Alternative to Demolition – Learning from the UK’s Housing Crisis

On 11th March 2025, Geraldine Dening  presented some of her latest research at the South China University of Technology (SCUT) as part of a week long Urban Renewal workshop with the University of Hong Kong.

Comparing the regeneration of the UK’s council housing estates with that of a uniquely Chinese type of public housing called the danwei dayuan (a housing neighbourhood aligned with a work-unit), she outlined some of the key similarities and differences, both economic and social, between policies and practices of public housing and renewal in the UK and China over the last 45 years.

Informed by the research and design proposals of ASH she presented some opportunities for alternative regeneration strategies derived from the respective conditions in the UK and China, and explored what lessons can be learned from this comparison with a view to increasing the provision, improvement, refurbishment, densification and maintenance of public housing estates and their communities, and — by default — the affordability and liveability of our cities, both in China and the UK.

The article this presentation was based on will be published in UCL press later in 2025