Research On The Development Of Residential Buildings In The Centre City Of Contemporary Guangzhou

Residential buildings are the basic elements in cities. Residence is viewed as primaryfunction of cities in Athens charter. Residential buildings promote cities to be flourishing. Atthe same time cities also promote residential buildings as well. Central area is the core ofpolitics, economy, culture, science and technology in a city. The residential buildings in thisarea represent all kinds of the typical features of the urban residential buildings in differentperiods. It is concentrated reflection of the city in region, culture and times.With a long history，Guangzhou is an important city of foreign trade and culturalexchanges in China, the Lingnan culture and foreign culture clashed and fused with eachother there. Guangzhou is a rare big city which has expanded around the old city and there aremuch more particular prominent contradictions between the new and old residential buildings.As one of the earliest cities of developing housing market, there is a big gap between the richand the poor in Guangzhou. Moreover, housing problem is particularly prominent in the citycenter, although the housing market has met various kinds of needs. With the rapidurbanization in Guangzhou, so many immigrants have crowded into the center area ofGuangzhou so as to have affected its living environment. And the contradictions betweenLivable environment and Land shortage are becoming more and more obvious. So there aremany issues to be resolved about residential buildings in Guangzhou downtown area.Therefore, the residential buildings of Guangzhou central area which have a long history, richcultural, complex environment and concentrated contradictory have the very high researchvalue.This paper has reviewed Guangzhou downtown residential buildings in different periodsof evolution, and summarized the main factors which have impacted on the development ofresidential buildings in downtown area of Guangzhou city. Through the analysis of residentialbuildings about the modern downtown area in Guangzhou, this paper explores the solutions tothe problems of the residential buildings. At the same time we look into the futuredevelopment trend of residential buildings in Guangzhou downtown area.The main conclusions are as follows: the residential buildings in Guangzhou downtown area should be designed to adhere to the overall concept and the principles of sustainabledevelopment, in line with overall urban development strategy, and make contribution to thecity in space and function, which can not only be of benefit to the land use, but also helpcreate a livable environment. Downtown residential buildings should keep open andcompatible in more diverse cultures, so that it can meet the needs of different people comingfrom different cultural backgrounds because of their diversity. Meeting Guangzhougeographical environment is a very special requirement for residential buildings, such as theapproach on traditional houses of the Lingnan natural environment and climate in Guangzhoudowntown area. During the update processing those cultural and artistic values, historicalsignificance residential buildings should be retained, and the new residential buildings shouldreflect the heritage culture; Central city of residential building should be people-oriented,meet the needs of people at various stages in the lifecycle, and meet the needs of differentincome levels. The theory and practice have proven that we should insist on holistic approachand sustainable approach, and reflect regionalism, culture, epochal characters during thedesign of residential buildings downtown in order to solve the contradiction about residentialbuildings in downtown area.By reviewing the historical evolution of residential buildings in downtown area andcombining with the architectural theory of "the overall concept and the concept of sustainabledevelopment; cultural, regional, and times", I focused on residential buildings in downtownGuangzhou, analyzed its characteristics and problems and explored solutions and trends,verified by examples which is the highlights of innovation for this paper.