The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development covers 17 goals, the eleventh of which is “Sustainable Cities and Communities,” namely: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

Under this major goal, there are 17 targets, the 11. B of which is “By 2020, substantially increase the number of cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters, and develop and implement, in line with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030, holistic disaster risk management at all levels.”

●Current Situation

About the World

The challenge of modern urban community construction

From the perspective of the overall development process of global communities, community construction first appeared in developed capitalist countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States, which took the lead in completing urbanization. With the expansion of economic scale and the enhancement of human mobility brought about by industrialization and urbanization in the 18th and 19th centuries, the traditional “acquaintance society” based on social interpersonal relations quickly transformed into the modern “stranger society” based on credit contract relations. A series of social problems, such as the atomization of social relations, the collapse of traditional social order, the lack of community service supply ability, and the increase of the poor population, have put forward more severe, more diverse and higher standard challenges and requirements for the construction of modern urban communities.

Along with the development of the times, the construction of “the future residential community” will not only focus on the basic bottom line of community, including safe, health, etc., but also focus on multivariate population diversity, multidimensional living requirements of community, such as happy and healthy living environment of humanistic care, low-carbon life, wisdom, science and technology scenes of life, etc., to meet people's growing yearning a better city life. As a result, the world will have substantially cities and human settlements adopting and implementing integrated policies and plans towards inclusion, resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, resilience to disasters.

About China

Urban renewal policies in China

The development of community construction in China started later compared with western developed countries. In nearly 50 years, from the founding of the People’s Republic of China to the end of last century, the country witnessed the transformation from unit housing allocation to commercial housing trading.

According to a survey report on urban household assets and liabilities released by the central bank of China in 2020, 96 percent of Chinese urban residents own their homes.

However, nowadays, most of the residential communities built in the second half of the 20th century have gradually begun to face problems such as aging buildings, function deficient, insecurity, uninhabitability and non-energy saving because of the construction technology and the age of construction at that time. Moreover, as China's urbanization level exceeded 60 percent by the end of 2019, urban development gradually transitioned from the “incremental” era to the “stock” era. Therefore, in April 2020, Premier Li Keqiang pointed out the advanced concept of urban renewal to promote the renovation of old residential areas nationwide. This means that the focus of urban development has gradually changed from the construction of new cities to the improvement of functions of old cities, healthy urban operation and improvement of human settlements.

●Cases

About the World

1221 Broadway Project, Texas, U.S.

1221 Broadway Street is a major community development project in Antonio, Texas. It was converted from a former industrial area and is now a luxury apartment building in the area with state-of-the-art facilities and top-ranking resident services. In the project, the original industrial building was transformed into a high-end apartment in line with modern aesthetics and lifestyle by adding lighting, setting a full-dimensional fitness center and improving community interaction.

About China

Shenzhen’s child-friendly community

Shenzhen, as the “vanguard” of China’s reform and opening up, has been increasingly attractive to the younger generation of labor in recent years, but the rising cost of living has made a large number of young people choose to squeeze into the communities of the “villages in the city” with low rent and poor environmental quality. With the characteristics of the urban population structure, including the large percentages of young families, as well as the large numbers and continuous rise of young children, Shenzhen has been the first in the country to put forward the new concept of “Child-friendly community” with the reference of international practices. Such a community satisfies children’s needs such as healthy growth and developing children’s nature, on the basis of respect and granting the rights of children, and in the terms of community policy, service and environment, etc.

Baihua 2nd Road child-friendly block is the first child-friendly demonstration community in Shenzhen. It has built an “urban living room” for children’s outdoor activities, a participatory rain garden, a transformed public space of childish block, and a safe school road.

Sources: China’s Future Residential Community Report (by Savills), Shenzhen Urban Transportation Planning and Design Research Center

●Background

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Initiated by the United Nations

On 1 January, 2016, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including 169 targets, of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — adopted by world leaders in September 2015 at an historic UN Summit — officially came into force. Countries will mobilize efforts to end all forms of poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change, while ensuring that no one is left behind.