Affordable Housing for China

Affordable Housing for China

Over a million people have moved to Guangzhou in the past eight years, making the city's population nearly ten million today. This urbanization is the trend of cities worldwide; it makes all the more relevant "Solos: Tolou/Affordable Housing for China", going on view at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum October 3.
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Tolou is a prototype for affordable housing that the local architectural firm Urbanus is trying to spread throughout the city: it incorporates 245 apartments, a dormitory, a small hotel, shops, a gymnasium, library and various communal spaces. It's elegant. It's a study in circles. And it layers the urgency of population growth upon the classic Corbu references it otherwise invokes.

The Cooper-Hewitt will display two full-scale bedrooms, with other areas of the program outlined on the gallery floor and walls to give the visitor a sense of the special relationships in this Chinese approach to affordable multi-family housing. 

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Jamie Waugh
After starting in design journalism at House & Garden and CNN, Jamie runs the International Design Awards festival, which rewards visionary international design.

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