Urban villages in Shanghai : infill housing design strategies in Shanghai inner city learned from Milan

Unlike the housing construction strategy in China, since1980, Milan comes into post-industrial era, the infill housing design becomes the main type of new housing design in Milan inner city. This phenomenon is related with the law, policy, history and ideology. In the first part of thesis, the history and evolution process of infill housing in Milan inner city is studied. The study shows a “Similar with tradition——Dissimilar with tradition——Respect tradition also with innovation” trend. Based on the history of milanese housing, the infill housing design shows respect with the traditional milanese housing, but also with some innovation. According to the feature study of infill housing, and compared with the traditional milanese housing, the innovative design strategies are studied. In the area of density and height of housing, the infill design shows that the density of some parts of the building is reduced, although the whole density still keeps high, and the height of building is higher than the traditional housing, but the housing still holds street border; In the area of the relationship of housing and city, the infill design shows the continuity of the street interface, but shows the permeability towards the city and the courtyard breaks the closure of traditional housing,and shows a vertical stratification trend; in the area of layout, the infill design shows that the layout of infill housing keeps the sense of enclosure, but uses new diversified forms.Infill housing design shows a cautious renovation strategy which shows respect with the space and layout of neighborhood, but also shows innovation through variants based on traditional prototypes.Therefore, it can give a very important reference to contemporary housing design in China.Then a comparison of housing design strategies between Shanghai and Milan is made to conclude some helpful experiences from infill housing design strategies in Milan.And then the difficulties and potentials to apply these strategies in Shanghai is studied . The last chapter is an attempt to apply the infill strategies adjust to Shanghai's condition is made through a project located close to Tiantong Metro Station.It is an example to show how to use the infill strategies in housing design in Shanghai inner city.