Chongqing - As cities around the world rethink how people live, Chongqing offered its own vision this week with the opening of the 2025 Chongqing Good Housing Exhibition, showcasing technology, sustainable materials, and smart design shaping the future of housing in one of China’s fastest-growing megacities.
Spread across full-scale model units, the exhibition translated the good housing concept from government guidelines into immersive, walk-through spaces. The display homes, covering both commercial apartments and subsidized housing, highlighted how layout, materials, and digital systems can work together to improve daily comfort.
One of the biggest draws was a high-end apartment with a double-height sky courtyard measuring nearly 46 square meters. Unlike the narrow balconies typical of high-rise buildings, the courtyard opened into a vertical garden that blurred the line between indoors and outdoors.
The design exemplifies Chongqing's newly released technical guidelines, which require higher standards for light, ventilation, and space. Ceiling heights in future commercial housing, for example, will rise from the national standard of 3 meters to 3.15 meters, offering a noticeably more open feel.
The 2025 Chongqing Good Housing Exhibition showcases how technology, green materials, and thoughtful design are reshaping urban living in Chongqing. (Photo/Chongqing Daily)
Beyond smart devices and improved layouts, the exhibition also spotlighted a less visible but critical aspect of the initiative: advances in building materials. A soundproofing demonstration drew steady crowds as staff compared a standard double-glazed window with a glass-fiber reinforced polyurethane version.
While the first did little to block street noise, the second immediately quieted the room. Exhibitors said the material also improves insulation, potentially cutting summer cooling costs by half — a reflection of Chongqing's push for more energy-efficient housing.
The exhibition featured other innovations aimed at strengthening the invisible infrastructure of future homes. These included photovoltaic tiles capable of generating rooftop electricity, self-healing concrete that seals micro-cracks, low-noise drainage pipes designed for high-density buildings, and nanomaterial coatings resistant to fire and mold. Developers noted that such technologies play a decisive role in a home's long-term durability, comfort, and environmental performance, even when hidden behind walls and ceilings.
According to local authorities, Chongqing has already launched 115 good-housing projects, many of which have been well received by the market.
This initiative also reflects broader goals of innovation, sustainability, and improved quality of urban life. By pairing smart home systems with greener, more resilient building materials, Chongqing aims to deliver housing that is not only more comfortable for residents but also better suited to the environmental challenges facing modern cities.