Abstract: With the development of society and the change of living concept，residential retrofit of old industrial buildings has gradually been accepted，especially apartments for rent． It was analyzed the characteristics of old industrial buildings and apartment-style housing，and summarized the problems occurred in the process of old industrial buildings reuse based on the analysis of real cases transformed into apartments． It was also convinced that it is meaningful to consider the means of residential industrialization in exploring the design methods of adaptable unit forms，effective space utilization and facility updating．