New Insights into Traditional Construction Behind Sibe Dwellings with Swastika Kang for Space Heating in North China
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Due to massive urbanization and industrialization, modern constructions tend to be designed as technique-dependent, at the cost of high consumption and emissions for indoor environment control such as heating ventilation and air conditioning. Space heating accounts for about 40% of total building energy usage in northern China in winter. This calls for self-reflection and tracing of local traditional architectural wisdom. In this paper, Sibe Traditional Houses were chosen as a typical illustrative example to reveal the building mechanisms behind such local-adaptive traditional constructions. Based on the field investigation in Shifosi Village, a traditional Sibe settlement in Shenyang City, northern China, thermal modeling and indoor heating effects are studied in Sibe Traditional Houses with unique building spatial patterns. The indoor thermal environment is comparatively analyzed for both passive envelope insulation and active heating considerations. Preliminary results indicate that enhancing roof thermal insulation enhancement is the key passive strategy for improving indoor thermal comfort in winter. It also suggests that a space-heating configuration that combines the traditional “kang” with the architectural layout has a more significant effect on the enhancement of indoor thermal comfort in Sibe dwellings. This paper can provide methodological support and an application reference for the improvement of indoor thermal environment of traditional village dwellings.
Source: Buildings
Authors: Menglong Zhang, Zhiyuan Shang, Keqian Luo, Kai Xie
Institution: Southwest Minzu University
Language: English
Subfield: Building and Construction
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,137
Funder: Southwest Minzu University
Award: G6696780374
OpenAlex ID: W4408028773