This article firstly emphasizes the perspective viewing public spaces as places where meaningful spatial quality, i.e., atmosphere, is generated through multi-sensory spatial experiences, secondly proves that atmosphere has a positive direct impact on affective city image, also a positive indirect impact on behavioural intention, and finally proposes strategies of designing, managing and representing architectures and urban spaces, for city image formulation and communication. Nanjing, a historical Chinese city eager to re-image, is chosen as the case area to testify the significance of multi-sensory spatial perception in shaping one's affection for a city. The study reviews the key dimensions composing multi-sensory experience in public spaces, also interviews 162 visitors and 201 residents. The results suggest that, for sustainable urban development, the design, management and promotion of iconic public spaces should holistically enhance people's haptic, audible and visual experience in motion to facilitate perception of atmosphere.

The discrepancy between authenticity regarding heritage conservation and perceived authenticity in heritage tourism has been extensively discussed and seen as an obstacle for sustainable heritage tourism and management. In this article, we reviewed the notion of authenticity respectively in heritage conservation and in heritage tourism, interviewed 5 experts and 363 tourists regarding three cultural heritages in Nanjing, China. Findings indicate that once visitors are fully aware of the essential nature, the cultural significance of the cultural heritage, and the connotation of authenticity in heritage conservation, they can assess the cultural values and the authenticity of a given heritage property intellectually from the perspective of conservation. Tourists’ assessment also significantly affects their perceived authenticity and satisfaction. We argue that, heritage conservation can be compatible with heritage consumption, by publicizing sufficient heritage information and encouraging the exchange of heritage knowledge between conservation practitioners and the public.

Past studies have demonstrated the remarkable energy-saving effect of vertical greenery systems. The vast majority of these works focus on opaque building walls. While external shadings on windows are more effective than these on walls. Inspired by the climbing plants (vines) raised outside windows by residents, the present study proposed the design of movable green window shading systems (MGWSS) that can shade beam solar radiation but allows soft daylighting. On the basis of simplified MGWSS models, experiments were conducted in summer to evaluate the shading performance with three plant species. First, the energy-saving effect and climatic data were measured for test rooms with west-facing windows. The results indicated that the presence of green shading reduced the impact of solar radiation on the cooling energy consumption with the correlation coefficients from 0.94 to 0.61. Then, the shading coefficient, which is a key parameter for energy saving, was measured by a new technique using photovoltaic panels. The correlation between the coverage rate and the surface-averaged shading coefficient was established. The results showed that when the coverage rate of the MGWSS with Dishcloth gourd was 80%, the shading coefficient was 0.28, and the cooling energy consumption and heat flux transferred through the window glass were reduced by 11.5% and 64.8%, respectively. The shading characteristic was investigated using the instantaneous data. It found that stronger ambient solar radiation resulted in better shading performance (lower shading coefficient). For a west-facing window, the best shading performance was found at oblique solar incidence angles.