Examining Residential Space Types From 1949 To 2016

Due to fast urbanization,the environment of human settlement has become the focus of modern society.People’s needs have changed from “having any settlement” to “having a better settlement”.With the economic,political and society advancement,people’s standard for housing and ways of living change rapidly.As a result,the type of living space has evolved.Using the original concession of Hankou as an archetype,this paper examined the historical evolvement of the types of residential space 1949 to 2016.With an interdisciplinary approach integrating architecture,sociology,geometry topology and the theory of housing and living,we studied the residential space form,life style,and model of space use through comprehensive analyses including literature review,site visit,case analysis,comparative study and quantitative analysis based on computer.First,through reading literature on the characteristics of political,economic and cultural context of different time periods since the establishment of the concession district,as well as collecting on-site data about residential space,we identified representative cases across the historical timeline.We analyzed the cases chronologically to examine the residential space and its corresponding societal context,with the goal to shed light on the mechanism and pattern of development over time.Secondly,we conducted site-visits and in-depth interviews with residents since the stablishment of the representative living space in the concession district.Through understanding their real state of living style and space use,we sought to understand the inherent pattern of residential living,the dynamic interaction among living style,space use and space form,as well as the relationship between living and space.Using Space Syntax to quantify residential space across different time periods,we further discussed the evolvement of public and private residential space.Lastly,we conducted diachronistic analysis on cases that provide diverse space form and modes of space use to uncover the relationship between space types and living styles,as well as the evolvement of public and private residential space.This study found that residential spaces experienced a gradual development from being unitary and homogenous at the beginning of the founding of the Chinese state,to being more rich and diverse in their forms of spatial integrations in recent years.During this developmental process,the line separating between the public and private realms regarding the attributes of residential properties also changed from being blurry to more clear,and eventually separating the two realms,maximizing attention to the protection of privacy of individual residents.For the existing housing problem,we proposed future directions for residential design in the original concession district,such as miniaturizing and diversifying residential dwelling,integrating independence and interdependence in residential space,and creating adaptable space.