Compact Living Districts: The Approach to Sustainable Housing Development in Suburban of China?

Abstract

Rapid building construction and urban expansion in Guangzhou after housing reforms initiated in 1978 have caused five key environmental pressures highlighted in current governmental policy: inefficient land use, air pollution, automobile traffic congestion, ecosystem deterioration, and excessive energy consumption. Housing development stands at the intersection for these issues by linking such related areas as population, resources, ecology, social values, public services and transportation. This study closely looks at the environmental performance of newly developed neighborhood using three case studies in Guangzhou. A neighborhood environment 'value equation' is formulated by applying concepts from value engineering, where environmental value is defined, as the most efficient use of energy and resources to accomplish an environmental function that also meets resident needs, desires and expectations. Graphic Information systems (GIS) techniques are used for spatial data collection and manipulation. The model explores the relationship between neighborhood environmental performance and its built form by means of three technical parameters: plot ratio, plot coverage and population density. In conclusion, possible design alternatives are discussed for leading Chinese neighborhood development towards a more sustainable path.

在住宅建設的過程中節約用地是城市可持續發展的要求。住房改革后,大量城郊住宅的發展伴隨著城市邊緣地區和近郊區農業和生態用地的大量流失。因此,探討未來中國城郊住宅可持續發展的方向成為設計和規劃領域的重要問題。本文探討了“密集型住宅小區”在節約住宅用地和改善小區居住環境方面的表現,并建立了定量分析的系統模型對住宅小區空間密集程度和它對小區居住環境的影響進行分析。通過對廣州的三個住宅小區的具體研究,本文初步判斷增加小區的密集程度確實可以帶來小區在整體環境上的一些改善。