Resilience in the Built Environment of the Industrial Community in Response to Factory Bankruptcy: A Case Study on Shanxi Knitting Factory, Taiyuan, China

Industrial communities in China were historically organised as highly integrated socio-spatial formations combining production and residence. Since China’s economic transformation, many factory bankruptcies and relocations have rapidly dismantled production systems and industrial landscapes, accelerating the reorganisation of industrial communities within cities. However, limited attention has been paid to how different spatial units within the same industrial community respond to abrupt changes in factory operations. Drawing on resilience thinking in the built environment, this study explores the Shanxi Knitting Factory in Taiyuan, China, as a case of factory bankruptcy. This study identifies resilience capacities in the built environment and considers their social implications by integrating a quantitative assessment of heterogeneity in the built environment with qualitative interviews. The findings show that: ① The factory area exhibited transformability through land restructuring and functional replacement, whereas the residential area showed persistence by maintaining basic living functions but experienced weakening adaptability as adjustment remained limited following factory bankruptcy. ② Residents generally perceived these physical changes negatively and associated them with unfavourable social experiences. ③ The combined finding suggests that resilience in the built environment should not be understood only through morphological changes, but also through its capacity to support residents’ everyday needs and social life.