China’s suburbs might look like your typical American tract project, but the differences are vast

Chip Pierson, AIA and principal at Dahlin Group Architecture Planning, designs and plans communities and villas that mirror modern Southern California suburban developments. Architectural styles that look familiar to North Americans, right down to the Spanish tiled roofs and amenities such as golf course communities, are in huge demand in China.

Pierson should know. He has worked in China for almost a decade, laying the groundwork for local relations and major projects since 2001. And it’s paid off.

The firm recently designed more than a dozen residential “villas” [Pierson differentiates villas as either 7,500-square-foot luxury villas or regular villas that are 2,500 to 4,000 square feet] and mixed-use residential projects.

“We had a villa project that just opened this June in the western city of Chengdu that sold for an average of $2.5 million apiece,” says Pierson. “They were between 3,700 and 4,500 square feet in a golf course development. The developer eventually sold $100 million of houses for 40 houses in a gated golf course community.”

The one big difference is that the Chinese market tends to buy and invest in cloud-scraping condo units or purchase these types of “villa” homes in the outer reaches of major cities. Single-family homes aren’t the norm like they are in North America.

Building locally

The firm works closely with local architects who complete and file construction documents and work with local suppliers and building officials.

“In China a residential home is designed and built similar to an office building,” says Pierson. “The structural, mechanical and electrical is done in-house at a design institute which includes local county, municipally run architecture firms. They’re basically hired to finish the drawings, and we review to ensure the details are done correctly.”

And because it is a foreign-owned firm, Pierson says the firm can only take projects through to the design and development phase. “Projects are completed through a local construction documentation architect in whatever city we’re doing a project in.”

Sourcing locally

Pierson’s residential villas might look like they were constructed using traditional materials, but he says they’re made from local concrete and brick infill. “The homes are concrete-structural framed; even the roofs are concrete panels,” says Pierson.

Materials that go in the interiors, even the plumbing fixtures, are usually products such as Toto or American Standard that can either be imported from their respective countries or manufactured in China.

One residential trend Pierson sees is an emphasis on international looks and trends by importing high-end materials such as Italian ceramics, high-end Italian faucets and bowls, and whole lines branded by Armani. “Fashion designers that design clothes are now designing bathroom fixtures, and many developers are adding these as a collection in the much higher-end home selling in the $11 million range,” says Pierson.

Interiors: A whole different game

In China, residential homes are often sold with unfinished interiors, similar to commercial space in North America. Homes are immaculately finished on the outside, but the inside is concrete and plaster.

“You have to hire another contractor to do the interior finishes,” Pierson says. “In China, it’s not an integrated process where the builder is the developer who then hires subs. There are developers, who hire general contractors who then sub it out.”

Design details

Pierson designs the firm’s projects for feng shui, including techniques such as daylighting. “If you’re building townhouses you have to have daylighting. There’s actually daylighting and planning codes for setbacks. At the same time, there’s no R1 or R3 values and things like that, and no codes for single-family homes because they really are a brand-new phenomenon. So, the setbacks between buildings are the same for a single-family home as they would be for six-story condo building.”

A lot of the design has to do with the personal taste of the developer. Typically, the Chinese don’t have a lot of market research on what buyer preferences are “and what they do have we don’t trust. But what they do know is that buyers like European styles, probably more than Chinese styles. Because they live with Chinese styles all the time, they like the European styles because the architecture, how do I say, it shows that you’re richer than somebody else. Architecture is a lot about brands. It’s a lot about style, and it’s a lot about luxury and showing that you have luxury,” says Pierson.

In the past, if Chinese builders wanted to see what’s new and exciting in architecture, they’d go to Seattle or Southern California to see what was hot and what was new.

“We haven’t built anything there in three years. As a West Coast homebuilding economy there’s not much that’s new, right? What’s shifted for us is that our Chinese clients who had been coming to California to see design trends don’t come to California anymore. They go see projects in China because they’re now better than what you see in California,” Pierson says.

Read about multifamily construction in China.