An increase in ambient air temperature due to climate change can adversely affect indoor thermal conditions, particularly in heritage-listed dwellings, as renovation efforts may be limited by preservation constraints, potentially leading to indoor overheating for occupants. Incorporating heritage-listed dwellings into the climate change adaptation strategies is essential. Heritage-listed dwellings exhibit varying preservation constraints, with character-defining elements differing across cases. A literature review indicates a deficiency in research regarding climate change adaptation for lilong houses, which are two- to three-storey terrace houses featuring timber-brick structures, predominantly constructed in late 19th and early 20th century Shanghai, and recognised as significant urban heritage of the city. Through building energy simulations, this article examines the climate change adaptation of heritage-listed apartment-style lilong houses in Shanghai. Overheating hours and degree hours are utilised to assess indoor overheating conditions. Three scenarios for the preservation of the building envelope are proposed: (1) preservation of walls, (2) preservation of windows, (3) preservation of the roof. There are five categories of climate change adaptation measures. The findings indicate that substantial reductions can be attained by implementing a single preservation scenario customised to the character-defining elements and preservation constraints of heritage-listed dwellings. The most significant decrease in the number of overheating hours is observed in the wall preservation scenario, with a reduction of 69%, followed by a 53% reduction in the roof preservation scenario and a 31% reduction in the window preservation scenario. The proposed preservation scenarios enable the improvement in building indoor thermal conditions without compromising heritage preservation.

Understanding the effects of climate change on building indoor thermal conditions is of importance for providing a comfortable thermal environment for occupants. Some multi-family dwellings have already been listed as heritage in China (hereinafter referred to as heritage apartments), limiting modifications to the building envelope. However, the effect of climate change on thermal comfort in heritage apartments with a compact interior (i.e. without a living room) built before the 1980s in different Chinese climate zones has seldom been studied. This study focuses on the current and future thermal comfort in two-bedroom heritage apartments in China. The study was conducted for two different Chinese climate zones, that is, a cold climate zone (Beijing), and a hot summer and cold winter climate zone (Shanghai) and both current climate scenarios (typical meteorological years) and future climate scenarios (2050) were used. The results indicate, among other things, increases of 58%–60% and 41%–44% in the predicted average number of overheating hours in 2050 compared to the current climate for the studied bedrooms on the first floor in dwellings in Beijing and Shanghai, respectively.