A Review of the Existing Residential Building Retrofit in Tianjin, China

Abstract

Tianjin, situates 120 km southeast of the capital city Beijing, is the largest open coastal city in northern China and has high economic status. From the beginning of the 20th century, the municipal government has done a lot on residential building retrofit. In China, the policies as well as standards of local governments play an important role in guiding and supporting the building industry. This paper clarify the characteristics of the existing residential buildings, and attempts to review the policies, standards and retrofit pilot projects implemented by governments since the beginning of 20th century in Tianjin. Four stages of retrofit process toward residential buildings in Tianjin are indicated: reconstruction of shanty housing, retrofit of basic function including building facade beautification, outdoor environment update and balcony reinforce, energy saving retrofit and comprehensive retrofit based on sustainable conception. In each stage, policies, retrofit principles and typical cases are analysed. We also shows that lots of retrofit technologies have been applied which can reduce energy consumption effective and make living environment more comfortable. But it also has many problems of residential retrofit, such as lack of local standards and financial strategy. Meanwhile, the trend of retrofit is predicted, which is based on sustainable concept, aimed at building performance, integrated with environmental protection, energy saving and high efficiency. At last, some suggestions are also presented for existing residential buildings retrofit in Tianjin.