LIU Kairan, LI Kun, YE Yu

Keywords： inventory development; urban underutilised land; urban renewal and redensification; row-formed settlements; noise prevention and protection; health of residential environment; urban spatial justice; community development

Abstract：

China’s economically developed cities continue to face the dual pressure of expanding urban residential land and solving the side effects of rapid urbanisation, but the traditional path of outward expansion or large-scale demolition-construction in the past thirty years no longer meets today’s requirements for intensive and compact land use and low-carbon energy-saving urban development. The new situation calls for a new model of urban land development, and the redensificationof existing residential areas using residue-spaces from previous urban expansions in German economically developed cities offers a new way for the inward development of cities. This study analyses the socio-historical background, operational mechanisms and design strategies of the “Reside Alongside the Middle Ring” (Wohnen am Mittleren Ring) project in Munich, a typical example of this type of development. The study shows that re-densification not only offers a new option for increaseing urban residential land, but is also a sustainable solution to existing urban problems in built-up areas, and thus has a great referential value for possible future re-densification in Chinese Cities.

Funds：