A review of previous Posts (Vanke Future Sky City, Yunfan Future Community, Hangzhou West Railway Station) indicates that Hangzhou currently tends to build high-rise, high-density buildings to achieve sustainability. This may be since Hangzhou is presently densely populated, with a high demand for housing but a limited urban land space, thus requiring a more efficient land use approach. Also, for developers, higher residential density means more units available for sale, which usually results in higher profits.
However, the proliferation of high-density housing in Hangzhou has brought several issues. The first is traffic congestion. Many residents in high-density residential zones have to commute through the city daily for work or study, which puts a lot of pressure on traffic routes, especially during peak commuting times. Secondly, there is a lack of community facilities. To increase the price, many developers make it a selling point for apartment buildings close to hospitals, schools and other infrastructure. Still, in reality, these infrastructures are always overloaded, and the quality of service is poor due to the more significant number of people living in high-density neighbourhoods.
Local planners, designers, and developers primarily respond to promote TOD (Transit-oriented Development). By combining high-rise, high-density residential buildings with public transport stations for subways and trains, the efficient use of land is achieved while at the same time reducing the occupancy of road traffic by residents and allowing them to access higher-quality infrastructure services elsewhere via public transport.
However, one of the characteristics of TOD is that the price is higher, which leads to a situation where those who can afford TOD housing prefer low or medium density, well-serviced locations and can afford to commute by private car, while those who cannot afford TOD housing spend a lot of time commuting and suffer from traffic stress while not receiving quality social benefits. So, in my view, a better response might be to increase the urban sprawl rate as necessary and create multiple urban centres to disperse the over-concentrated population while offering a wider choice of housing to meet the preferences of different groups.
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