Surveys on public housing in Northern China indicated that the common aim of Chinese public housing, which is to provide affordable housing, had been mostly satisfied. However, more than one fourth (29.9%) of the public housing units that were investigated were structurally modified by their occupiers for different layouts. This situation indicated that a fixed plan could not fulfill housing occupiers’ various requirements on spacing layout, and critical awareness had been shown that the adaptability of the public housing units was always ignored. Open Building is well organized and implemented in the field of residential area to increase adaptability and sustainability of dwellings. This paper reviewed the development of residential Open Building and attempted to reveal solutions for the design of adaptability in Chinese public housing. Based on the dwelling unit types, dwelling spaces, living modes and demographic conditions of the public housing units were investigated; and concerning the actual carried out adaptations in the public housing units, this research explored two levels of design and control methods: prototyping unit for possible layouts and flexible partitions for space-function reconfiguration. By adding design values of adaptability in public housing, key aspects showing the potentials and challenges for the design of public housing were summarized for future reference.