Co-operation in housing China : economics, sharing, and space

Abstract

Modern co-operative theories have exerted a strong influence on social, economic development and urban morphology, particularly in the affordable housing sector. Co-operative housing provides an alternative for people who have difficulty in accessing both speculative and state-owned housing and for those pursuing the ideals of shared and self-managed community living. In the West, numerous people had attempted to organise and manage their community co-operatively and to develop an affordable, social and sustainable living environment. From early utopian cities to contemporary collaborative living practices, various forms of co-housing have emerged through a continuous evolution process. The meaning and manifestation of co-operative vary culturally and hence, spatially. In China, where serious contradictions between housing provision and living quality are being confronted, the role of co-operative ideas in housing has immense potential but remains unknown to a large segment of the society. As a residential typology, co-operative housing in China has not been carefully defined and developed. Its origins, forms and characteristics remain unclear. Previous studies on co-operative housing within China’s urban housing environment only considered its economic, legislative and political perspectives. Little attention has been paid to the relationship arising from specific local political and economic contexts, social organizations and the built environment they are situated in. This study aims to examine the characteristics of residential forms generated in China through a transformative process of co-operative housing. It will trace its origins from original concepts abroad to its early adapted variant, and how the Chinese housing reform movement is influenced by the state transition from a state-centred system to a market-oriented one. Through literature review, this study defined and evaluated co-operative housing from three axes, namely economic organization, social lifestyle, and the right to living space. Accordingly, the study identified the workers’ new village, people’s commune, work-units housing, housing co-operatives, and four self-initiative co-operative housing that emerged through the three developmental stages. Architectural and sociological approaches are combined to investigate the organizational structure, co-operative mechanism, and the built form of these housing types. The study probed deeply into the interaction among stakeholders, including the state, municipality, work-units, housing co-operatives, grassroots organizations, urban villages, developers, professionals and households. It also studied the impact of these stakeholders on various aspects of the built environment. Data is collected from historical and policy archives, architectural drawings and mapping, and open-ended interviews for analysis. The study argues that the co-operative housing system in China has always been in-line with prevailing ideology and it provides a flexible tool to calibrate between housing provision and residential needs either through official or informal means. During different periods, co-operative housing has played multiple roles in a constantly changing socioeconomic environment, such as a representation of ideal living form, a symbol for timely housing provision for the masses, a means to redistribute wealth and land rights, and a way to shape the built environment for different social groups. During the process of translation and indigenization, co-operative housing has been interchanged used or confused with other mechanisms such as collectivization, fundraising, and benefit-sharing, which prevents the model from developing its potential and thrive in China. This research attempts to reinvestigate China’s social housing typologies and the role of the community in housing morphology by using the co-operative housing model as an epistemic starting point. It integrates China’s experience into the global co-operative housing movement and sheds light on the physical embodiment of co-operative ideas in various contexts. It also provides a critical methodology to understand and re-examine China’s urban housing history.