1.5 Shelter Design

Prior to 1999, the Soviet Union＇s experience in housing design was highly valued in China. As a result, most similar designs were generated, where the floor area and the mere purpose to satisfy the residents’ basic needs were highlighted and other aspects were underscored.

     Since 1999, the residents’ needs have been further highlighted in the housing design, which are embodied in the following aspects:

    The residential planning, starting with site ｓｅｌｅｃｔion, should be consistent with the urban planning. Meanwhile, the planning of the residential communities should be in harmony with the design of the city streets so that the community functions are complementary to the urban functions.

    The graphic design of housing needs to take the occupants’ functional needs into consideration to cater for different demographic groups’ living habits. The graphic design should be versatile and practicable.

    A combination of factors such as aesthetics, energy saving and indoor lights need to be taken into consideration in the design of the enclosure system.

    In aspect of outdoor landscape design, the natural, aesthetic and practical elements as well as other functional requirements need to be highlighted, including the harmony between the gardens within the communities and the urban landscape.

    The equipment systems need to be designed as systematic, comprehensive, environment-friendly and energy-efficient to improve the occupants’ comfort and meanwhile reduce the living cost.

2 Organisation

The Ideal World Group, a real estate developer that was founded in 1996 and currently has some 1,000 employees, provides complete housing up to 1,000,000 square meters (m²). The Group has been delivering elaborately-decorated properties and conducting research in housing design and development policies in collaboration with the research institution.

    We are looking forward to the opportunities to play a key part in both building social housing, and creating the technical standards. As a real estate developer, we will be actively engaged in the construction of high-quality social housing for the low-income population.

3 Challenges

There is a vast gap between the rich and the poor in China. Over the past three decades during which China has been maintaining a strong economic momentum, the toughest challenge lies in the vast gap between the rich and the poor.

 

There is a vast gap between the major cities and the small ones in China. The major cities in China including Beijing and Shanghai have already reached the same level as the well-developed cities in terms of both scale and appearance. However, most small cities in China are still registering slow growth and thus low income of residents. Particularly, such public facilities as hospitals and schools are undersupplied there as well.

 

There is a vast gap between the urban areas and the rural ones. The rural population has poor living conditions. Even small cities undergoing slow growth post much better conditions than rural areas where the current situation is pretty worrisome. From perspectives of public service or industrial development, rural areas need to take a frog leap. The residents who work and live in rural communities can only receive very low income and are therefore stuck in poor living conditions.

 

There is a big rural population wants to live in large cities. As a result of the vast gaps mentioned above, the rural residents are very eager to work and live in large cities, which drives the large cities to further develop into super big ones.

Young people also prefer large cities to small ones. Even the residents in small cities, particularly the youth, are also willing to live and work in big cities.

The properties are sold at extremely high prices. Take Beijing as an example. A commercial property providing a floor area of 80 square meters costs around $200,000, equivalent to the aggregate income of an individual for more than 20 years– an extremely striking ratio.

 

Due to lack of reasonable perspectives on living, people always prefer big-size properties. Most residents want to live in big-size homes and thus deem the size as the most important factor when ｓｅｌｅｃｔing a property. However, China’s land is not sufficient to supply so many urban residential properties.

People have not put environmental protection and energy conservation on their top agenda yet, and meanwhile the use cost is too high.

 

Standards for social housing design are not available yet. Meanwhile, there exists a near-sighted thinking that quantity takes precedence to quality and sustainability in the design. This will result in a large number of poor-quality properties, which may become new slums in the future and thus compromise the living quality of the residents there as well as the social harmony.

4 Possible solutions

   One may concluded from the above analysis that China must, building upon the current strengths and opportunities, take effective measures and initiatives to speed up the urbanization process, and meanwhile focus on addressing the living challenges of the low-income population, particularly housing. Only by doing this, can much more social problems that results from the vast disparity between the rich and the poor, be effectively addressed.

   Regarding aspect of policies and investment, the social housing in China now falls into two categories: one for sales and the other one for rental. The government will focus on investment in construction of the category for rental, while the category for sales, also known as economically affordable housing, will be funded by social investment. From 2009 to 2012, the government plans to invest $13 billion to build six million social housing units, which will help solve the housing problem of 20 million residents.

Banks should strengthen their financial support for the low- and middle-income population in purchase of properties by providing more favorable loan interest rates.

The government needs to strengthen its supervision to guarantee that the social housings are only available to low-income residents. The government needs to focus on improving the living conditions of the rural population.

The urban planning should be effectively developed to narrow the vast gap between cities. More investments should be channelized improve basic public services and inter-city transportations.

The design codes of social housing need to be developed to ensure the comfort of the buildings and meanwhile prevent them from becoming new slums. The social housing should maintain relatively high quality and keep harmony with the commercial buildings.

 

The following principles or guidelines need to be followed in the planning and design of high-quality social housing. I think these should be useful to designer.

·         Reasonable location as well as convenient transportation and complete public facilities including hospitals and schools.
The reasonable site ｓｅｌｅｃｔion and public transportation construction can help reduce the transport costs of the low-income population, and the provision of improved public facilities will allow the residents to participate in social activities and enjoy convenient services, which can lead to a harmonious society rather than special living area and even slums.

·          Social community planning is necessary. Such factors as safety, public area, fitness, neighborhood and human-vehicle relationship should be conscious taken into consideration when planning the residential communities for the low-income population.
These factors should include:

·         Number of stores: The 6-storey structure is recommended due to the low cost and comfortable sense of dimensions.

·         Community building density: It is recommended that the ratio between the construction area and the engaged land area is kept below 2:1.

·         Lighting and ventilation: The lighting and ventilation should be conscious considered in the design, to reduce the subsequent energy consumption to lower costs.

·         Parking and vehicle access: The provisioning of a few car parks can be considered, but the vehicle access needs to be reasonably designed, to guarantee the safety of pedestrians.

·         Bicycle parking facilities: In the community planning, the bicycle parking issue needs to be conscious considered. Adequate parking facilities should be planned.

·         Fitness facilities: Different types of fitness facilities, particularly those suitable for the elderly, should be fully planned so that all the residents can do exercise in their communities.

·         Recreational facilities for children: A wealth of recreational facilities for children should be planned so that the children can have a colorful life.

·         Barrier-free design: Barrier-free transportation and rest facilities shall be designed for the sake of the elderly.

 

·         Landscaping: Reasonable landscaping can help improve the life quality in a community. However, the subsequent maintenance cost also needs to be considered in the design. The utilities, including water, electricity, natural gas, internet connection, heating, need to be fully considered in the planning. The actual use needs of the low-income population should be fully considered in the residential building design:

·         Structure: The masonry structure should be ｓｅｌｅｃｔed considering safe and costs of the construction.

·         Building insulation: The insulation performance of a building needs to be considered in the design, to save energy consumption and reduce the use costs.

·         Elevator: Elevators need to be planned, to facilitate the lives of different types of residents.

·         Area: 40-50 sq.m with one bedroom, 60-70 sq.m with two bedrooms, and 80-90 sq.m with three bedrooms;

·         Decoration completed, standardized decoration/finishing can reduce the engineering cost, avoid dismantling and wastes, to result of the subsequent decoration, and improve the living quality of the low-income population. The decoration/finishing materials ｓｅｌｅｃｔed should be energy-efficient environmental-friendly and durable.

·         Kitchen: 6-8 square meters, equipped with kitchen furniture, natural gas pipelines and water inflow/outflow pipes. The spaces for household appliances and storage are reserved.

·         Toilet: 3-4 square meters, equipped with toilet, a washing and water inflow/outflow pipelines. The storage space is reserved;

·         Bathroom (shower): 2 square meters. It can be collocated with the toilet and needs to be equipped with a shower faucet and water inflow/outflow pipes.

·         Living room: 10-12 square meters, equipped with TV, telephone and network connections.

·         Restaurant: 3-4 square meters. The restaurant, large enough to accommodate a four-seat table, can be collocated with the living room.

·         Bedroom: 8-10 square meters,  provisioned with telephone and Internet connections.

·         storage space: 4-5 square meters, either standalone or collocated with living/bed rooms.

·         Balcony: 2-3 square meters. The space for washing machine is reserved. The balcony needs to be equipped with water inflow/outflow pipes and clothes-drying facilities. Heating and cooling equipments need to be provided, depending on local climate.

·         Energy-efficient systems such as the solar-energy heater should be considered if possible.

·         The post-service of communities should be fully considered as well in the design. Community service, as a very professional service in China, includes security, cleaning, landscape, public facilities and household maintenance. In addition, allocation of necessary office space to the service team and provisioning of convenient equipment support to the maintenance service should be fully considered in building planning and design.

 

The above sections provide some considerations in social housing design. Based on those, a series of case studies have been completed and the research results have been submitted to the government agencies to help address the housing challenge of the low- and middle-income population to some extent.