Abstract

For about 30 years since the founding of the Communist People's Republic of China, state-owned work units take responsibility for the housing for their staff as part of their welfare benefits in urban areas. After the market economy was introduced, urban housing moved toward a market-oriented approach and the real-estate sector was opened to commercial developers. Since then, the commercial market housing community has flourished in Chinese urban areas. The designs of commercial market housing communities are distinct from those of state-sponsored housing. So far, there is little literature on the influence of the new community environments on residents' behaviour within their community. This study explores whether residents have different behaviour patterns in the commercial housing communities than in state-housing and to identify the factors that influence the use of outdoor spaces in communities. Six communities are selected as case studies in the urban area of Shanghai. Quantitative as well as qualitative methods are adopted to examine the relationship between residents' behaviour and community environments. Different behaviour patterns are found. Physical environments, social and demographical factors are found to attribute to the different behaviours. Recommendations are also offered based on the findings of the study.