Towards sustainability : reflections and recommendations on Beijing Hutong renovation

RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen)

Abstract

Renovating residential and residential-commercial historic urban districts (HUD) in China has been a challenging issue and trendy topic over recent decades. As China transitions from high-speed financing-based growth to high-quality operation-based growth since the 2010s, innovative HUD renovation modes with multiple-actor participation and adaptive processes are required in response to the increasingly complex contexts with diverse challenges and uncertainties in order to realize sustainability from economic, spatial, social and cultural perspectives. Among all the renovation initiatives, Beijing Hutong quarters stand out as one of the most dynamic, representative, and fertile testing grounds both in academia and in practice. The thesis aims to draw lessons from representative comprehensive HUD renovation cases in Beijing Hutong quarters in the last decade and generate reflections and recommendations for sustainable HUD renovation in Beijing as well as the Chinese context. The study undertakes theoretical exploration regarding the HUD renovation characterization and sustainability principle. It also scrutinizes the context of Beijing Hutong quarter and its renovation from both spatial and institutional perspectives, summarizes the common dilemmas in Hutong renovation and raised potential key factors impacting the renovation processes and results based on the institutional context studies. The study assesses and evaluates two representative Beijing Hutong renovation cases, Sitiao Hutong and Dongsinan (DSN) quarter renovation, and finally develops insights, learnings, and suggestions. The contribution of the thesis is fourfold. First, the thesis creates a ternary logic framework of “conditions – processes – results” to characterize HUD renovation, highlighting site contexts and actor/institutional settings, renovation strategy and mechanism design, as well as comprehensive results in diverse fields. Second, the thesis clarifies the sustainability principles with respect to integrity and justice and develops an evaluation methodology with respect to sustainable processes and results. It also summarizes the “features for sustainability” and “features against sustainability” in practical Hutong renovation exploration. Third, the thesis highlights “political urgency” and “social capital in local communities” (especially the neglected community structure and interpersonal emotional connections) as factors contributing to the differences in the renovation processes and results in the China based on the context studies and case evaluation. As for the last point, the thesis further reflects on the Chinese context, especially concerning its housing policy systems and the state-grassroots roles and offers forward-looking recommendations on sustainable Hutong renovation regarding balanced political-urgency categorization and resource allocation, integrated policy landscapes, systematic and robust housing policies, and long-term community management systems.

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