Continuity Through Replacement Spatial Strategies for Reform-Era Housing Redevelopment in Nanjing

Abstract

The city of Nanjing, where the author grew up, provides an excellent example of how the transformation of residential areas impacts daily life in modern China. Having lived in both Nanjing and Toronto and observed the differences in the quality of their built environments, the availability of public spaces, and the ways in which residents interact with one another and their surroundings, the author began to consider how housing typologies in the historic core of Nanjing have changed over time and the challenges that many residential neighbourhoods face today. These comparative observations provide a broader perspective for evaluating future housing strategies in Nanjing. This understanding then informs a design proposal that operates from the urban scale to the building scale and, finally, to the individual dwelling unit, addressing the relationship between public and private space within the historic core of the city. The development of housing typologies in Nanjing can be traced from early courtyard settlements, through socialist-era worker housing and later reform-era housing, to the high-rise apartment complexes being built today. Reform-era housing forms an important part of Nanjing’s housing stock but is increasingly unable to meet contemporary needs because of ageing infrastructure, limited accessibility, insufficient communal space, and inflexible layouts, while continuing to accommodate a large number of urban residents. At the same time, the growing demand for vehicle parking has resulted in much of the limited ground-level open space being occupied by cars, reducing pedestrian circulation, landscaping, and opportunities for shared activities. Drawing on several existing precedents related to adaptable design, social continuity, parking integration, and incremental development, this thesis develops a new design methodology for future housing. This methodology informs the design of a mid-rise residential proposal based on the Open Building framework, which includes a permanent structural system and a collection of adaptable residences. The proposal consolidates vehicle parking and service functions at ground level while creating an elevated second ground plane for residential entrances, pedestrian circulation, landscaping, and shared amenities. The implementation strategy includes the phased redevelopment of the existing site, which is intended to reduce construction disruption and allow parts of the neighbourhood to remain in use during the transformation process. Through this phased redevelopment, the proposal seeks to improve housing quality while maintaining the existing residential capacity of the site and providing spatial conditions that may support long-term residential and social continuity within Nanjing’s historic core. Although the design is tested through the redevelopment of two residential buildings, the proposed relationship between ground-level parking, an elevated pedestrian landscape, and adaptable housing is intended as a prototype for similar reform-era residential sites throughout the wider historic urban area.