A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON CO-OPERATIVE HOUSING OF JAPAN AND CHINA

The case of “Guanshanyanyue” in Changsha China

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.