Identify and Elucidating Urban Village Essentials Through Remodeling and Visualising a Social Housing Prototype in Guangzhou for Sustainable Residential Development in China

Abstract

There is currently an urban housing crisis affecting low-income people across China. Due to the need for high-density public housing, it is becoming increasingly common to demolish urban villages in order to build denser and higher social housing towers for low-income people. However, in addressing the need for new housing for low-income people, the social and cultural aspects of urban villages should be duly considered.This paper aims to identify and elucidate the salient features of urban villages based on case studies in Guangzhou and then use these to formulate sustainable strategies for new housing typologies in contrast with the conventional development approach of having residential towers. Indeed, dense mid-rise dwellings that retain the mixed functions of communal, social and commercial gathering spaces as found in the urban villages would foster the formation of communal living environments among residents. After identifying the salient features of urban villages, this paper proposes a new social housing typology that is visualised through computer 3D modelling and rendering.This research acknowledges the pressing housing needs in China and explore an alternative housing approach that is environmentally, socially and economically sustainable, which addresses housing needs with due consideration of the social and cultural site contexts.