THE ECONOMY INTERPRETATIONS OF MORPHOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION OF WORK-UNIT NEIGHBORHOOD IN CHINA: A CASE STUDY OF KUNMING (1960–2010)

Abstract

The work-unit residence is a residential mode formed under the special Chinese "work-unit system" during the period of the planned economy. Since the 1960s, a large number of residential areas have been built to solve the problem of accommodation. Selecting Kunming iron and steel plant in the six time nodes of 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and the six neighborhoods as the research sample, the author adopts qualitative and quantitative methods to have a comparative study of the six neighborhoods in terms of residential morphology like the plots and street system, block plan, building density, plot ratio, building scale during the six time nodes. The following conclusions can be drawn: the residential morphology only enjoyed minor changes in the first four time nodes, while that has changed gradually ever since 2000 and greatly ever since 2010. According to the concept of a morphological period from the Conzen School, the changes of physical space are closely related to politics, economy and culture. Therefore, the economy should play an important role in the transformation of the work-unit residential neighborhood. Based on the changes of work-unit residential neighborhood in the past 50 years, this paper analyzes the connection between the changes of the neighborhood form and the economy from the two following perspectives: the economic system which transforms from the planned economy to the market economy, and the structural transformation of the economy from the supply side to the demand side.