The Design Research On The Social-Oriented Urban Renewal Of Former Public Housing Areas In Beijing

A large number of urban residents in Beijing are currently living in the former public housing areas that were developed under the socialistic welfare housing distribution system. However, most of these housing areas are increasingly aging and facing to the problem of deterioration. Meanwhile, as a representative example of Chinese big cities, Beijing faces the structural problem of housing stock, especially the deficiency of social housing. Therefore, the renewal of the former public housing areas ought to be one of the most effective approaches to solve the housing problem by the combination with social housing development. But the conventional renewal approach by demolition-reconstruction recently has started to encounter growing resistance since it unable to balance the interests of different actors and even leads to many social conflicts. Furthermore, the overemphasis of the combination of urban renewal and real estate development also deviates from the original social-oriented purpose. In order to resolve this dilemma, an innovative but social-oriented approach for rehabilitating former public housing areas is explored in this research from the perspective of planning and design.My dissertation started from the typological research of the former public housing areas in Beijing. The existing problems of those housing areas and the difficulties of their renewal are analyzed in the following chapter. Based on the case studies of successful references, the pilot researches of the representative former public housing areas in Beijing are presented subsequently. To sum up, a "Pluralistic and Sustainable" planning/design approach of urban rehabilitation for the former public housing areas, which strives to achieve an effective balance among social benefits, economic benefits and environmental benefits, is proposed so as to provide a new possibility to solve urban housing problem through urban renewal.