Research on Passive Design Strategies for Rural Residences in Cold Temperature Areas — The Example of Xi’an, China

Abstract: Buildings account for one-third of global energy consumption, and much research has shown that passive design effectively reduces energy consumption during building operations and improves indoor spaces’ environmental quality. The study starts by analyzing the climatic conditions to identify the external environmental requirements that need to be regulated by the building design and achieve the goals that must be achieved through the design strategy. Then, a literature review and case studies were conducted to collect passive design strategies from the same climatic region and categorize them according to layout, spatial design, envelope and detailing. Finally, a set of rural residential building designs that can adapt to the cold winter and hot summer climatic conditions in cold regions is extracted, and some of the strategies can also be used due to the retrofitting of existing residences.