IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i8p2839-d162968.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Changing Urban Landscape of Chinese Cities: Positive and Negative Impacts of Urban Design Controls on Contemporary Urban Housing

Author

Listed:
  • Ali Cheshmehzangi

    (The Centre for Sustainable Energy Technologies (CSET), Department of Architecture and Built Environment, The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, 199 Taikang East Road, Ningbo 315100, China)

Abstract

China’s contemporary urban housing is increasingly developed at mass housing scale. In recent decades, it has transformed into large scale urban design approach rather than individual architectural design. This is generally common across major Chinese cities and is also becoming the case in some township regions. The increase in mass urban housing production firstly initiated in early years after establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 and was then increased significantly from the 1970s onwards. Similar to the case of post-war European housing development in the 1950s and 1960s, China experienced a rapid transition and huge demand for new urban housing. The two decades of 1980s and 1990s are known as China’s remarkable era for rapid growth and urbanisation, which was unprecedented not only for China but also globally. In this paper, the focus is on urban design controls and their impacts on housing transitions in China by first analysing common housing typologies as well as their challenges and issues and common practices of urban design for housing projects across major cities of China. This paper argues in favour of alternative routes before concluding on the importance of detailed design and new possibilities for revised and re-evaluated urban design controls. This paper offers a set of analytical views on positive and negative impacts of urban design controls on contemporary urban housing in China. It also adds to existing research focused on urban housing transitions in China and directly linked to sectors of urban planning and urban design. This study concludes with possibilities for new directions, focused on: development of low- to midrise urban housing typology, compact urban development, and avoidance of gated community development.

Suggested Citation

  • Ali Cheshmehzangi, 2018. "The Changing Urban Landscape of Chinese Cities: Positive and Negative Impacts of Urban Design Controls on Contemporary Urban Housing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-21, August.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:8:p:2839-:d:162968
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/8/2839/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/8/2839/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fulong Wu, 1996. "Changes in the Structure of Public Housing Provision in Urban China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 33(9), pages 1601-1627, November.
    2. Fulong Wu & Shenjing He, 2005. "Changes In Traditional Urban Areas And Impacts Of Urban Redevelopment: A Case Study Of Three Neighbourhoods In Nanjing, China," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 96(1), pages 75-95, February.
    3. Ya Ping Wang & Alan Murie, 2000. "Social and Spatial Implications of Housing Reform in China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 397-417, June.
    4. Hania Wu & Tony Tam, 2015. "Economic Development and Socioeconomic Inequality of Well-Being: A Cross-Sectional Time-Series Analysis of Urban China, 2003–2011," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 124(2), pages 401-425, November.
    5. Wu, Jing & Gyourko, Joseph & Deng, Yongheng, 2012. "Evaluating conditions in major Chinese housing markets," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 531-543.
    6. Philip Morrison, 2011. "Local Expressions of Subjective Well-being: The New Zealand Experience," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(8), pages 1039-1058.
    7. Wang, Rui & Yuan, Quan, 2013. "Parking practices and policies under rapid motorization: The case of China," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 109-116.
    8. Fulong Wu, 2002. "China's Changing Urban Governance in the Transition Towards a More Market-oriented Economy," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 39(7), pages 1071-1093, June.
    9. John R. Logan & Yanjie Bian & Fuqin Bian, 1999. "Housing inequality in urban China in the 1990s," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 7-25, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ali Cheshmehzangi & Andrew Flynn & May Tan-Mullins & Linjun Xie & Wu Deng & Eugenio Mangi & Weixuan Chen, 2021. "From Eco-Urbanism to Eco-Fusion: An Augmented Multi-Scalar Framework in Sustainable Urbanism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-22, February.
    2. Ali Cheshmehzangi & Ayotunde Dawodu & Wangyang Song & Yuzhu Shi & Yuwei Wang, 2020. "An Introduction to Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment Tool (NSAT) Study for China from Comprehensive Analysis of Eight Asian Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-29, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iris Claus & Les Oxley & Jie Chen & Xuehui Han, 2014. "The Evolution Of The Housing Market And Its Socioeconomic Impacts In The Post-Reform People'S Republic Of China: A Survey Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 652-670, September.
    2. Gao,Nan & Ma,Yuanyuan & Xu,L. Colin, 2020. "Credit Constraints and Fraud Victimization : Evidence from a Representative Chinese Household Survey," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9460, The World Bank.
    3. Lin, Tao & Wang, Donggen & Guan, Xiaodong, 2017. "The built environment, travel attitude, and travel behavior: Residential self-selection or residential determination?," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 111-122.
    4. Fulong Wu, 2009. "Land Development, Inequality and Urban Villages in China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 885-889, December.
    5. Mi Shih, 2010. "The Evolving Law of Disputed Relocation: Constructing Inner‐City Renewal Practices in Shanghai, 1990–2005," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 350-364, June.
    6. Shijun Jia & Yourong Wang & Gang-Zhi Fan, 2018. "Home-Purchase Limits and Housing Prices: Evidence from China," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 386-409, April.
    7. Ho, Peter, 2018. "A theorem on dynamic disequilibrium: Debunking path dependence and equilibrium via China’s urban property (1949–1998)," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 863-875.
    8. Guo Chen, 2016. "The heterogeneity of housing-tenure choice in urban China: A case study based in Guangzhou," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(5), pages 957-977, April.
    9. Youqin Huang & Leiwen Jiang, 2009. "Housing Inequality in Transitional Beijing," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 936-956, December.
    10. Chen, Binkai & Yang, Xi & Zhong, Ninghua, 2020. "Housing demand and household saving rates in china: Evidence from a housing reform," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    11. Coulson, N. Edward & Tang, Mingzhe, 2013. "Institutional and demographic influences on the presence, scale and geographic scope of individual Chinese real estate investment," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 187-196.
    12. Zan Yang & Songtao Wang, 2011. "The impact of privatization of public housing on housing affordability in Beijing: An assessment using household survey data," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 26(5), pages 384-400, August.
    13. Peng Wang & Xiaoyan Lin & Dajun Dai, 2017. "Spatiotemporal Agglomeration of Real-Estate Industry in Guangzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, August.
    14. Franklin Allen & Jun & Chenying Zhang & Mengxin Zhao, 2012. "China's Financial System: Opportunities and Challenges," NBER Chapters, in: Capitalizing China, pages 63-143, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Shujun Chao & Shanyong Wang & Haidong Li & Shu Yang, 2023. "The power of culture: Does Confucian culture contribute to corporate environmental information disclosure?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2435-2456, September.
    16. Mehdi Sheikh Goodarzi & Yousef Sakieh & Shabnam Navardi, 2017. "Scenario-based urban growth allocation in a rapidly developing area: a modeling approach for sustainability analysis of an urban-coastal coupled system," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 1103-1126, June.
    17. Daniel Fu Keung Wong & He Xue Song, 2008. "The Resilience of Migrant Workers in Shanghai China: the Roles of Migration Stress and Meaning of Migration," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 54(2), pages 131-143, March.
    18. Charles Ka Yui Leung & Joe Cho Yiu Ng & Edward Tang, 2020. "Why is the Hong Kong Housing Market Unaffordable? Some Stylized Facts and Estimations," Globalization Institute Working Papers 380, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    19. Fulong Wu, 2007. "The Poverty of Transition: From Industrial District to Poor Neighbourhood in the City of Nanjing, China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(13), pages 2673-2694, December.
    20. Tsai, I-Chun & Chiang, Shu-Hen, 2019. "Exuberance and spillovers in housing markets: Evidence from first- and second-tier cities in China," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 75-86.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:8:p:2839-:d:162968. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.