Rehabilitating China’s Crumbling High-Rises

An integral rehabilitation strategy is developed to break the negative spiral in China’s high-rise housing. The strategy makes rehabilitation easy, attractive and affordable by applying standardised, customisable and prefabricated products. A design case illustrates how the strategy offers an attractive future to China’s crumbling high-rises!

The rehabilitation strategy consists of three components. Component I, ‘the socio-organisational proposition’, contains policy changes solving issues originating from governmental regulation, like: the lack of affordable housing and maintenance. Component II, ‘the ‘financial model’, aims to empower, enthuse and facilitate stakeholders to rehabilitate. By ‘merging interests’ of stakeholders investments are diversified creating a self-sustaining financial model. Component III is a step-by-step ‘physical rehabilitation method’, wherein residents rehabilitate their dwelling, and a stakeholder coalition rehabilitates the building and communal grounds. For an easy, attractive and affordable rehabilitation, stakeholders can select standardised, customisable and prefabricated TOOLS and RE:NEW products. Manufactured in an on-site workshop, using CNC-techniques and assembled by handymen or residents, these products can be installed ‘in-no-time’!\nThe rehabilitation strategy was implemented in the example case of ‘Dongsishitiao jia’. New dwelling typologies, created using RE:NEW products, are showcased. These typologies answer the diverse needs of Chinese urban dwellers and include: the hyper-efficient transformable ‘home in a room’, ‘multigenerational homes’ and modern ‘family homes’. TOOLS are applied within the building and communal-grounds reversing the decay, creating an attractive living environment whilst merging the stakeholders’ interests. Each cubic meter is used triple creating more affordable housing, attractive and functional green, community facilities, commercial spaces, parking and high-end dwellings. Furthermore, sustainability and elderly-friendliness are enhanced. All whilst creating a modern looking, pixel-like design able to compete with new high-rise designs from ‘starchitects’. \nThe strategy does not only offers a future for China’s crumbling high-rises, it revolutionises renovation as we know it and, potentially, the way we inhabit our homes. So, let’s rehabilitate!