In the renovation of 170,000 old residential areas, the problem is not just “whether to install elevators”

Recently, some cities have added a “cash withdrawal” channel for provident funds.

On August 28, the Yinchuan Housing Provident Fund Management Center issued a new policy stating that residents can withdraw provident funds to install elevators in existing buildings;

On the same day, it was submitted to the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress The "Xiamen Special Economic Zone Elevator Safety Management Regulations (Draft)" under review proposed that owners can withdraw housing provident funds in accordance with relevant regulations to pay for the renewal, renovation, and repair of elevators;

It will be officially launched on September 1 In the implemented "Chengdu Housing Provident Fund Withdrawal Management Measures", a new withdrawal item of "adding elevators to existing residences" was added...

Currently, many cities across the country, including 16 trillion-dollar cities, have Issue policy opinions related to “adding elevators”. The successive updates of provident fund policies are believed to be intended to mobilize residents' enthusiasm, attract more people to participate, and accelerate the renovation of old communities.

Some friends are wondering. There are many tasks that need to be "accelerated" in various places. How important is the renovation of old communities?

From a quantitative point of view, it involves 170,000 communities and hundreds of millions of residents across the country, which is really large and wide-ranging; according to agency predictions, it is another blue ocean market with an imagination space of more than 2 trillion. In the words of Huang Yan, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the renovation of old communities "not only protects people's livelihood, but also stabilizes investment, and at the same time boosts domestic demand. It achieves multiple goals with one stone."

It can be seen that since it has been Since it was written into this year's government work report, the importance of this work has been continuously strengthened:

On June 19, the State Council held an executive meeting to deploy and promote work related to the renovation of old urban communities.

On July 30, the Political Bureau meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China pointed out that it is necessary to stabilize manufacturing investment and implement short board projects such as the renovation of old urban communities, urban parking lots, and the construction of urban and rural cold chain logistics facilities. , Accelerate the construction of new infrastructure such as information networks.

On July 31, the Standing Committee of the State Council once again proposed to encourage the inclusion of community medical, elderly care, housekeeping and other living facilities into the scope of renovation of old communities, provide fiscal and tax support, and create a convenient consumption circle.

However, the renovation is complex and specific. There are still many things worth thinking about and improving on how to truly improve the quality of the community and satisfy the residents.

Last week, Uncle Cheng attended a top academic conference in the urban planning field, chatted with professionals, and wanted to share with everyone the problems discovered in the early pilot projects.

Installing elevators is not easy

Old communities refer to residential communities with prominent problems such as a relatively long construction time, aging municipal supporting facilities, and lack of public services. In the current reports on the renovation of old communities, "elevators" are undoubtedly a focus.

Although officials continue to emphasize that this is a manifestation of creating a convenient living environment for empty nesters, disabled people, and elderly people who have lost their only child, and is an "ageing-friendly" transformation-not only the elderly, but also the young people climb six hours a day after get off work. The level is also quite difficult. But it is not easy to "install" an elevator in a community.

Take Shanghai as an example. According to statistics, in this city, which has ranked first in the world in total number of elevators for many years, there are more than 50,000 old buildings, most of which do not have elevators installed. A previous questionnaire survey showed that 89.3% of the 1,053 elderly people in Shanghai surveyed expressed their willingness to install elevators.

On the other hand, as of April this year, 429 houses in Shanghai have completed plans to install elevators after consulting residents, but only 137 units have been completed and put into operation, and 73 units are under construction. This number, compared with the city's more than 50,000 old buildings, is nothing more than a drop in the bucket.

Why is it so difficult? A key contradiction is that residents on different floors of each building have different needs for elevators. The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development is also aware of this.

“For example, in a six-story building, residents with more than three floors may be willing to install additional installations. The higher the floor, the stronger the willingness. But for the first or second floors, the demand is not urgent and they feel that it takes up public space. *** space may cause more or less damage to its interests," Huang Yan said.

The needs are different. In more realistic terms, it is still a matter of "money".

Most of the current residents in old communities are retired people with low incomes. It is really stressful to spend tens of thousands of yuan at a time. Some houses are rented out for a long time and are not occupied by the owners. Naturally, they are not willing to invest in installing elevators.

“The total cost of installing an elevator is generally 600,000 to 700,000 yuan. This does not include the later operation and maintenance costs. Based on this estimate, a family can cost as little as 70,000 to 80,000 yuan, or more.” "In some communities where elevators have been successfully installed, the electricity bill, maintenance and other expenses will exceed 10,000 yuan after one year. If the early discussions do not involve later expenses, new conflicts will arise after the installation and use for a period of time." This year in Shanghai " During the "Two Sessions", many deputies to the National People's Congress raised this issue.

For this reason, local governments are also looking for ways to solve funding problems.

At present, in addition to clearly providing elevator subsidies, Guangzhou, Chengdu and other places support the withdrawal of provident funds. Beijing, Nanjing and other places have introduced social capital to change the owner's self-financing and self-construction into a pay-to-use leasing model. It is hoped that Meet the diverse needs of residents on different floors for elevators.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, in 2018, more than 10,000 elevators were installed in old residential areas across the country, with more than 4,000 elevators under construction and more than 7,000 elevators undergoing preliminary procedures. "This work is being carried out in all directions."

The pilot exposed problems

This is true for an elevator. If we want to comprehensively update the public facilities in the community, The degree of difficulty can be imagined.

At the end of 2017, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development selected 15 cities to conduct pilot projects with the purpose of exploring new models for the renovation of old urban communities and providing replicable and generalizable experience for comprehensive advancement.

Guangzhou, Shaoguan, Liuzhou, Qinhuangdao, Zhangjiakou, Xuchang, Xiamen, Yichang, Changsha, Zibo, Hohhot, Shenyang, Anshan, Panzhihua, Ningbo

As of December last year, the pilot cities ***106 old communities were renovated, benefiting 59,000 residents.

But at the same time, many problems also occurred during the "trial". Qiu Baoxing, Counselor of the State Council and Chairman of the China Urban Science Research Society, summarized five aspects:

Focusing on individual renovations, but focusing on the will of the chief executive in the overall design, lacking the participation of the people

Focusing on departmental extension, lacking "Public *** Center"

Focuses on "wearing boots and hats" but lacks basic needs

Focuses on hardware transformation but lacks software management

Regarding single transformation as example. Today we are talking about door and window renovation, and later it is said that underground pipes need to be repaired. Different departments have different renovation plans throughout the day. As a result, everyone is at a loss. What is missing is the overall planning and design before the renovation.

In his opinion, if elevators and parking spaces can be combined into an overall consideration, "for example, free parking spaces on the first floor", it is possible to solve the problem of installing elevators.

Qiu Baoxing also said that some academicians of architecture did not even know that their own communities were to be renovated, because no one informed them to participate in the renovation of their homes, and they were "fixed" by the relevant departments.

There are also management issues. As the so-called "three points of construction and seven points of management", Qiu Baoxing said, if management is not paid attention to, the modified hardware will also fail after a period of time.

In Li Yuefei's view, the current problems are mainly focused on construction and management. The chief engineer of the China Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd. Municipal Municipal Council just participated in a research activity on the renovation of old urban communities organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development last month.

After visiting many places, his personal experience is that the problems exposed are "shocking" and the disparities in various places are "never seen before".

In fact, Huang Yan also publicly talked about three difficulties in the renovation of old communities not long ago, including local coordination and promotion, establishing a follow-up management mechanism for the community after the renovation, and financing issues.

As for management, Huang Yan bluntly said that many old communities were built more than 20 years ago, and most of these communities lack property management. At the same time, even if the transformation is implemented, without a long-term maintenance and operation management mechanism, the effects of the transformation will be difficult to maintain for a long time.

“Nowadays, residents in old communities often do not have the habit of paying for services. Residents did not pay property fees originally. After the renovation was implemented, although the transformation effect was quite good, residents were required to pay property fees, which required a The process of ideological and understanding transformation,” Huang Yan said.

Where is the way out?

The problem is not small, how to solve it?

Qiu Baoxing believes that the key is to put the overall design first. For example, using digital technology to make planning drawings more visual and intuitive, so that the needs of residents in old communities can be met through "a la carte" methods.

To do this, you should first find the right "object".

Qiu Baoxing suggested that various localities can promote the city's "best community" and "worst community" selection activities through professional software or expert evaluation to increase the enthusiasm and participation of community residents in transformation, "let the worst community Neighborhoods that need to be renovated are popping up."

At the specific technical level, the content of the renovation of old communities can be classified into "must-have items" and "expansion items". The former mainly includes pipe network transformation, aging-friendly transformation, three-dimensional parking lots, Garbage classification and processing, etc. The latter involves community greening, external access, sponge community transformation, etc.

However, in the long run, before the technology can be implemented, a conceptual problem needs to be solved first - our city is a complex giant system that requires holistic thinking.

Many experts pointed out that the biggest obstacle why it is difficult to advance the renovation of old communities, and some even turn into public disputes, is that "it is difficult to reconcile the opinions of all" and the game between multiple stakeholders.

In the words of Yu Kongjian, dean of the Peking University Landscape Architecture Institute, "Small decisions are the root of all problems. Where is the way out? System synthesis."

A set of qualified cities The planning system does not pursue the largest scale or a completely ideal state, but it must be a "balanced solution" obtained after comprehensively considering the interests of every individual in the city.

As the smallest social unit in the city, the renovated community also needs to do this.

As Qiu Baoxing said, the renovation of old communities, a new trillion-level investment field, will make great achievements in the development of green buildings and give rise to many new industries. But more importantly, " People-centered to improve the city’s living quality and investment environment.”

It needs to be pointed out that as an organism, a city always faces the dual challenges of rebirth and decline, preservation and elimination, protection and development. According to Huang Yan, in the future, the focus of urban construction management will fall more on the stock, that is, the renewal, improvement, and protection of the city.

Perhaps one day, the multiple-choice question of community renovation will be handed over to you.