Investing in Local Construction Skills: Scenarios for Upgrading the Built Environment with More Labor and Less Material Resources

Abstract

China's cities are desperate for local jobs and resource efficient strategies for upgrading older neighborhoods. In the construction sector, the high degree of standardization dating from before the time of “reform and opening up” invites economies of scale, mobile capital and the fragmentation of labor to a level that together produce a large amount of unsustainable, and irreparable building components and designs. Maintenance and repair of buildings seem more costly than demolition and reconstruction. This is problematic for several reasons: A meaningful engagement of locals in the construction sector is reduced; the high material turnover (demolition and reconstruction) generates environmental problems, resource shortages and price hikes; demolition destroys social ties when residents are relocated during reconstruction; and replacement contributes to the increasing uniformity of cities where place specific urban morphologies are replaced by generic modern designs. The objective of the paper is to explore in which ways and to which degree maintenance and retrofitting of existing buildings would impact local economies. Investing in local construction skills might solve the dilemma partially. The paper reviews international reports concerned about efficiency and quality delivered by the construction sector and summarizes opinions of insiders to the Chinese construction sector regarding the transferability of strategies to the Chinese context.