Dominant type and migrant spaces in Chinese cities: architectural transformation of the tower-podium typology of a high-rise housing block into hybrid living place in Ningbo, China

Focusing on the housing issue which segregates city dwellers and marginalises the migrants, this paper proposes an architectural transformation of a dominant type in Chinese cities, in search of a sustainable regeneration strategy which encourages social integration. This paper is concerned with two main issues: how to transform a dominant type of high-rise residential living–i.e. tower-podium residential–in China to promote a sustainable city, architecture and community; and how to integrate migrant-working class with the middle-income class to form a hybrid cohabitation place. The paper uses a design project to put forward a hypothesis, focusing on modifying the spaces of the podium in a tower-podium residential building in Xiaowen Street, Ningbo to provide a cohabitation living space for both migrant-working class and middle-income class group. The design creates spaces for living, co-working and community interaction, etc. to cultivate hybrid programme and spaces aided by informal spatial design strategies. Besides providing a case study of typological transformation with a tower-podium housing type of Ningbo, the study also contributes to the literature of informal cities and design strategies in seeing architectural design as an active agent for social changes.