AbstractsEngineering

The purpose of this bachelor thesis is to present a comparison of housing standards between Sweden and China, in terms of the development of design codes and regulations during the last fifteen years. The study focuses mainly on dwelling sizes and accessibility. The Swedish Building Regulations, BBR7:1999 and BBR18:2011-2013, and the Chinese code Design Code for Residential buildings GB1999:2003 and GB2011 were used as a reference frame. It showed that China has improved its regulations on accessibility greatly, whereas standards on dwelling sizes decreased during the last fifteen years. The study also shows Sweden has reached a sufficient level in terms of dwelling size and accessibility, as only minor difference are found between the codes during the last fifteen years. The comparison between Sweden and China shows that Sweden’s regulations are more developed and user-friendly for the disabled. Sweden can be used as an example for China, in the purpose of carry on improving their requirements covering accessibility. On the other hand, Sweden can improve the accessibility by considering certain measures taken in China, e.g. the design of ramps.