Opening gated Shanghai - The potential of Shanghai's gated housing compounds

Abstract

Since hundreds of years residents of Shanghai have enclosed their residential communities. A habit, which outlasted several political, economic and social system changnes. Only the forms of the communities' appearance changed. Still they all generate various forms of semi-private spaces within their walls and gates.Gradually, planning- and political officials recognize negative effects of Shanghaiss gated residential compounds and call for a change in this tradition. Restructuring these communities is supposed to benefit the distribution of public (green) spaces as well as contribute to the city's small-scale road network. In order to do so, is it essential to understand the happenings within these walls and gates. Since such changes affect open spaces close to people's homes, this theses evaluates the potential of different parts of the community. To do so, qualitative and quantitative evaluation system is created and tested in two case studies. It is based on comprehensive observations of Shanghai's most common residential typologies: the Danwei and the Xiaoqu.