Abstract
The nearest case registered in this direction is “Guanshanyanyue”, a housing development completed in 2014, in Changsha,
Hunan Province. This project offered user participation in all stages from design to construction, and as such, it became the
genesis of this research on the feasibility of cooperative housing construction in the Chinese housing market. The purposes of
this study are: (1) Clarify the planning and implementation strategies for the construction of Guanshanyanyue. (2) Clarify
differences in the scope of choices offered (specifically in the domain of common and exclusive areas) to the user in Japan, and
in the Guanshanyanyue project. The ultimate purpose of this research is to investigate opportunities for co-operative housing
developments in China, and the possibility of applying the Japanese practice as a model. This preliminary analysis has
revealed that: (1) The case of Guanshanyanyue offers a broad scope of user participation, reaching the skeleton level, similarly
to the Japanese “user-initiative” co-operative housing model, which offers a broader scope user decision than the
“specialist-initiative” co-operative housing model, which limits user decisions to the interior level. (2) Guanshanyanyue, will
always need development companies mediating the contracts, because they can hold a property deed. (3) Guanshanyanyue
project lacked professional guidance.
