Rethinking Social Housing: China to the World

Over the past century, China’s housing design and market have shifted dramatically, moving from soviet-union style housing complexes to highly commercialized and massive developed residential areas. Amid soaring prices, a shortage of housing resources, and the commodification of housing, social housing has provided a way to rethink the possibilities of ideal living.

In this book, Ma Yansong, an architect active in China and internationally whose work spans architectural practice and academic inquiry, and the founder and principal partner of MAD Architects, collaborates with Professor Jiang Jun’s team from the China Academy of Art to offer an unprecedented in-depth study of the history, present-day conditions, and future design strategies of social housing in China. Divided into five chapters, the book features contributions from scholars, architects, policy makers, and other stakeholders. It provides a wealth of case studies, including MAD’s Baiziwan social housing in Beijing, Atelier GOM's Longnan Garden Social Housing Estate in Shanghai, and URBANUS's Tulou Collective Housing in Guangzhou. It also includes a comparison between China and other countries such as Japan, Russia and South Africa in terms of policies and architectural design. Beautifully illustrated in full colour with a range of dynamic photographs, drawings, and diagrams, Rethinking Social Housing imagines that a house is not merely a machine for living.

The book is essential reading for architects, urban planners and policy makers, and it not only illustrates and educates about housing history and design in China, but also aspires to push forward China’s reform of design and policy.