The emergence of a new type of residential form always accompanies a change in the dominant political ideology. In China, the rise of the work-unit compound resulted from the domination of socialism. After the reform in 1978, capitalism gradually replaced socialist thoughts, and the change in ideology resulted in the boom of the gated community in urban areas. Current studies on the establishment of residential form are conducted in two directions. One is represented by typology and morphology, which focus on the physical structure of residential buildings, whereas the other direction is urban sociology, which considers the social aspects of the urban phenomenon. These two branches are well-developed in their own field, but the relationship between the physical forms and their social bases has not been systematically studied for a long time. The objective of this thesis is to fill the research gap on physical housing and urban social conditions, as well as to explore the relationship between changes in political ideology and the emergence of a residential form. To achieve the research objectives, this study will focus on the following questions: (1) What is the role of political ideology in the establishment of a residential form? and (2) How does the political influence the establishment of a certain residential form? The theoretical framework is based on a parallel literature review on both fields of typology and urban sociology, especially on the space production theory proposed by Marxist urban sociologists. The conceptual framework explains the role of the dominant political ideology in the establishment of a residential form based on the space production theory by Lefebvre. The analytical elements generated by the review of typology and morphology are integrated into the main conceptual framework. Qualitative research methods including case study, interview and documentary research has been used in this research. The leading argument of this research is that the dominant political ideology has a strong influence on the establishment of a residential form, which is a result of the manipulation of political power. Political power can influence the establishment of a residential form through the distribution of spatial resources and by guiding people’s preferences among spatial resources. Meanwhile, a residential form adopts the preferred social relation of the current political power, thus reinforcing the social structure. The work-unit compound in Socialist Beijing is a way for the Communist Party of China (CPC) to exhibit its power and control resource distribution. The gated community also represents the preference of the government because it helps to realize the privatization process. / published_or_final_version / Architecture / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This dissertation is concerned with the dynamics of housing delivery in Beijing, the capital city of China. Over the past four decades, perceptions of housing problems in Beijing and historical conditions have changed. Housing shortages, run-down housing in inner city areas, affordability of commodity housing, and informal housing developments are some examples of housing problems that have developed over the years. However, during the current transition towards a "socialist market system", developing and formulating effective organizational and institutional arrangements to address these substantive housing problems have become the more challenging tasks. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the dynamic changes of organizational and institutional arrangements in housing delivery in Beijing and to identify factors contributing to their performances. Based on the "housing delivery analytical framework" derived from the literature review, the dissertation identifies five housing delivery systems in Beijing: (1) work-unit housing, (2) commodity housing, (3) inner city housing, (4) the "Comfortable Home" housing programme and (5) informal housing. Based on extensive interviews and field research, the dissertation analyzes the unique combination of actors in each housing delivery system, their goals and how they fulfil their role in the process of producing, distributing, and consuming housing. The changes among these arrangements and the reasons for these changes are also discussed. The findings of this study suggest that outcomes of housing delivery systems do not correspond well with the stated objectives or general goals of availability, adequacy, affordability, accessibility, and viability. The dissertation discovers several major reasons for this imperfect correspondence: (1) policy objectives overstress quantitative requirements; (2) policy objectives represent compromises between conflicting values; (3) key interests within the implementation structure are different from policy objectives; and (4) underlying forces beyond housing delivery influence the behaviour of actors In light of the findings, the chief pragmatic implication of the study is that improving housing accessibility should be the key in future housing reforms in Beijing. Housing policies should focus more on managing land, transforming the role of work-units, integrating informal developments, linking comprehensive planning with housing development, forming new community organizations, building housing finance systems, and coordinating housing administration.

This dissertation is concerned with the dynamics of housing delivery in Beijing, the capital city of China. Over the past four decades, perceptions of housing problems in Beijing and historical conditions have changed. Housing shortages, run-down housing in inner city areas, affordability of commodity housing, and informal housing developments are some examples of housing problems that have developed over the years. However, during the current transition towards a "socialist market system", developing and formulating effective organizational and institutional arrangements to address these substantive housing problems have become the more challenging tasks. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the dynamic changes of organizational and institutional arrangements in housing delivery in Beijing and to identify factors contributing to their performances. Based on the "housing delivery analytical framework" derived from the literature review, the dissertation identifies five housing delivery systems in Beijing: (1) work-unit housing, (2) commodity housing, (3) inner city housing, (4) the "Comfortable Home" housing programme and (5) informal housing. Based on extensive interviews and field research, the dissertation analyzes the unique combination of actors in each housing delivery system, their goals and how they fulfil their role in the process of producing, distributing, and consuming housing. The changes among these arrangements and the reasons for these changes are also discussed. The findings of this study suggest that outcomes of housing delivery systems do not correspond well with the stated objectives or general goals of availability, adequacy, affordability, accessibility, and viability. The dissertation discovers several major reasons for this imperfect correspondence: (1) policy objectives overstress quantitative requirements; (2) policy objectives represent compromises between conflicting values; (3) key interests within the implementation structure are different from policy objectives; and (4) underlying forces beyond housing delivery influence the behaviour of actors In light of the findings, the chief pragmatic implication of the study is that improving housing accessibility should be the key in future housing reforms in Beijing. Housing policies should focus more on managing land, transforming the role of work-units, integrating informal developments, linking comprehensive planning with housing development, forming new community organizations, building housing finance systems, and coordinating housing administration. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

As the principal subsidized home ownership housing scheme in Beijing, the Economical and Suitable Housing Scheme (ESHS) has gone through several different stages in the past three decades. Following the newly developed housing policy framework in 2007, ESHS was endowed with the objective of providing affordable home ownership to low-income urban residents. Despite the rich literature on ESHS in China, relatively little is known about the performance of estates of ESHS in Beijing developed after 2007 under the new regulations. Largely missing from the existing literature is an analytical account of the development of ESHS in Beijing and an in-depth evaluation and explanation of its performance in recent years. This study thus aims to examine and analyze the effectiveness of ESHS since 2007 with the intention of helping to improve the effectiveness of ESHS and to provide useful lessons to other subsidized housing schemes in Beijing. Following the lead of scholars who have studied subsidized housing schemes in other countries and areas, this study built up its own analytical framework appropriate to the Chinese context. To achieve the study goal, the evaluation of the performance of ESHS was conducted in terms of four indicators: housing affordability, housing accessibility, housing availability and housing quality. The investigation of the causes were conducted from the public policy perspective focusing on policy design and policy implementation. To enhance the data base, open-ended interviews with officials at different levels from different government departments and structured questionnaire surveys with residents in ESHS in Beijing had been conducted. This study reveals that the performance of ESHS after 2007 was barely acceptable. Specifically, the housing affordability and housing accessibility and housing quality of ESHS were less than satisfactory. Even though the housing availability of ESHS in quantity terms did not have significant problems, the housing availability in terms of location was highly undesirable. As for housing affordability, it is found that the ESHS was more affordable to urban residents than to suburban residents, the major reason being the higher income enjoyed by the former. Regarding housing accessibility, this study found that the approach to determine the eligibility criteria of ESHS failed to include all the households who could not afford to purchase market housing. In the housing quality domain, it is found that ESHS housing estates in Beijing failed to meet the residents’ daily needs, and suffered from poor housing construction quality and inconvenient locations. In addition to the evaluation of performance, this study also found that besides the strong commitments from the government, policy design commensurate with policy goal and effective policy implementation determines the performance of a subsidized housing scheme. In particular, the formulation of eligibility criteria and the pricing mechanism at the policy design stage, and the conflicting interests of the three levels of government at the implementation stage were most critical. This study further argues that the four dimensions of performance which were inter-connected to each other were all commonly hinged upon the use of land as the main source of subsidy. This study adds to the existing literature on contemporary China by evaluating and explaining the most recent performance of a dominant housing subsidy policy tool in China. By constructing and employing a comprehensive conceptual framework for the analysis, this study offers to the contemporary China literature a sophisticated yet revealing conceptual tool to unveil the intricacies of housing subsidies in the rapidly changing China. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Population aging becomes a serious social problem when the society develops into a certain stage, and it has a close relationship with the national economy and people’s livelihood, as well as the future of a country. Also, the improvement of medical level and social welfare help people prolong their life expectancy. As a developing country, which includes nearly 1/4 population of the world, China also faces the severe aging problem. After the establishment of People’s Republic of China, the population grows with a very high rapid. Later, the Chinese government implemented the One Child Policy at the beginning of 1980, this policy gradually modified the family structure in the micro dimension and the population structure in the macro dimension. There are more and more 4-2-1 families, which means there are 4 grandparents, 2 parents and only one child in one family, and this family structure causes some troubles and challenges to the traditional model, which is taking care of the old at home. The government and families all have difficulties to take care of the elderly people. As a result, the elderly housing emerges at the right moment. The world pays more attention to taking care of the elderly people, and many relative concepts have been introduced around the world. Such as the healthy ageing and active ageing pronounced by the WHO, and some other concepts like the ageing-in-place and community care, etc. All of these concepts give us a theoretical foundation when research on the development of elderly housing in China. Beijing Suncity Living Community is one of the best elderly communities in China, this dissertation tries to do a case study about the elderly housing in Suncity. After the data analysis, the author found that the Suncity does well in the design of the community, which suits the physical characteristics of the elderly people. Also, the services and facilities for the elderly people are relative complete, which can help the elderly people to spend their spare time in a more interesting way. However, the management in the Suncity is not good, and this may give the elderly people a sense of unsafety. Also, it may bring bad impact to their psychological health. Then, the recommendation about both the Suncity and the development of elderly housing in China will also be given. For the Suncity, it must change the poor management, and one method is to employ some professional people to enhance the management level. For the later development of elderly housing in China, recommendations are given from design of the elderly community and management of the elderly community. / published_or_final_version / Housing Management / Master / Master of Housing Management

In China, huge population and limited arable land resources constitute one of the basic contradictions in urban mass housing design. As a stereotype, medium-rise apartment buildings were constructed to attain high densities all over the country during the 1980s. The extensive use of the housing typologies caused problems in many aspects. This reflects the poverty of architectural solutions and the consequences of the socio-economic systems of the country. / Focusing on the aspects of single building design and site planning, this thesis analyses the methods to reach high building densities in medium-rise mass housing design in Beijing from 1979 to 1990. The study is conducted through the review of the socio-economic issues and the introduction of mass housing design of the country. It intends to see the interrelationships between ways to attain high building densities and the socio-economic backgrounds. / The research indicates that methods to reach high building densities are many. Ways used in Beijing during 1980s were based on the socio-economic system at the time being. These ways are not appropriate in terms of the unique urban context of the city and could be thus replaced by others.

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In the last two decades, China's economic reforms in general, and rural reforms in particular, have had an immense effect upon China's urbanization patterns. A large rural surplus labor force has transformed itself into irresistible migration waves sweeping across most of China's big cities. / An essential question is how could Chinese cities avoid going through the same process of trial and error as other Third World cities, or what are the feasible ways to accept and integrate migrants within the existing urban systems. The answer to this question could only be explored to a large degree by examining the current situations in existing migrant communities. / This thesis focuses on the study of the use of domestic space in migrant houses as a means to examine the question from an architectural perspective. A case study of Zhejiang Village, the most influential migrant community in Beijing has been conducted. From 30 survey samples, 15 are analyzed according to the range of economic activities pursued by the migrants. Two other samples from Zhejiang vernacular houses are also examined in order to conduct a comparative study. Detailed drawings and analysis are arranged to show how ingeniously they combine their businesses within their meager domestic space. / The study shows that economic activities and cultural traditions are the vital factors that influence the use of domestic space in migrant houses. It also confirms that the physical integration of migrants must take into account their cultural background and spatial traditions.

No description available.

In China, a standard of "relatively comfortable housing conditions" is set for the nation, but there is still a need for a parallel goal for outdoor spaces. So far, this issue has not received adequate attention from either the government or practitioners. / The purpose of this study is to examine the space between buildings in Beijing's new housing developments. The space between buildings has been chosen as a starting point for this research because it covers largest amount of land and due to its close proximity to homes, it is closely related to people's daily lives. / The quality of outdoor space is defined by a combination of factors. This study uses eight criteria to address the notion of quality: spatial hierarchy; usable space; safety and defense; health and comfort; privacy and territoriality; social contact; aesthetic appeal; and maintenance and administration. These correlated aspects are set as evaluation criteria for the six case studies included in this research. Data and analysis of case studies is used to arrive at conclusions for policy-making and further study.