ABSTRACT
With the rapid process of urbanization in China, more and more young high-knowledge residents (YHKR) tend to choose to work and live in cities. Under such circumstances, youth apartments have become the first choice for YHKRs due to their flexible leasing methods, efficient layout, convenient service facilities and other advantages, and they have developed rapidly in vast cities in the past 10 years. However, the YHKRs characterized by high population mobility have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused the vacancy rate of youth apartments in China's first-tier cities to rise to 15%-20% in 2020. This paper proposes a design concept of a growth-type youth apartment (GTYA) to meet the above challenges and expounds the proposed design concept from three aspects: the birth of buildings, the growth of buildings and the disappearance of buildings. The design concept of GTYA is considered to be able to be operated in an urban chain mode, which is conducive to more efficient use of land resources. The research results provide new design perspectives and development directions for youth apartments in modern cities under the background of the pandemic. © Conference Proceedings of the 10th International Symposium on Project Management, China, ISPM 2022.