A study on small apartment design in China: Evaluation on the impressions of and preferences for the floor plans

Abstract

As house prices keep soaring in China, in 2006, the Chinese government issued a policy determining that 70% of newly built housing should be small apartments of no more than 90m 2 . In order to optimize the floor plan design of apartments of such a limited size, it is essential to understand how people cognize different plans, as well as their prior concerns over distinct spatial demands. In this study, seven similar but distinguished 90m 2 apartment plans were made on the basis of the findings in past research, and a comparative study was thus carried out through a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire studied the respondents' impressions of as well as preferences for the plans. The results suggested that people's impressions of apartment floor plans were composed of four main factors—atmosphere, efficiency, pleasantness and design originality. Moreover, although the efficiency aspects contributed much to people's overall judgment of the plans in general, respondents with different gender tended to have a distinct understanding of efficiency, while those of different age and occupation had disparate sensitivity to efficiency and pleasantness as well as the design originality of the plans.