Residential Space Research Articles

Exploring Public Space Satisfaction in Old Residential Areas Based on Impact-Asymmetry Analysis

The renovation of public space environments in old residential areas has become the focal point in Chinese urban renewal and promotion of urban sustainable development; thus, an urgent need for research expansion is attached to identifying the environmental factors of public space and their impacts from the perspective of residents’ needs and satisfaction. Taking Hefei, China, as an example, and based on a satisfaction survey of the public space environment in old residential areas, this study discerned critical factors affecting public space satisfaction through gradient-boosting decision trees and impact-asymmetry analysis methods, after which the asymmetric relationship between public space environment factors and resident satisfaction was tested and the priority and goal of public space environment renovation were obtained. The results indicate that the following: (1) Compared with physical environment factors, current social environment factors, including uncivilized behavior, space occupation, and hygiene and cleanliness, exert a greater impact on the overall satisfaction. (2) The hypothesis that there exists a general nonlinear relationship between environmental factors and satisfaction is verified, with all social environment factors proving to be nonlinear and physical environment factors being highly related to social environment creation, such as nursing space for the old and young, reading and learning space, and display and communication space. (3) A priority hierarchy for the improvement of environmental factors should be established, which basically conforms to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. The role of social environment renovation should be highlighted, along with the necessity to bolster community governance and public space management. At the level of the physical environment, more space should be available for the activities of residents, display and communication, and reading and learning. This study can provide a corresponding theoretical basis and planning inspiration for meeting the multiple needs of residents for public space, improving life happiness, and promoting the sustainable development of cities in the renovation of public space environments in old residential areas.

The Impact of Islamic Thought on Creating Space in the Residence: Case Study of Suhaimi’s and Sibai’s Houses

This study investigates the factors influencing Islamic residence design, with a focus on understanding the cultural, religious, environmental, and socio-economic considerations that shape architectural practices in Islamic communities. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the research examines the interplay between Islamic beliefs, functional requirements, historical heritage, and contemporary design principles in the creation of residential spaces that reflect Islamic values and traditions. Drawing on architectural analysis, case studies and corpus analysis, the study identifies key factors influencing Islamic residence design, including cultural and religious beliefs, functional requirements, climate adaptation, architectural heritage, sustainability, and socio-economic dynamics. The findings highlight the importance of integrating Islamic principles into residential design, engaging with local communities, promoting sustainable practices, preserving architectural heritage, and advancing research and education in the field of Islamic architecture. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of Islamic residence design and provides valuable insights for architects, designers, policymakers, and researchers seeking to create culturally sensitive and contextually appropriate residential environments in Islamic communities.

Making residential green space exposure evaluation more accurate: A composite assessment framework that integrates objective and subjective indicators

Traditional satellite or land use-derived indicators for assessing residential green space (RGS) exposure have limitations in predicting health benefits, owing to the individual differences in the absorption of ‘real’ green exposure. This study developed a novel framework, Greenspace Exposure Composite Indices (GCIs), that modifies objective RGS metrics by including residents’ subjective factors. First, three RGS objective indicators were established based on 3D point clouds: the overall green exposure index(GEI), floor-level green exposure index(FGEI), and activity-site green exposure index(AGEI). The individual factors (i.e. perception, emotion, and behaviour towards RGS) are then weighted to these objective indicators to obtain modified GCIs through the Brunswikian lens model. We also used this novel framework to examine the effects of the RGS indicators on environmental satisfaction based on a case study including 1594 participants in Nanjing, China. The Random Forest Model was used to examine the associations between GCIs and environmental satisfaction, and the results showed that GCIs had a higher explanatory degree of environmental satisfaction than traditional objective ones. Our findings demonstrated that incorporating subjective indicators to optimise objective RGS indicators could offer advantages in predicting environmental satisfaction. This framework is also applicable for predicting the potential effects of RGS exposure on other health-related outcomes.

Based on 3D Virtual Reconstruction of Modern City Landscape Sculpture Planning Design

INTRODUCTION: With the continuous advancement of urbanization, urban landscape sculpture plays an increasingly important role in modern urban planning. Traditional planning and design methods make it challenging to demonstrate the three-dimensional sense and artistry of sculpture fully; therefore, this study explores a new method of planning and designing modern urban landscape sculpture based on three-dimensional virtual reconstruction.OBJECTIVES: This study aims to enhance the three-dimensional sense and artistry of urban landscape sculpture planning and design through three-dimensional virtual reconstruction technology to meet the needs of modern urban development better. By using advanced technical means, the planning and design can be made more intuitive and specific and provide urban residents with a more artistic public space.METHODS: The study adopts advanced three-dimensional virtual reconstruction technology, combined with urban planning and design theory, to plan and design modern urban landscape sculpture. Firstly, relevant literature on urban planning and sculpture design is collected to understand the existing design concepts and technical means. Secondly, a detailed virtual reconstruction of the sculpture is carried out by using three-dimensional modeling software to show the three-dimensional effect of the sculpture. Finally, the design scheme is optimized and improved through fieldwork and expert review.RESULTS: Through three-dimensional virtual reconstruction technology, this study successfully shows the whole picture of modern urban landscape sculpture. The design scheme not only has a three-dimensional sense but it has also been improved in artistry. The results of fieldwork and expert evaluation show that the new design scheme is more in line with the needs of urban development and adds a unique artistic atmosphere to the urban space.CONCLUSION: This study has achieved positive results in the field of modern urban landscape sculpture planning and design through 3D virtual reconstruction technology. The new design method not only provides a more specific tool for urban planners but also creates a more creative and artistic public space for urban residents. In the future, the application of this method in different urban contexts can be further explored and expanded to inject more innovation and vitality into urban planning and sculpture design.

Visual Perception Optimization of Residential Landscape Spaces in Cold Regions Using Virtual Reality and Machine Learning

The visual perception of landscape spaces between residences in cold regions is important for public health. To compensate for the existing research ignoring the cold snow season’s influence, this study selected two types of outdoor landscape space environments in non-snow and snow seasons as research objects. An eye tracker combined with a semantic differential (SD) questionnaire was used to verify the feasibility of the application of virtual reality technology, screen out the gaze characteristics in the landscape space, and reveal the design factors related to landscape visual perception. In the snow season, the spatial aspect ratio (SAR), building elevation saturation (BS), and grass proportion in the field of view (GP) showed strong correlations with the landscape visual perception scores (W). In the non-snow season, in addition to the above three factors, the roof height difference (RHD), tall-tree height (TTH), and hue contrast (HC) also markedly influenced W. The effects of factors on W were revealed in immersive virtual environment (IVE) orthogonal experiments, and the genetic algorithm (GA) and k-nearest neighbor algorithm (KNN) were combined to optimize the environmental factors. The optimized threshold ranges in the non-snow season environment were SAR: 1.82–2.15, RHD: 10.81–20.09 m, BS: 48.53–61.01, TTH: 14.18–18.29 m, GP: 0.12–0.15, and HC: 18.64–26.83. In the snow season environment, the optimized threshold ranges were SAR: 2.22–2.54, BS: 68.47–82.34, and GP: 0.1–0.14.

Spaceborne and ground-based sensor collaboration: Advancing resident space objects’ orbit determination for space sustainability

Spaceborne and ground-based sensor collaboration: Advancing resident space objects’ orbit determination for space sustainability

Models of residential space for ethnic minorities in Thanh Hoa Province associated with sustainable livelihoods

Thanh Hoa Province has 11 mountainous districts with seven ethnic minority groups, and the three largest ethnic groups are the Muong, Thai, and H'Mong. This region has great potential for developing a forest-based economy, ecotourism, community-based tourism, and cultural heritage tourism that is associated with cultural festivals, customs, lifestyles, and traditional housing architecture. However, developing a family-based economy, such as engaging in community-based tourism or agricultural production, has negatively affected and disrupted the structure of village spaces, spatial planning, and traditional house design. The arbitrary construction of additional service spaces and spaces for resident guests within the village space and the precinct of a house has reduced the area of the garden and agricultural land. The self-initiated modification, expansion, and use of non-traditional materials in traditional housing structures by residents to serve tourists have resulted in the loss of the architectural value of traditional homes. The exploitation of agricultural land has affected the natural forest area, the forest protection area at the headwaters, and the vegetation cover and natural ecosystems. Moreover, agricultural economic activities have not been linked to service activities, handicraft production, or tourism, and there are no adaptive residential space models, thus failing to create sustainable livelihood activities. Therefore, the article proposes settlement space models and orientations for residential space development including village spaces, house precincts, and traditional housing spaces of ethnic minorities in Thanh Hoa Province, associated with sustainable livelihoods based on the exploitation of traditional housing architectural heritage values to ensure local economic development. These models are closely linked with the conservation and promotion of ethnic cultural values, landscape preservation, environmental protection, and contribution to poverty reduction for residents.

Spruce: a Fast yet Space-saving Structure for Dynamic Graph Storage

Dynamic graphs have been gaining increasing popularity across various application domains. With the growing size of these graphs, the update performance as well as space occupancy is becoming a crucial aspect of dynamic graph storage. Although existing dynamic graph systems can handle massive streaming updates (e.g., insertions and deletions), they cannot achieve both high throughput and low memory footprint. Drawing inspiration from the basic operations of the van Emde Boas (vEB) tree in double-logarithmic time, we designed Spruce, a high-performance yet space-saving in-memory structure to store dynamic graphs. Spruce uses a compact representation to construct the tree-like multilevel structure, which shares the common prefixes of vertices and has no merging or splitting of nodes to achieve the requirements of low memory consumption and high-efficiency dynamic operations. Furthermore, Spruce incorporates a read-optimized concurrency protocol, which refines ROWEX and Optimistic Locking, to facilitate efficient simultaneous read/write operations. Our experiment demonstrates that compared to Sortledton (the best of competitors), Spruce is up to 2.4X faster in ingesting graph updates, while saving up to 38.5% of memory space. As for graph analytics, Spruce shows high adaptability to different analytical workloads, and achieves comparable performance to other state-of-the-art dynamic graph structures.

Built environment and loneliness in later life: productive engagement as the pathway

Objectives The built environment is increasingly recognized as being associated with late-life loneliness. However, the pathway remains understudied. This study investigated the mediating effects of productive engagement in relationships between the built environment and loneliness. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of data from 4,409 community-dwelling people aged 65 years and above in China. We employed the Chinese version of the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale to assess loneliness. The built environment comprises residential density, street connectivity, park-based and vegetation-based green space, land use mix, and the number of and distance to the nearest recreational, health, shopping and community services within 300-meter and 500-meter buffer areas. Structural equation modeling was used. Results Only green space (parks) had a direct effect on loneliness. Residential density and green space (parks) had an indirect effect on loneliness through volunteering. The number of recreational services had an indirect effect on loneliness through recreational and sporting activities, although distance to the nearest recreational services did not. All the significant results were only found within 300-meter rather than 500-meter buffers. Conclusions Our findings have implications for environmental gerontology theory and practice. Providing more green space and recreational services can significantly improve older adults’ helping behavior, social activities and sporting activities, which can further reduce older adults’ loneliness.

Static and Modal Analysis of a Box Structured Satellite Deployment Mechanism with self-actuated Torsion Joint

A brand-new satellite deployment mechanism with boxed structure and self-actuated torsion joints is proposed and an effective method to verify the feasibility of this mechanism is established in this paper. This mechanism has the characteristics of high base frequency, high ratio of deployed and folded space occupation ratio. In order to meet the design requirements, the related analysis and optimization need to be conducted, and several conclusions are obtained. Firstly, the modal analysis of deployment mechanism at folded and fully deployed state is analyzed, and the result showed that the proper wall thickness is the key parameter to satisfy the design requirement and an optimized value could be obtained; Secondly, the heat deformation analysis result showed that the material plays an more important roll on affecting the thermal deformation than structure parameter; Thirdly, Under the torsional moment of the joints, the stress distribution of the deployment mechanism under different folding angle is investigated, it could be clearly found that the maximum stress is always located on the bonded area of the rod and joint, and the maximum stress is increased with the opening angle generally. By combined analysis including thermal, static, and modal, the related characteristics are obtained which could be used for structure optimization and provide an effective solution for the design of box structured satellite unfolding mechanism with self-actuated torsional joints.

Restoration of Kano Metropolitan Built Environment’s Vegetative Enclaves

Kano metropolis has over the years witnessed constant redevelopment of green corridor and reserve urban spaces within residential spaces and along major route which spines into commercial and public buildings. This is due to the pressure of urban expansion of the built-up environment. However, these changes do not take into considerations the social, physical and economic factors as such; the redevelopment has altered the built-up areas affecting the relationship between man and his built environment. The study is aimed at restoration of Kano Metropolitan Built Environment’s Vegetative Enclaves as they generate urban patterns through the use of green spaces to induce proper urban growth. Data were collected from the six area councils that make up Kano metropolis and analyzed using seventeen (17) identified attributes on effect of vegetation on the built environment. Descriptive statistics such as Simple distribution frequency (SDF) and Mean weighted score (MWS) were used to analyze the data presented, while inferential statistics employed was relative satisfaction index which was used to rank the environmental scores. Findings showed that the urban open space features significantly affect the level of residents’ satisfaction. The RSI scores for the relatively impact of vegetation on Kano metropolis are on the significance rating (RSI: 0.70 – 0.74 to 0.60- 0.69 corresponding to “Low Impact” and “Less Impact” respectively for most of the attributes, while fewer attributes such as “improved urban environment, improved lively and enhance city image” are areas of significance “high impact” rating, with RSI (0.75 and above). The study recommends the implementation and adherence to strong urban growth management law within the Kano metropolis, as a measure for sustaining the degraded environment and impacts of rapid urban growth in Kano metropolis

Analysis of the Transformation of Residential Open Spaces from Center of Activities to Empty Enclosures

This research paper looks at four factors resulting in transformation of residential open space specifically the courtyard, from centre of activities to empty enclosures. These factors are historical, cultural, society and gender. Predominantly this research looks at residential space in Lahore from a feminist perspective; tracing and analysing it from a gender based socio-cultural aspect of connectivity to individuality. Rapid social and demographic changes are resulting in a new future of residential architecture in our part of the world, leading to cultural changes where globalization is one of the major factors. The structure has evolved overtime from a traditional joint family unit to a nuclear family unit which is a major shift resulting from this phenomenon. A qualitative research approach using purposive sampling method was employed. The findings highlight the importance of these open and semi covered spaces towards a healthy and connected social life fostering activities of relaxation.

Health risk assessment of ultrafine particle movement in children's residential spaces based on probabilistic neural networks

The air quality in children's living spaces has a significant impact on their health, and ultrafine particulate matter (PM2.5), as one of the main pollutants in the air, poses a particularly prominent threat to children's respiratory and immune systems. Therefore, it important to conduct health risk assessment on ultrafine particle exercise in children's living spaces. In this article, an intelligent risk assessment model of ultrafine atmospheric particles in children's sports space in residential areas based on probabilistic neural network (PNN) is studied. This model utilizes probabilistic neural networks to monitor and predict ultrafine particles in residential spaces, evaluating their potential risks to children's health. By collecting relevant data such as particulate matter concentration and air quality index in residential spaces, and using probabilistic neural networks for training and prediction, accurate assessment of the health risks of ultrafine particulate matter during exercise can be achieved. This model can be applied to densely populated places such as families and schools, providing parents and relevant institutions with scientific risk warning and prevention measures to ensure the health and safety of children. Probabilistic neural networks can learn and simulate complex nonlinear relationships, making the model more accurate in predicting the concentration of ultrafine particles and health risks. So as to construct a method system of health risk assessment of atmospheric particles, and the model is heavy metal elements in atmospheric fine particles, and corresponding improvement measures are put forward according to the assessment results. For circulatory system diseases, the degree of harm of atmospheric temperature and fine particles to children's health is basically close, and with the continuous decline of temperature, the synergistic effect of the two is more obvious. The concentration of atmospheric ultrafine particles significantly affects the health risk of children's sports activities space. All the experiments in this article are quite good. Among them, the average accuracy of the PNN health risk identification model is 0.840, and the average recall rate is 0.837. The health risk assessment model in this article strengthens the correlation of data information through scientific methods, grasps the basic information of children's sports activity spaces in residential areas, and formulates targeted sports health risk assessments for children's sports activity spaces in residential areas. Compared with the comparison method, the response speed is significantly improved, with an accuracy rate of over 90%.

Numerical investigation of melting process enhancement in shell and coil latent heat storage tanks by the simultaneous use of conical coil and conical shell

Efficient energy storage rates are crucial for latent heat energy storage units. Building on previous studies highlighting the benefits of shell and helical tube configurations, which enhance energy storage rates through increased heat exchange areas, this research introduces a novel configuration featuring a combination of conical shell and conical coil. Various geometric variations, including conical/cylindrical shells and conical coils, are explored to assess their impact on charging performance using numerical simulations based on the enthalpy-porosity method. The study investigates three different numbers of coil turns (4, 6, and 8) for each configuration. Results demonstrate that the proposed conical shell and conical coil configuration significantly accelerates the melting rate, achieving a liquid fraction of 0.897 within 160 min—an improvement of 7.6 % compared to the conventional shell and helical tube configuration with the same phase change material quantity. Additionally, increasing coil turns from 6 to 8 yields an 8.8 % rise in the liquid fraction for the simple cylindrical case, comparable to the 7.6 % increase achieved by the proposed conical configuration. The findings underscore the preference for geometry modifications over increasing coil turns, as the latter leads to greater space occupation within the tank, resulting in reduced energy storage capacity and a concomitant 30 % undesirable increase in heat transfer fluid pressure drop.

Архитектурно-градостроительный облик объекта капитального строительства: проблемы правового регулирования

In the context of creating a high-quality and comfortable environment, the problem of shaping the external appearance of settlements becomes particularly relevant. Currently, in urban planning, zones with different functional purposes are not always clearly separated. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for residential and office space to be located together in the same building. This necessitates the regulation of architectural solutions and the external appearance of the urban environment. In December 2022, Russian legislation introduced a procedure for approving the architectural and urban planning appearance of a capital construction project. This received a very mixed assessment among experts. The article analyzes the main directions of formation of the legal framework for carrying out this procedure. The authors emphasize the need to regulate architectural solutions and the external appearance of the urban environment in order to preserve its identity.

Demand flexibility and cost-saving potentials via smart building energy management: Opportunities in residential space heating across the US

Leveraging demand-side flexibility resources (e.g., buildings) is a crucial and cost-effective strategy for addressing the operational and infrastructure-related challenges in power grids pursuing deep decarbonization with high renewable energy penetration. However, the demand flexibility opportunities and financial benefits for residential space heating, which are sizeable demand-side flexibility resources, through emerging building energy management solutions (i.e., smart control and phased change material (PCM) thermal storage) across the US are not fully understood. In this paper, we systematically assess the demand flexibility and cost-saving/revenue potentials in residential space heating through detailed building-level simulations for five consecutive years at a 5-min temporal resolution in 20 metro areas across the high-heating-demand regions of the US. The results show a high degree of synergy between PCM thermal storage and smart control, which enables substantial demand flexibility potential, reaching 98.5% of peak load shifting, and electricity cost-saving/revenue potential, reaching 338.3% of electricity cost reductions, for residential space heating in the US. By achieving such performance, adopting smart control and PCM thermal storage is financially viable in 50% of the tested metro areas. The results reveal that the demand flexibility and cost-saving/revenue potentials of residential space heating in the US are further enhanced by higher volatilities in electricity prices. Active PCM thermal storage has lower energy efficiency but much higher energy flexibility than passive PCM thermal storage. Based on the findings, recommendations for integrating PCM thermal storage and smart control systems within residential space heating are provided.

Anthropometry in the Sitolumbea Toba Batak Traditional House and its Transformation

In several traditional villages, there are still traditional houses that are used by the community as residences. In the past, there were no room dividers in traditional houses; now, residents apply the privacy of each room so that room dividers are added to traditional houses, and there are additional rooms as the need for activities also increases. These changes in activities and use of space have also caused changes in the anthropometry of traditional houses, which are being reused as residences today. So, this research aims to determine whether the spatial pattern transformation in the Sitolumbea Traditional House meets the space standards for simple residences in Indonesia. This research was carried out by directly observing 1 Original Traditional House and 2 Sitolumbea Traditional Houses, which have been transformed to determine changes in anthropometry and the size of the space used. Then, it is compared with the standard size of residential space in Indonesia. Based on the results of the research conducted, the dimensions of the bedroom, bathroom, and laundry room do not meet the standard size of residential houses in Indonesia. Meanwhile, the living room and kitchen require wider dimensions.

Quantifying the Financial and Climate Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Abatement Pathways in Residential Space Heating

New York State (NYS) has set strict greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets across all sectors of its economy, including the heating sector. This study examines the financial value and environmental impacts of the residential space heating sector in NYS under different GHG abatement options by comparing the existing natural gas heating pathway with three potential GHG abatement pathways: renewable natural gas (RNG), hydrogen blended into RNG, and air-source heat pumps (ASHPs). These pathways are analyzed via a comparative net present value (NPV) framework from 2022 to 2042 with the emission reduction represented as a revenue stream that serves as a function of the social cost of GHGs. The investment timing of each of these pathways is also accounted for to reflect the pathways’ varying deployment timelines. The ASHP pathway with a 10% financial discount rate and a 2% social cost of the GHG discount rate achieves the lowest NPV. The RNG pathway achieves the highest NPV. A sensitivity analysis determines the impact of key factors on the NPV results. This study aims to inform policymakers, homeowners, and stakeholders of the potential benefits and costs of each of the four pathways to aid them in their decision-making process.

How does choice of residential community affect the social integration of rural migrants: insights from China

The construction of public space is a new and important way to integrate rural migrants into urban society. Existing studies mainly discussed the factors affecting the social integration of rural migrants from the micro-individual and macro-system levels. Still, they seldom analyzed the differences between rural migrants’ residential communities and the roles these differences play in their social integration, especially from the perspective of residential space. Based on the data of the 2014 China Migrants Dynamic Monitoring Survey, this paper systematically examines the impact of residential community selection on the social integration of rural migrants and its possible effects using OLS, 2SLS, CMP, omitted variable test method, and KHB mediating effect model. It is found that the choice of residential community has a significant positive impact on the social integration of rural migrants, and the social integration of rural migrants living in formal communities has increased by 2.44%-3.20%. To overcome the potential endogeneity problems and selection bias of the empirical model, the study further adopted an instrumental variable estimation approach, combined with the omitted variable method for robustness check; the results still revealed the positive effect of living in formal communities on the social integration of rural migrants. The heterogeneous results showed that living in formal communities has a greater effect on the social integration of women and older-generation rural migrants. The farther the migration range and the longer the residence time of rural migrants, the greater the effect of living in the formal community on their social integration. Further mechanism testing revealed that living in formal communities not only directly enhances the social integration of rural migrants but also indirectly improves their social integration through public resource allocation, human capital accumulation, social status screening, and social network expansion. The indirect effect of capital accumulation is even greater. Therefore, to accelerate the full integration of rural migrants into urban society and achieve real urbanization and citizenship, the study proposes that the government should scientifically plan the layout of rural migrants’ living space and the construction of supporting facilities.

Impacts of connections to the outside on underground space occupants’ psychophysiological health: A virtual reality-based experimental approach

Underground space occupants tend to face more psychophysiological health risks than their aboveground counterparts. Enabling a certain level of connection (e.g., physical, visual, or a mixture thereof) to the outside environments has been recognized as a way to mitigate the risks. However, their impacts on occupants’ psychophysiological health have not been known with any precision. This research, therefore, aims to improve our understanding of the impacts of connection to the outside on occupants’ psychophysiological health. In reality, it would be too expensive to build the physical connections and test their impacts. Virtual reality (VR) can circumvent this problem by bringing a person to immersive environments to carry out experiments. This study firstly developed four VR scenes with different connection designs. Then, it recruited forty-seven participants randomly assigned to the four scenes for the experiments. The participants’ psychophysiological responses, including mental workload, alertness, and mental fatigue, were measured continuously using electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. A series of tests, including Wilcoxon signed-rank and Kruskal-Wallis tests, were performed. The results indicate that i) physical connection to the outside environments has no significant impact on underground space occupants’ psychophysiological states under stress, and ii) while visual connection has no significant impact on occupants’ mental workload and fatigue, it buffers the increase in their alertness levels under stressful situations. Low alertness levels are associated with creativity and novelty. Thus, visual connection to the outside environments is recommended for underground spaces for creative purposes (e.g., art studios and creative media production). This research provides a significant reference for better harnessing underground space by considering their connection to the outside environments.