its influencing factors from respondents in the Wuhu area of Anhui Province, China. This study determined the retrofit cost to be CNY 12,224.4 and found that over 80% of respondents intended to pursue age-friendly retrofitting. The analysis results indicated that respondents' education level, perceived psychological benefits, and perceived social benefits were positively correlated with their WTP. Additionally, education level, monthly personal income, and choice of retirement area positively influenced retrofitting budgets, whereas age bracket, employment status, and perceived situational risk negatively influenced them. The study's findings will assist consumers in making informed retrofitting decisions and support the government in formulating appropriate policies to enhance the quality of rural residential environments and improve the living standards of the elderly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research has the objective of proposing the design of rural housing infrastructure with self-sustainable modular design strategies that allow for a regional conservation area within the Callejón de Conchucos. The absence of adequate territorial planning has led to disorganized urban growth, characterized by the lack of green areas, resulting in a negative impact on the quality of urban life of the inhabitants, increasing their risk to natural disasters. The methodology employed was the analysis of extensive research through a comprehensive literature review, urban studies and climate assessments. Sustainability strategies were implemented using various digital tools, such as Climate Consultant, Google Earth and maps, AutoCAD, Revit, SketchUp and 3D Sun path. Therefore, the proposal allows for the enhancement of comfort through spaces for the conservation of natural resources, taking advantage of its landscape and nature of the place, with the characteristics of sustainability in rural and urban housing in high Andean areas, implementing bioclimatic strategies, such as evaporative cooling, and clean technologies that allow for an energy efficiency of 50%. In conclusion, the proposal for the Callejón de Conchucos seeks to transform the region into an attractive tourist destination by providing high-quality ecosystem services and an enriched cultural experience by integrating modular design criteria and employing sustainable and appropriate technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermal performance of rural building envelopes is mostly non-standardized in Northern China, resulting in significant heat loss. In this study, we take, as an example, the central area of Liaoning province, with the objective of proposing some low-cost and energy-efficient solutions. Through our investigations, we found that heating energy consumption was reduced by 20% and construction costs increased by less than CNY 8000 (USD 1108), which can be accepted by rural residents. In order to achieve this target, the NSGA-II algorithm integrated with Rhino + Grasshopper and EnergyPlus simulation kernel was used to establish a thermal performance optimization model for the heat transfer of rural building envelopes in this severe cold region. Among the above-calculated Pareto optimal solutions, the recommended thickness of insulation layers for room floors, roofs, and external walls was about 70 mm, 50 mm, and 40 mm, respectively. Furthermore, we tried to reduce the window-to-wall ratio as much as possible. Finally, based on both the lower building renovation cost and energy-saving rate, three technical solutions from which rural residents could select, according to their specific needs, are put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid advancement of urbanization in China has exacerbated the contraction of many rural populations and as a result, the abandonment of many traditional dwellings. Therefore, the aim of this study was to properly analyze the deterioration of vacant traditional dwellings and propose ways to intervene and gradually solve the problem of vacant housing in rural areas. In this study, Wushao Village in Xuzhou City was selected for a pilot study of a typical village with a shrinking population. The research methods involved abundant field investigations to clarify the construction techniques and gather information on the deterioration of vacant traditional dwellings. Additionally, a comprehensive comparative analysis was performed to determine the appropriate treatments for deterioration problems. The results indicated that the vacant traditional dwellings in Wushao Village had various types of decay. Corresponding intervention measures and steps were proposed based on the specific causes of deterioration. This study demonstrated that comprehensive deterioration investigations and intervention treatments were able to effectively rehabilitate the integral status and preserve the authenticity of rural traditional dwellings. This will be conducive to the continuation and revitalization of the traditional features of villages.

A large number of people in China still live in rural villages. The indoor environment of these rural dwellings directly affects the quality of life of the occupants. Nevertheless, constrained by the quality of dwelling construction, rural buildings have poorer indoor environments and, at the same time, have a higher operating energy consumption. However, inadequate attention has been given to the summer thermal environment in cold regions. This work has been carried out around the thermal environment of rural residences in cold regions during summer. Field measurements, questionnaires, and data analysis were used in this study. We recorded the indoor and outdoor thermal environment parameters on a typical summer day in the Linyi rural area. Moreover, the subjective sensations and thermal adaptive behaviors of the participants were recorded in detail with a questionnaire. Linear regression showed that the neutral temperature for residents in summer was 27.52 °C, with acceptable temperatures ranging from 25.14 °C to 29.9 °C. Age and gender differences were found to affect the occupants' sensation of thermal comfort and humidity, as well as their thermal adaptive behavior. In addition, a thermal adaptive model has been constructed in the study, which will further enrich the thermal adaptive investigation and provide a scientifically sound reference for the renovation and development of the local rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates strategies to optimize the thermal environment and energy efficiency of rural dwellings in Yulin, China. Temperature, humidity, and solar radiation were monitored in three typical courtyard houses. Standard Deviation analysis revealed issues with indoor comfort and enclosure performance. Renovation approaches were proposed involving layout changes and envelope improvements. Simulations using Ecotect demonstrated the modifications could increase average indoor temperatures by 2.8 °C and reduce fluctuation ranges. This study provides an evidence-based methodology for enhancing rural home thermal comfort through climate-responsive design strategies tailored to the severe cold climate in Yulin, which could serve as a blueprint for similar cold regions around the world.

Every country in the world, except for African nations, faces significant challenges due to the increasing older population, with China being particularly affected. This issue is more pronounced in rural areas compared to urban centers. To better understand consumer attitudes and willingness to pay (WTP) for age-friendly retrofitting and to identify industry development shortcomings, this study designed a retrofitting scenario and organized a questionnaire survey to collect WTP and its influencing factors from respondents in the Wuhu area of Anhui Province, China. This study determined the retrofit cost to be CNY 12,224.4 and found that over 80% of respondents intended to pursue age-friendly retrofitting. The analysis results indicated that respondents’ education level, perceived psychological benefits, and perceived social benefits were positively correlated with their WTP. Additionally, education level, monthly personal income, and choice of retirement area positively influenced retrofitting budgets, whereas age bracket, employment status, and perceived situational risk negatively influenced them. The study’s findings will assist consumers in making informed retrofitting decisions and support the government in formulating appropriate policies to enhance the quality of rural residential environments and improve the living standards of the elderly.

The present research has the objective of proposing the design of rural housing infrastructure with self-sustainable modular design strategies that allow for a regional conservation area within the Callejón de Conchucos. The absence of adequate territorial planning has led to disorganized urban growth, characterized by the lack of green areas, resulting in a negative impact on the quality of urban life of the inhabitants, increasing their risk to natural disasters. The methodology employed was the analysis of extensive research through a comprehensive literature review, urban studies and climate assessments. Sustainability strategies were implemented using various digital tools, such as Climate Consultant, Google Earth and maps, AutoCAD, Revit, SketchUp and 3D Sun path. Therefore, the proposal allows for the enhancement of comfort through spaces for the conservation of natural resources, taking advantage of its landscape and nature of the place, with the characteristics of sustainability in rural and urban housing in high Andean areas, implementing bioclimatic strategies, such as evaporative cooling, and clean technologies that allow for an energy efficiency of 50%. In conclusion, the proposal for the Callejón de Conchucos seeks to transform the region into an attractive tourist destination by providing high-quality ecosystem services and an enriched cultural experience by integrating modular design criteria and employing sustainable and appropriate technologies.

Abstract: Conducted as part of a Collective Research Project (PCR, Projet Collectif de Recherche) titled “Funerary spaces and practices in Alsace during Merovingian and Carolingian times”, the study of residential graves, discovered in early medieval rural dwelling contexts, aims to develop an archaeological and anthropological methodology that can be adapted to a heterogeneous corpus and limited research time, to analyse and compare the corpus from Alsace to other regional funerary groups as well as residential burial groups in other French regions and neighbouring German region of Bade-Württemberg. With a corpus of 171 burials and 192 individuals from 19 sites, 46 of which have been radiocarbon dated and 30 dated by typochronology of the artefacts, the project led to the development of a methodology allowing a chronological, topographical, proxemical, biological and social approach of the practice. Three chronological phases have been identified during the three centuries of the practice, as well as three topographical layouts of the burials: isolated, scattered, and grouped. Funerary gestures and architecture are similar to what is known for contemporary large burial groups. The demographic and biological study of the buried population gave similar results to data in cemeteries. Considering the characteristics and their limits, the family groups and beliefs, the interpretations proposed by this study are compared to what is known in France and North-Western Europe. These first results are modest, but this new methodology should help process other heterogeneous regional bodies of data and allow more precise comparisons.

The thermal performance of rural building envelopes is mostly non-standardized in Northern China, resulting in significant heat loss. In this study, we take, as an example, the central area of Liaoning province, with the objective of proposing some low-cost and energy-efficient solutions. Through our investigations, we found that heating energy consumption was reduced by 20% and construction costs increased by less than CNY 8000 (USD 1108), which can be accepted by rural residents. In order to achieve this target, the NSGA-II algorithm integrated with Rhino + Grasshopper and EnergyPlus simulation kernel was used to establish a thermal performance optimization model for the heat transfer of rural building envelopes in this severe cold region. Among the above-calculated Pareto optimal solutions, the recommended thickness of insulation layers for room floors, roofs, and external walls was about 70 mm, 50 mm, and 40 mm, respectively. Furthermore, we tried to reduce the window-to-wall ratio as much as possible. Finally, based on both the lower building renovation cost and energy-saving rate, three technical solutions from which rural residents could select, according to their specific needs, are put forward.

A large number of people in China still live in rural villages. The indoor environment of these rural dwellings directly affects the quality of life of the occupants. Nevertheless, constrained by the quality of dwelling construction, rural buildings have poorer indoor environments and, at the same time, have a higher operating energy consumption. However, inadequate attention has been given to the summer thermal environment in cold regions. This work has been carried out around the thermal environment of rural residences in cold regions during summer. Field measurements, questionnaires, and data analysis were used in this study. We recorded the indoor and outdoor thermal environment parameters on a typical summer day in the Linyi rural area. Moreover, the subjective sensations and thermal adaptive behaviors of the participants were recorded in detail with a questionnaire. Linear regression showed that the neutral temperature for residents in summer was 27.52 °C, with acceptable temperatures ranging from 25.14 °C to 29.9 °C. Age and gender differences were found to affect the occupants’ sensation of thermal comfort and humidity, as well as their thermal adaptive behavior. In addition, a thermal adaptive model has been constructed in the study, which will further enrich the thermal adaptive investigation and provide a scientifically sound reference for the renovation and development of the local rural areas.

Introduction: Early-life educational attainment contributes to cognitive reserve (CR). We investigated the associations of lifelong CR with dementia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) among older people with limited formal education. Methods: This population-based cohort study included 2,127 dementia-free participants (≥60 years; 59.4% women; 81.5% with no or elementary school) who were examined at baseline (August-December 2014) and follow-up (March-September 2018). Lifelong CR score at baseline was generated from six lifespan intellectual factors. Dementia, MCI, and their subtypes were defined according to the international criteria. Data were analyzed using Cox proportional-hazards models. Results: During the total of 8,330.6 person-years of follow-up, 101 persons were diagnosed with dementia, including 74 with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and 26 with vascular dementia (VaD). The high (vs. low) tertile of lifelong CR score was associated with multivariable-adjusted hazards ratios (95% confidence interval) of 0.28 (0.14–0.55) for dementia and 0.18 (0.07–0.48) for AD. The association between higher CR and reduced AD risk was significant in people aged 60–74 but not in those aged ≥75 years (p for interaction = 0.011). Similarly, among MCI-free people at baseline (n = 1,635), the high (vs. low) tertile of lifelong CR score was associated with multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios of 0.51 (0.38–0.69) for MCI and 0.46 (0.33–0.64) for amnestic MCI. Lifelong CR was not related to VaD or non-amnestic MCI. Discussion: High lifelong CR is associated with reduced risks of dementia and MCI, especially AD and amnestic MCI. It highlights the importance of lifelong CR in maintaining late-life cognitive health even among people with no or limited education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural dwellings are an important group of residential buildings in China. With the continuous development of rural construction in China, the contradiction between the pursuit of a simple material space and the villagers' demand for living quality, especially the indoor thermal comfort of rural dwellings, has become increasingly prominent. Therefore, it is particularly important to study the optimization strategies of the indoor thermal environment in rural dwellings. Current research on optimizing the indoor thermal environment of rural dwellings mainly focuses on analyzing the impact of individual factors, such as the envelope structures, building constructions, and building technology applications, but there is a lack of strategy development based on the comprehensive evaluation. This study aims to analyze the combined effects of multiple design elements on the indoor thermal environment and propose a comprehensive optimization strategy for rural dwellings. This study selects the rural dwellings around Xi'an as an example and establishes a basic model of the rural dwellings around Xi'an through field investigation and software simulation. Then, through univariate and compound-variable simulations, we analyze the influence of changes in passive architectural design indicators on the indoor physiological equivalent temperature (PET) of rural dwellings and obtain a comprehensive design indicator optimization strategy. This strategy can improve the indoor thermal comfort in winter and summer, especially in winter, achieving an average increase of 4.17 °C in the winter PET value and an average decrease of 0.66 °C in summer. This provides a reference for the design and renovation of rural dwellings in Xi'an and other rural areas in the cold regions of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural settlements are places where agricultural and livestock farming activities are carried out, have a relatively low population density, industrial and commercial activities do not develop and directly take form by human, environmental, and cultural interaction. Rural dwellings and add-ons constitute the characteristic texture of rural settlements. Rural dwellings can be defined as not only housing places, but also places where many activities are carried out and include add-ons with storage and production volumes based on the economic activity of the owner of the dwelling and the requirements of the region. These add-ons form the plan design of the residences (as closed, semi-open, and open spaces) depending on the living conditions of the region and the needs of the users. With these qualities, rural dwellings are sustainable structures that reflect the natural and human characteristics of the environment. However, in line with the economic and sociocultural developments experienced today, the influence of user behaviors and life habits is gradually decreasing in space design, and the uniform formation attracts attention. Although this situation does not pose much of a problem in terms of living dynamics in urban settlements, especially actions affecting the organization of space and not taking into account living habits cause different problems and pose a risk to the sustainability of dwellings in rural settlements. In order for the structures not to become unidentified and lose their characteristics of belonging to the place, it is necessary to pay attention to the climate, topography, and use of local materials in the new buildings, as well as to analyze all add-ons related to the actions performed by the users in the housing, especially in rural dwellings. If this factor affecting the formation is ignored, the dwelling will be 1 insufficient to respond to the needs of the user due to the living dynamics of the region where it is built, and this condition will negatively affect both spatial and sociocultural continuity. For this reason, in this study, the add-ons belonging to rural dwellings determined by inventory studies carried out within the scope of the master's thesis study titled "A Research on Rural Dwellings and Their Add-ons: The Case of Tongurlar Village" were analyzed in terms of function, plan characteristics, construction system, and material, and the types of add-ons affecting the dwelling organization were examined. The fact that the buildings that approach the dwelling with today's spatial perception only to meet the need for housing The fact that the buildings that approach the dwelling with today's spatial perception only to meet the need for housing alone cannot respond to the living dynamics of the settlement and do acquire add-ons over time was explained through the new dwellings located in Tongurlar Village. Moreover it has been revealed that the type projects prepared by authorized institutions for those who want to build their own housing in the rural, although it is mentioned that they are compatible with the vernacular architecture and living conditions, are produced without considering the add-ons, and it is stated that this may cause sustainability problems. In the conclusion part, solution suggestions for the problem are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unlike urban dwellings, it is very common for elderly people to stay at home alone in Chinese rural families, and some families have three generations in the same house who are in different situations, and their different family patterns lead to different highly sensitive parameters of building energy consumption. This paper first selects the three most common family patterns based on a questionnaire survey. The measured energy consumption behavior and electrical parameters, energy consumption time, and basic building parameters were input into DesignBuilder to build three building simulation models, and these were verified by comparing the predicted and measured values of the residential month-by-month electricity consumption. The global sensitivity analysis was then conducted using DesignBuilder software to determine the interactions between the variables by using the second-order Sobol index for cooling load, heating load, and comfort of the models to obtain standardized regression coefficients (SRC) for each factor to determine the most sensitive parameters. The results show that the different household patterns had little influence on the ranking of highly sensitive factors for heating and cooling, but annual electricity consumption and discomfort in different household patterns had a significant influence on the ranking of highly sensitive factors. For example, model 1 showed the most sensitivity to general lighting power density when optimizing the total amount of electricity was the goal, while the one that had the greatest degree of influence on the total amount of electricity in model 2 and model 3 was equipment power density. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The highest concentration of PM2.5 in cold rural dwellings of Northeast China is often generated by using mini stoves for cooking and heating, which can directly influence human health. As of yet, little is known about the impact of different daily life behavior on PM2.5 diffusion and residents' exposure in rural dwellings. In this study, the characteristics of indoor PM2.5 variation and diffusion in rural dwellings was described by measuring some rural dwellings and establishing a multi-zone network model. The calculated results indicated that the relative errors between theoretical calculated results and experimental measured results are within 10%. PM2.5 diffusion in a rural dwelling can be predicted. Furthermore, the impacts of daily life behavior on PM2.5 diffusion and exposure assessment can be analyzed. Through discussion, heating behavior is the most important factor causing high concentrations of PM2.5 in each room, followed by cooking, smoking, and cleaning. Door opening time can lead to different interzonal airflows and PM2.5 diffusion rates. By reducing the inner door opening time to less than 1 min, PM2.5 could decrease to 300 μg/m3. Door closing behavior could decrease risk that PM2.5 diffuses to bedrooms by more than 50%, and exposure of residents in bedrooms could reduce to 100 (μg·h)/m3 effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indoor thermal comfort and passive solar heating technologies have been extensively studied. However, few studies have explored the suitability of passive solar heating technologies based on differentiated thermal comfort demands. This work took the rural dwellings in Northwest China as the research object. First, the current indoor and outdoor thermal environment in winter and the mechanism of residents’ differentiated demand for indoor thermal comfort were obtained through tests, questionnaires, and statistical analysis. Second, a comprehensive passive optimized design of existing buildings was conducted, and the validity of the optimized combination scheme was explored using DesignBuilder software. Finally, the suitability of passive solar heating technology for each region in Northwest China was analyzed based on residents’ differentiated demand for indoor thermal comfort. The regions were then classified according to the suitability of the technology for these. The results showed that the indoor heating energy consumption was high and the indoor thermal environment was not ideal, yet the solar energy resources were abundant. Indoor comfort temperature indexes that match the functional rooms and usage periods were proposed. For the buildings with the optimized combination scheme, the average indoor temperature was increased significantly and the temperature fluctuation was decreased dramatically. Most regions in Northwest China were suitable for the development of passive solar heating technology. Based on the obtained suitability of the technology for the regions of Northwest China, these were classified into most suitable, more suitable, less suitable, and unsuitable regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Highly targeted multi-objective optimization process for rural areas with comprehensive variables and objectives. • A novel two-step optimization method integrating both cost-free and cost-included approaches is proposed, considering the economic conditions of rural areas. • The innovative integration of orthogonal experiments with multi-objective optimization enhances the scientific rigor in selecting optimal solutions. Rural dwellings in China's cold regions face significant challenges related to energy consumption, thermal comfort, and daylight, with a projected substantial increase in energy demand in the future. Scientifically optimized design during the early planning stages can significantly enhance indoor thermal and daylight conditions, effectively reducing energy consumption. This study focuses on Shandong Province to comprehensively analyze the optimization of geometry and envelope design of rural dwellings in China's cold regions. It employs a multi-objective optimization method, integrating genetic algorithms with dynamic energy simulations, to minimize total energy demand while ensuring thermal comfort and sufficient daylight. Utilizing the Octopus plugin in Grasshopper, in conjunction with EnergyPlus, Ladybug, and Honeybee, this research optimizes and analyzes the impact of various design variables on energy consumption, thermal comfort and daylight, including room depth, window-to-wall ratio in different orientations, thermal performance of the envelope, and related glass material parameters. The results indicate that the selected variables have significant energy-saving potential. Compared to the case study building, the optimized solutions can reduce total energy demand by over 62.41%, with the highest savings rate reaching 88.75%. This study emphasizes the importance of integrated design and optimization strategies in enhancing the sustainability of rural dwellings. It proposes both cost-free and cost-included optimization schemes: the former maximizes the energy-saving, thermal comfort and daylight potential of the selected variables, while the latter is more practically feasible considering the economic constraints of rural areas. The proposed optimization schemes provide multiple reference solutions and theoretical foundations for users of rural dwellings in China's cold regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rural areas in Turkey are undergoing significant transformations, but not as much as cities. Rural areas are evolving in many aspects, including land use, economic structure, and lifestyles. Rural housing is one of the most important indicators of change. The migration of rural dwellings from settlement centers causes the settlement pattern to loosen and disperse, similar to urban sprawl. Thus, existing agricultural/livestock lands and natural elements are changing and transforming. The change/transformation process that rural areas undergo as a whole is conceptualized as “new rurality” in the literature. The adoption of the “dual lifestyle” and the “urban lifestyle” in the countryside, which are indicators of the new rurality, has increased the demand for “country residence” and “second homes” in the countryside. Thus, more housing is being built in areas near major transportation axes, particularly near cities and in rural areas. Making suitability analyses and creating projections by employing geographical data in the selection of the locations of these newly built houses is important for the future of existing agricultural areas and rural planning. Performing site selection analyses with different methods demonstrates the advantages of one method over the others and provides more accurate analyses. In this study, logistic regression (LR), analytical hierarchy process (AHP), and frequency ratio (FO) methods were used for site selection suitability analysis. The study area, Keban Stream Basin, is located in the northwest of Elazig, within the borders of the Keban district. The basin has a surface area of approximately 187 km2 . According to the results on the maps, the basin has an average land area of 12.5 km², which is suitable for new rural housing construction. Although each model has its advantages, the LR and FO methods produced more suitable results than the AHP method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The present study examines the clan-wise distribution of rural dwellings, house types based on building materials of Chura caste in Jhajjar district of Haryana state. Primary data has been collected from 460 sample households from 15 select villages with the help of stratified random sampling. The surveyed households are represented by 12 clans among Chura caste. It is found that about 61 per cent dwellings have one or two rooms, while nearly seven per cent dwellings have five or more rooms. About 63 per cent wall of the houses are made of mud and un-burnt bricks. Stone and reinforced cement concrete are the most prevalent materials used in roofs. The floors in nearly half of the houses are built of cement. On the whole nearly 55 per cent of the houses of the sample population are made of mixed type while about a little more than one-third can be categorized as pucca houses. Complete kutcha houses form barely nine per cent of the houses. Households with comparatively better socio-economic conditions have own pucca houses among the chura caste. The Geychand clan appears to be better off in term of quality of dwellings occupied while Lauth occupy the lowest position in the ladder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the seismic design code of buildings and the identification standard of dangerous buildings, this study carried out a comprehensive survey of rural residential buildings in Tongling city of Anhui Province conducted and evaluated earthquake safety of the buildings. Based on the technical requirement of buildings and characteristics of earthquakes disaster in Anqing and Fuyang city in Anhui Province, the study analyzed the main cause of the weak seismic performance of rural buildings, including unreasonable location, unscientific design and planning, immature construction technology, inferior and substandard building materials, and unreasonable structure of the house. This paper proposed suggestions for the seismic fortification of rural buildings, which will provide scientific basis and reference for the future seismic fortification work in southern Anhui.

On a global scale, buildings are responsible for significant energy consumption. While the energy intake of urban buildings has been studied well, there are barely any studies on rural dwellings. The current paper examines the embodied energy (EE), operational energy (OE) and life-cycle energy (LCE) of 27 rural dwellings spread across four climate zones of India. It is found that these rural dwellings use locally available least-processed natural materials with very low EE. However, with the advent of modern transportation, manufactured energy-intensive construction materials have reached rural areas. From the analysis it is seen that the EE ranges from 0.002 to 2.8 GJ/m2, the annual OE from 0.006 to 0.053 GJ/m2 and the LCE from 0.77 to 4.05 GJ/m2 for the rural dwellings studied, with mass ranging from 1.13 to 3.6 t/m2.

The highest concentration of PM2.5 in cold rural dwellings of Northeast China is often generated by using mini stoves for cooking and heating, which can directly influence human health. As of yet, little is known about the impact of different daily life behavior on PM2.5 diffusion and residents’ exposure in rural dwellings. In this study, the characteristics of indoor PM2.5 variation and diffusion in rural dwellings was described by measuring some rural dwellings and establishing a multi-zone network model. The calculated results indicated that the relative errors between theoretical calculated results and experimental measured results are within 10%. PM2.5 diffusion in a rural dwelling can be predicted. Furthermore, the impacts of daily life behavior on PM2.5 diffusion and exposure assessment can be analyzed. Through discussion, heating behavior is the most important factor causing high concentrations of PM2.5 in each room, followed by cooking, smoking, and cleaning. Door opening time can lead to different interzonal airflows and PM2.5 diffusion rates. By reducing the inner door opening time to less than 1 min, PM2.5 could decrease to 300 μg/m3. Door closing behavior could decrease risk that PM2.5 diffuses to bedrooms by more than 50%, and exposure of residents in bedrooms could reduce to 100 (μg·h)/m3 effectively.

Around one third of Iranian population live in rural housing. The physical characteristics of rural housing have been shaped by economic, social, cultural and environmental factors and in response to the ecological and livelihood needs. Architects and inhabitants play fundamental roles in the formation of rural housing. Therefore, their cooperation can influence creating desirable rural housings. Nowadays most rural houses of Iran, and in particular Garmsar County’s rural settlements, face a number of problems such as identity crisis, climate discomfort and environmental unsustainability. These problems have been exacerbated by a decrease in rural people participation in the process of design and construction of their houses. The aim of this research is to identify policies for increasing the efficiency and durability of rural housing as well as promoting active participation of people in the processes of housing design and construction. This research adopts a qualitative approach. It studies and analyses prevalent methods and techniques of traditional rural architecture in Garmsar County and explores those elements that shape the identity of vernacular architecture in this area. Collecting qualitative data relied on in-depth and semi-structured interviews with traditional architects of Garmsar rural districts as well as field observations. One of the approaches used in this study is action research. This approach requires a collaborative procedure between the researcher and rural inhabitants. This research highlights the importance of learning through practical experiences in developing local capacities, adaptable to the rural living condition. The analysis is based on a comparison between the characteristics and patterns of old and new rural housing architecture in Garmsar, Iran. Vernacular rural architecture of Gamsar area has elements and aspects that can be adopted in new architecture of rural housing. Not only can such adoption ensure the continuity across generations, but also it can revive the physical identity of the space and its responsiveness to the needs of villagers. This revitalization can be conducive to a sense of place attachment among rural inhabitants and restoring production-based rural life style, reducing energy consumption and enhancing climate comfort, increasing people participation and improving the quality of their lives. This study reveals that the reduction of villagers participation and a gradual disappearance of people-led housing processes in rural areas, has led the vernacular architecture methods and techniques being forgotten and also the identity of rural life style and housing architecture in Garmsar county being damaged. In a mutual cooperation between dwellers and designers in the construction process, an accurate understanding of the needs and problems of inhabitants by local architects can reduce construction costs and increase the satisfaction of the villagers. Awareness is one of the essentials of participation. In today’s rural life, factors such as a lack of participatory experiences and awareness among the new generation compared to the previous ones regarding production-based housing and livelihood needs and the increasing similarity between rural and urban housing and living style have adversely affected rural people participation in housing. In order to promote people-centered rural development, it is necessary to prepare the ground for the presence of the clients – that is residents - alongside designers in the whole process of design and construction, in order to provide a better understanding of their living and livelihood spaces.

We have studied changes in energy use and practices due to a program which partially replaced firewood by fossil fuels. The program has been running for nearly five years in rural dwellings in Patagonia Argentina, where limited provision of fuelwood and social vulnerability are found. As a case study we focused on the community of Laguna Blanca, Province of Río Negro, located in the Patagonian steppe. Dwellings are one-family houses which were built with no energy efficiency measures, exposing reinforced concrete structures, fired-clay bricks, metal roofs and single-glass windows to severe weather. Since 2014, a government program fully subsidized the refilling of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) to vulnerable rural communities, which were provided with a 200-kg gas tank and a gas heater in each household. An expected decrease in the use of fuelwood was observed, along with a very high consumption of LPG (around 650 kWh/m2 year), which can be for the first time assessed due to the known amount of LPG provided. The lack of energy efficiency policies led to very high operational costs and environmental impacts. Based on the dwellings' characteristics, we have also found that the LPG subsidies saved in 2.2 years would return the investment for a thermal insulation that would reduce 50% the gas consumption and substantially improve comfort. • Energy use in rural communities in the cold climate of Patagonia Argentina • Energy transition from fuelwood to subsidized LPG. • Very high gas consumption due to lack of thermal insulation. • Refurbishments reducing 50% consumption return investment in 2.2-year fuel savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On a global scale, buildings are responsible for significant energy consumption. While the energy intake of urban buildings has been studied well, there are barely any studies on rural dwellings. The current paper examines the embodied energy (EE), operational energy (OE) and life-cycle energy (LCE) of 27 rural dwellings spread across four climate zones of India. It is found that these rural dwellings use locally available least-processed natural materials with very low EE. However, with the advent of modern transportation, manufactured energy-intensive construction materials have reached rural areas. From the analysis it is seen that the EE ranges from 0.002 to 2.8 GJ/m2, the annual OE from 0.006 to 0.053 GJ/m2 and the LCE from 0.77 to 4.05 GJ/m2 for the rural dwellings studied, with mass ranging from 1.13 to 3.6 t/m2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vernacular architecture is an important artificial habitat landscape that responds to and evolves with specific natural and social contexts. Although abundant evidence highlights the fragility of vernacular architecture in the urbanization process, in-depth discussion of the resilient manifestations represented by its anonymous evolution is lacking. Liangshuixiu , a courtyard-form vernacular building in Southern Hebei , is taken as the example. This study explored its spontaneous evolution mechanism characterized by the courtyard being covered (CBR). Benefiting from the computer vision technology and the remarkable orthophotos of Liangshuaixiu , the distribution characteristics of the CBR phenomenon in 131 townships were identified by high-resolution network. Subsequently, 14 potential influencing factors were selected according to "push–pull" theory, and explanatory variables that affect the development of CBR were identified using redundancy analysis. Spatial autocorrelation analysis of the CBR showed a significant clustering trend of high in the south and low in the north. Redundancy analysis results showed that the combined effects of push–pull factors were the most important aspects to explain the evolution of Liangshuaixiu. Urban pull and rural push made a greater contribution to the development of CBR, with education level being the most critical factor, followed by population decline rate and government revenue. Rural pull and urban push had limited contribution to the development of CBR, in which the aging rate was an important explanatory factor. This study revealed the evolutionary characteristics of specific vernacular buildings in a data-driven manner, thereby providing quantitative insights into how urbanization drives the evolution of vernacular habitats. • The evolution of Liangshuaixiu dwellings was identified by CV technology. • The "push-pull" factors between urban and rural areas have jointly affected the evolution. • Education level is the most critical explanatory variable for the evolution. • A new research paradigm was provided to study the evolution mechanism of vernacular architecture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

First-hand tests data for heating energy consumption and indoor air quality (IAQ) of real rural dwellings in northeastern China are very important for in-depth statistical research and implementation of energy saving and emission reduction in rural buildings. The test period of 7 consecutive days was used to measure household heating energy consumption in nine rural houses, and then data were converted to household annual heating coal equivalent consumption. There exists great difference in heating energy consumption indicators of rural dwellings. The index “Annual coal equivalent energy consumption per floor area unit heating degree day (kgce/((m 2 .a)(̊C.d))” was presented in the article in order to obtain fair comparisions. In addition, indoor air quality was monitored with parameters including temperature, relative humidity, the concentration of CO, CO 2 , PM 2.5 , PM 10 , occupancy heating energy-using patterns had great impacts on IAQ, especially particulate matters(PM) pollution should draw enough attention. More statistical samples are needed to determin the key factors affecting heating energy consumption, also longer period sampling data of IAQ are needed to evaluate the indoor environment properly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In rural areas of northeast China, residents often use a traditional Chinese kang for domestic heating. However, this heating method is associated with an uncomfortable thermal environment and poor indoor air quality. Therefore, this paper proposes a glazed transpired collector (GTC) based solar wall system, as a solution. Similar to air conditioning systems, the GTC is able to generate various airflow settings, which is one creative concept of the proposed system. Experimental and numerical studies were conducted to investigate the space heating and indoor air-quality improving performance of the system. The experimental results show that the average indoor temperatures can be increased from 12.12 °C to 16.17–18.19 °C, relevant to the various operating modes. The return-air mode reduces the concentrations of CO, CO 2 , PM 2.5 , and PM 10 by 34.8%, 20.3%, 14.4%, and 11.6%, respectively. The reductions relevant to the mixture mode are 69.6%, 28.0%, 45.0%, and 41.6%, respectively, and those to the fresh-air mode are 73.9%, 42.7%, 56.2%, and 58.1%, respectively. By numerically simulating the distributions of indoor air temperature and the concentrations of CO, CO 2 , PM 2.5 , and PM 10 , the GTC-based solar wall system is able to enhance the uniformity of temperature distribution and dilute indoor pollutant concentrations. To conclude, a summary of the simple and easy operating manual of the solar wall system is presented in this paper. The solar wall system can solve the problem of unacceptable indoor thermal comfort and indoor environmental pollution in rural dwellings in cold climates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of energy-saving retrofit of rural dwellings is to obtain a more comfortable indoor thermal environment with reasonable investment. The utilization rate of heating and air conditioning equipment for dwellings in poor rural areas is very low, and the buildings operate in natural ventilation mode all year round. Since the existing research on energy-saving retrofit is aimed at air-conditioned buildings, the research methods and results are not applicable to rural dwellings. This paper proposes a set of energy-saving retrofit evaluation methods suitable for natural ventilation buildings and applies it to the research on energy-saving retrofit of rural dwellings in cold climate regions of China. The specific process is as follows: First, this paper analyzed the current situation using field research and established a typical building model. Second, the DesignBuilder software was used to simulate all 725 schemes. Subsequently, the three main retrofit measures (replacing the external insulation windows, setting the external wall insulation layer and setting the roof insulation layer) were analyzed separately, and the optimal parameters of each retrofit measure were obtained. Finally, the entropy weight method was used to perform a multi-objective optimization analysis on all retrofit plans. The results show that 6+12A+6-mm insulating glass windows + 50-mm external wall insulation + 90-mm roof insulation is the optimal energy-saving reconstruction scheme. Compared with the benchmark building, the energy-saving rate of the optimal scheme is increased by 23.81%, and the annual adaptive thermal discomfort degree-hours are decreased by 13.17%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zhalantun city is located in a severely cold region of China. The cold climate and long winter bring challenges to the energy-saving design of rural dwellings in this area, while the poor economic conditions restrict the application of energy-saving technology. This paper aims to propose an optimal combination of passive design parameters by investigating, testing, and analyzing simulations of Zhalantun rural dwellings, which have a particular architectural pattern. Field measurements during winter show that the indoor temperature of a traditional house is low and fluctuates greatly, and the inner surface is prone to easy condensation. Through thermal comfort surveys, neutral and acceptable temperature ranges were obtained to provide indoor calculation parameters for an energy-saving design. Numerical simulations of heating energy consumption were conducted on the typical building models using DesignBuilder. The influence of different design factors on energy consumption was evaluated. Orthogonal experiments were designed to optimize a series of design parameter combinations to reduce the energy consumption of Zhalantun rural houses and to determine the sequence and significance of the effect of these design factors on energy consumption. Results show that the optimal parameter combination based on orthogonal experiments can obviously reduce energy consumption and have better economic benefits without considering mechanical methods. This can provide a basis for improved energy-saving designs and indoor thermal environments in such rural dwellings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In French-speaking Switzerland, the characteristic topography of the landscape, between the mountain ranges of the Jura and the Alps, along with the history of how these landscapes were peopled, have given rise to a wide variety of forms of settlement. In the cantons of Vaud and Neufchatel in particular, there are landscapes of mixed pasture and woodland (bocage) as well as territories characterised by the collective three-field system with open-field farms. The villages too are structured according to a broad variety of patterns: horizontal linear structures, structures going up the slope with branches going off at angles, structures with radial patterns leading off from a central point or from a ring. Dispersed rural dwellings also follow different models: small hamlets with individual farms or with organisations in honeycomb patterns or bands of property.