ChatGPT said: Led by Ma Yansong, MAD unveiled its first social housing project—Baiziwan Public Rental Housing (Yanbao·Baiwan Garden). The project is located on Guangqu Road, just outside the East Fourth Ring Road of Beijing, near the Chemi Station of Metro Line 7, with a distant view of the CBD. Covering an area of 93,900 square meters, with a total construction area of 473,300 square meters, the project consists of 12 residential buildings and accommodates 4,000 households. Since its completion in 2019, the project has frequently been referred to by media and netizens as the "most beautiful public rental housing," and the occupancy rate has surpassed 70%.

"Baiban Bai Tai" (百湾百态) is an illustration series created by artist RUIS锐兮, accompanying MAD' ongoing exploration and research into social housing. Since 2014, MAD has been studying the social aspects of social housing, with a focus on the history, development, and design of social housing in various countries. Ma Yansong, the founding partner of MAD, also initiated discussions on this topic during his time teaching at Tsinghua University and Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture. He encouraged young students to imagine ideal living spaces, fostering a broader dialogue on the future of housing design.

In the night, the Baiziwan Public Rental Housing project shines in the photograph by Existence Architecture.

In the same year, the Beijing Municipal Affordable Housing Center invited MAD to design the Baiziwan Public Rental Housing. As the firm's first social housing project, MAD aimed to break conventions through practical design, using innovation to push the boundaries of social housing in China. The goal was to create spaces and architecture that serve people, ensuring the vast community merges seamlessly with the city and the residents' lives. The project sought to awaken the social essence of housing, addressing a series of pressing issues related to urban living in China's rapid urban development.

Community street leading to the urban road. Photo by Tian Fangfang.

Open neighborhood blocks

The community walls are removed to integrate the urban road. The 12 residential buildings are divided into six clusters, with a large plot broken into six smaller blocks. The ground-level spaces along the streets serve as essential services, introducing convenience stores, coffee shops, restaurants, a kindergarten, a clinic, a bookstore, senior care facilities, and more. This design brings community life into the city, making the urban scale more inviting and human-centered.

The open neighborhood blocks form the urban fabric, creating a more livable scale. Photo by Tian Fangfang.

The supermarket at the corner of the community. Photo by Zhu Yumeng.

The first-floor spaces are reserved for multi-functional community facilities.

Vertical Community

After dedicating the first floor to the city, MAD reserved the second floor for internal use by the community, creating a series of rooftop green spaces. A circular running track surrounds the six blocks, forming a massive park that connects a variety of community functions such as a gym, badminton courts, playgrounds, eco-farms, and a community service center, all designed to serve the residents.

ChatGPT said:

The red running track connects the six blocks, with multiple sky bridges linking the floating-level park.
Photography: Existence Architecture.

Floating Gardens

In addition to the second-level "floating" park, MAD has incorporated various scaled landscapes at the first floor, building layers, semi-open gray spaces, and rooftops. Despite being located in the city center with high-density affordable housing, the design ensures a greenery rate of 47%, allowing residents to enjoy a more comfortable life and be closer to nature.

Sunlight Access

Despite the higher floor area ratio and smaller apartment sizes, the design maximizes sunlight access for each room by orienting them to the east, west, and south. The three-way building layout places the corridors on the north side, ensuring that every home receives sunlight. Additionally, the corridors provide insulation, helping to maintain warmth in the apartments.

Mountain-shaped Enclosure

The building plan follows a Y-shape, and the stepped design on the top floor creates a varied, mountainous form. The connections between the buildings create semi-enclosed spaces, forming clusters that bring an intimate and homely scale, evoking a strong sense of belonging. The clean white facades and undulating mountain-shaped rooftops enrich the city skyline, giving the development a distinctive and dynamic presence.

Community Signage System for Architectural Form Design

Unit Design

The Baiziwan Public Rental Housing primarily features six prefabricated unit types of 40, 50, and 60 square meters, along with four ultra-low-energy consumption unit types. The interior uses lightweight painted panels as partition walls, making maintenance easy and facilitating future renovations and modifications.

两种开敞式适合年轻人的户型

Duplex Units Suitable for Family Living

Industrialization & Environmental Energy Efficiency

The Baiziwan Public Rental Housing project achieves over 80% industrialized production, with both the building structure and interior utilizing prefabricated systems, all fabricated in factories for efficient and environmentally friendly construction. The building modules are pre-made in factories, then transported to the project site for assembly, minimizing construction site pollution. Prefabricated construction helps lower costs and improve the quality of residential buildings.

The community features two exemplary ultra-low-energy consumption buildings (also known as "passive houses"). These homes have low heating and cooling energy consumption, achieving over 90% energy savings. The buildings maintain optimal indoor temperature and humidity, with excellent air-tightness and sound insulation. The efficient heat recovery ventilation system also improves indoor air quality.

The installation of prefabricated building modules at the construction site

Participating in the design of the Baiziwan Public Rental Housing has led MAD to further explore housing issues in China. In a report by People's Daily, Ma Yansong stated, "Whether it's a housing community like this, or a grand theater or art museum in the city, the success of the project ultimately comes down to the care for people."

Evening, residents walking their dogs in Baiziwan Garden
Photography: Zhu Yumeng

The planning of modern residential areas in China began in the 1950s during the planned economy period. Influenced by the Soviet "micro-districts," the large and enclosed "unit courtyards" became the basic form of urban housing in China, a model that continues to this day. With the economic reforms and the wave of housing commercialization in the 1990s, housing became a mass-produced commodity.

People should be the core focus of housing. Housing concerns life dignity and social fairness. The Baiziwan Public Rental Housing proposes the idea of integrating public housing communities into urban life by introducing street access through a three-dimensional community design, maximizing green spaces and public facilities, and making simplicity and human-centric community spaces the core of the housing's spirit. It is an exploration towards ideal living environments.

Baiziwan Public Rental Housing (Yanbao · Baiwan Garden)
China, Beijing
2014-2019

Type: Social Housing
Total Building Area: 473,346 m²
Above-ground Area: 303,351 m²
Underground Area: 169,995 m²

Lead Partners: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yano Yoshihiro
Associate Partners: Liu Huiying, Fu Changrui

Design Team: He Xiaokang, Zheng Chengwen, Shang Li, Xu Chen, Li Guangchong, Wang Deyuan, Zheng Fang, Tong Shangren, Mujung Kang, Zhang Tingfu, Zhang Long, Zhang Kai, Kazushi Miyamoto, Yukan Yanagawa, Yu Zhipeng, Tomasz Czarnecki, Davide Signorato, Natalia Giacomino, Sear Nee, Yuan Yiwen, Steven Chaffer Park, Dookee Chung, Hiroki Fujino, Jiang Xuezhu, Chen Luman, Dina Khaki, Yang Xuebing

Client: Beijing Municipal Public Housing Construction Investment Center
Construction Drawing Design: Beijing Institute of Architectural Design
Landscape Design: Pan Asia Landscape Design (Shanghai) Co., Ltd.
Lighting Design: Beijing Ningzhi Jing Lighting Design Co., Ltd.
Signage Design: Beijing Dasi Advertising Co., Ltd.
Structural Consultant: CED International Design Consultants Co., Ltd.
Section 1 Construction: Beijing Zhuzong Group Co., Ltd.
Section 2 Construction: Beijing Construction Engineering Group Co., Ltd.
Supervision: Beijing Inovative Construction Engineering Management Co., Ltd.
Prefabricated Concrete Component Production: Beijing Yantong Building Component Co., Ltd.