China Brand Homes focuses on the design, concepts and practices regarding housing supply developed by private real estate companies in China. The research is based on an historical analysis of one specific real estate company, namely China Vanke Co. Ltd., as well as an architectural and urban analysis applied to some of this firm’s residential projects. esign of the Chinese houses in the post-reform era. Expanding from the specific case of Vanke, this dissertation seeks to discuss two broader academic issues. The first issue considers the innovative processes of a real estate enterprise and the role of a single company in shaping new housing designs, based on supply and demand transformations. The second issue, drawing from the review of the concepts of housing and architectural commodification, argues that real estate developers have shifted from approaching housing projects as commodities to considering them as brands of a business enterprise. Indeed, my research shows evidences that both one single firm’s processes of innovation and branding practices effectively influenced and shaped the design of the Chinese houses in the post-reform era.
