Abstract

With the advent of economic reforms and China's opening up to the global market, the modernist international architectural style and Western architectural styles have gained popularity and exerted a significant influence on Chinese architecture. Urban architecture has adopted a blindly imitative approach with bizarre incorporation of modernist and Western classicism. Additionally, improved economic conditions have led to a gradual imitation of urban and Western classical architecture in rural areas. As a result, the indigenous architectural style, which previously embodied the characteristics of original ecological architecture and regional culture, and was based on the local natural climate, has been subjected to destruction and decay. The study site, Dacang Village in Jinggangshan City, Jiangxi Province, located in southern China, is characterized by hot and humid summers. Traditional buildings in this region are primarily constructed with brick and wood and have small windows (Figure 1.). Consequently, they fail to meet modern-day demands for comfortable living, leading to the local population's abandonment of indigenous architectural styles and accelerating the decline of the region's architectural culture.

The traditional climate simulation techniques fail to provide an accurate reflection of the physical performance of buildings. In light of this, this research attempts to focus on the microclimate research of typical rural dwellings in the Jinggangshan area, utilizing the emerging technology of miniature climate sensors (Figure 2.). By doing so, we aims to summarize the passive climate regulation experiences that are worth learning from traditional architecture. Furthermore, it intends to identify the current issues and propose renovation measures to improve the physical performance of traditional rural dwellings. Ultimately, we hope to revive regional architectural culture, reduce the blind adoption of Western architectural styles, and promote the restoration of indigenous rural architectural styles to the greatest extent possible.

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Figure 2

The study is primarily divided into four parts: data collection of microclimates in traditional rural dwellings, data analysis, proposal of renovation strategies, and performance simulation after renovation. Initially, microclimate sensors were installed at the critical places of a typical rural dwelling (Figure 3.). Since the main problem faced by buildings in the region is high humidity and heat during the summer, this research collected continuous microclimate data for the month of July 2022. Subsequently, the data was downloaded from the cloud-based platform (Figure 4.), and the light, humidity, and temperature data were analyzed separately (Figure 5.). Based on the identified problems, appropriate renovation strategies were proposed for the typical rural dwelling (Figure 6.). Finally, physical performance simulations were conducted on the renovated dwelling to evaluate the effectiveness of the renovation measures (Figure 7.).

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Based on the analysis of microclimate data, this study revealed that traditional dwellings suffer from inadequate performance in terms of humidity, illumination, and ventilation. To address these issues, we proposed various retrofitting techniques, such as adding exterior lighting windows, installing a central ventilation shaft, and incorporating internal wall ventilation windows (Figure 8.). The simulation results of the retrofitted dwellings indicate that these techniques can effectively improve the building’s overall physical performance, making it more suitable for modern comfortable living. Thus, targeted retrofitting measures for traditional buildings based on its real microclimate conditions can aid in the revival of regional architectural culture, reduce the adoption of Western architectural styles, and promote the restoration of local architectural styles in rural areas.

Figure 8