Ninth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

This paper examines a special scenario of “ZhuGaiShang” - Residential Building Injected with Commercial Usage (RBICU) in the residential districts in Chinese cities. As a grass-roots activity, RBICU has become a common phenomenon in many residential districts that are planned and constructed in the past thirty years. It is surely opposite to the original intention of the government planning policy and practice of urban housing development. The past studies of the RBICU were mostly from the perspectives of population management, urban hygiene with a negative attitude. The research outputs present a common tendency that is to enhance the administration role to eliminate or limit RBICU activities. However, in reality, these simple and crude administrative approaches didn’t work and even causes some other problems. Hence, the studies of RBICU need to explore an alternative perspective first. Why did residents want to change their living environments? What has the RIBCU done to change the residential buildings? Are there any common indications of RIBCU? Clarifying those questions become a priority to deal with the RBICU phenomenon. After three years of studies of the selected three residential areas in Guangzhou, the research generates an overall picture of the RBICU, which cannot only provide a holistic view to the buildings alterations and its association of the built environments but also better understand the local residents’ daily lives. The research provides valuable insights that government bodies, planners, and designers need to learn from the phenomenon of the RBICU.