{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,29]],"date-time":"2026-01-29T16:21:39Z","timestamp":1769703699314,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":97,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]],"date-time":"2026-01-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769126400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sustainability"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Rural self-constructed homes in China\u2019s cold-temperate regions often exhibit poor energy performance due to limited budgets and substandard construction, leading to a high reliance on active systems and low climate resilience. This study assesses four passive cooling strategies, nighttime natural ventilation (NNV), envelope retrofitting (ER), window shading (WS), and window-to-wall ratio adjustment (WWR), under 2040\u20132080 representative future climate conditions using energy simulation, multi-objective optimization, sensitivity analysis, and life-cycle cost assessment. Combined measures (COM) cut annual cooling demand by ~43% and representative peak cooling loads by ~50%. NNV alone delivers ~37% cooling reduction with rapid payback, while ER primarily mitigates heating demand. WS provides moderate cooling but slightly increases winter energy use, and WWR has minimal impact. Economic and sensitivity analyses indicate that COM and NNV are robust and cost-effective, making them the most suitable strategies for low-energy, climate-resilient retrofits in cold-climate rural residences. Since statistically extreme heat events are not explicitly modeled, the findings reflect relative performance under representative climatic conditions rather than guaranteed resilience under extreme heatwaves.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/su18031170","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]],"date-time":"2026-01-23T13:55:34Z","timestamp":1769176534000},"page":"1170","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Passive Cooling Strategies for Low-Energy Rural Self-Construction in Cold Regions of China"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0002-3210-3656","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mingzhu","family":"Wang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"CITUA-Territory, Urbanism and Architecture of Instituto Superior T\u00e9cnico, University of Lisbon, 1149-001 Lisbon, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5613-2916","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kumar Biswajit","family":"Debnath","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Architecture, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia"}]},{"given":"Degang","family":"Duan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Architecture, Xi\u2019an University of Architecture and Technology, Xi\u2019an 710055, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9152-4226","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Miguel","family":"Amado","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CITUA-Territory, Urbanism and Architecture of Instituto Superior T\u00e9cnico, University of Lisbon, 1149-001 Lisbon, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bazazzadeh, H., Pilechiha, P., Nadolny, A., Mahdavinejad, M., and Hashemi Safaei, S.S. 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