China Reconnaissance Design Association Standard Community "Fifteen-Minute Living Circle" Green Open Space Planning and Design Guidelines （hereinafter referred to as the Guide） is currently under the approval process. This article is an introduction to the drafting process and major contents of the Guide.
1.Drafting Background
"The "15-minute living circle" is the basic unit of community life, and the community green open space is an important public place to provide residents with daily outdoor activities, which is closely related to the people's quality of life. "The community is the smallest unit of governance, and it is also the one in which the people have the strongest sense of access. "Building green, liveable, open and shared community spaces can meet the needs of a "people-centred" better life, and enhance people's sense of achievement and happiness."
Community green open space mainly refers to urban green space and outdoor public activity sites within the "15-minute living circle" to meet the various needs of residents for leisure, sports, recreation and fitness, culture and entertainment, children playing, etc. It is characterised by small scale, decentralised spatial layout, diverse functional types and multiple construction and management bodies. As community green open space involves multiple departments and levels of work, it is under decentralized management and construction. In the past process of rapid urbanization, the construction of large-scale green spaces was often the main focus, while the small-scale green open space at the community level was neglected for a long time, and there were widespread problems such as insufficient green open space and imperfect public activity functions.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development （MOHURD） has been comprehensively promoting the transformation of old urban communities, carrying out actions to make up for the shortcomings in the construction of urban residential communities and building complete residential communities. In recent years, with the continuous promotion of "community living circle", the construction of community green open space in cities around the country has received increasing attention, and the level of service has been gradually improved and well received by the public. This includes the community sports parks in Zhuhai, the community sports and culture parks in Chongqing, the community parks in Shenzhen, the renewal of old city space in Beijing to reclaim vacated land for green, and the community living circle in Shanghai. There is a great demand for the construction of green open space at the community level, but "community green open space" has not been a unified research object. The existing technical standards for residential areas, urban green areas and urban public service facilities have respectively put forward planning and construction requirements for parks, green areas, multi-functional sports grounds and fitness activity grounds, but there is a lack of articulation between the requirements of the relevant standards for "community green open space", and a lack of more unified and clear technical guidelines.
In summary, in order to make up for the lack of technical standards for small and micro-scale green open spaces at the community level, and to meet the current needs of community living circle construction and landscaping planning and design, it is very necessary to compile this Community "15-minute Living Circle" Green Open Space Planning and Design Guideline.
2.Development Thoughts
2.1 Age Friendly
"People" are the main service targets of community green open spaces. The functional composition, spatial layout and configuration of community green open spaces should be in line with the characteristics of the activities of different age groups, so as to be "all-age friendly". The Guide classifies community groups into five categories: children （0-12 years old）， youth （13-17 years old）， adult （18-59 years old）， elderly （60 years old and above） and people with disabilities, with a focus on the needs of the "old and young" and people with disabilities. The focus transits from the land to people's needs, and focuses on people activities. Pay close attention to the needs of different groups of people and provide spaces according to their needs.
2.2 Diversity and Integration
The Guide breaks the boundaries of urban land use, integrate all kinds of available urban space and improve the system of green open space at the community level. The community green open space in the Guide includes urban green spaces and outdoor public activity sites within the "15-minute living circle" to meet the various needs of residents for leisure, sports, recreation and fitness, culture and entertainment, children playing, etc. It includes not only parks and green spaces, but also various activity sites, such as activity squares, fitness grounds, children's playgrounds, multi-functional sports grounds, etc., reflecting a variety of activity functions and land use.
2.3 Finer Governance
The Guide combines the needs of community governance in the urban renewal stage, highlights the characteristics of renewal, and focuses on operability and practical guidance. The planning indicators highlight practicality and flexibility. Instead of copying the standards, the Guide integrated innovation on the basis of the standards and putting forward requirements for the construction of green spaces in different living circles. It does not pursue the mandatory requirement of the number and scale of green open spaces in the community, but effectively addresses the practical problems of insufficient land for green open spaces in the community, the large number of people using them, and the lack of activity venues. Combined with the needs of refined community governance, it strengthens the guidelines for small and micro-scale design and the requirements for public participation, and promotes the common construction and sharing of community governance.
3.Main Contents
The Guide connects with existing planning standards for residential areas, parks, green spaces and public facilities, and implementing the mandatory provisions therein.
The Guide is applicable to the planning, design, new construction and renovation of green open spaces within the community's "15-minute living circle". The chapters cover the main elements of the planning and design process of green open spaces at the community level. The technical content consists of five chapters: 1. general rules; 2. characteristics of group activities; 3. planning layout; 4. design guidelines; and 5. public participation.
3.1 Determining Activity Space Needs According to the Characteristics of the Population Activities
The Guide analyses the needs of the elderly, children, teenagers and adults for the basic activity functions of green open spaces in the community according to their different activity characteristics. The activity characteristics of different groups of people in the community are: children mainly play games and have fun; teenagers mainly play sports and interact; middle-age adults mainly play sports and fitness; and the elderly mainly focus on recreation and wellness activities. These basic activity spaces should be reasonably combined in different types of community green open space according to the characteristics of the community population, reflecting the use needs of the community.
The elderly and children are important users of green open space in the community. It is important to meet the community activity needs of the elderly in the ageing era, as well as to increase outdoor activity space for children, promote growth space friendliness and build all-age friendly community green open space. For infants and toddlers （0-3 years old）， preschoolers （4-6 years old）， school-age children （7-12 years old） and teenagers, the Guide suggests that the 5-minute living circle should focus on strengthening the provision of playgrounds for children aged 0-6 years old; in the 10-minute living circle, it is appropriate to set up a children's playground with an area of 500 square metres or more suitable for children aged 6-9 years old, which can be integrated with community parks and community sports parks. A separate community park for young people should be provided in a 15-minute living circle.
The Guide proposes strategies for the construction of elderly-oriented open spaces: proximity to the site, comfort and safety, ease of interaction, enrichment of activities and integration of functions; as well as strategies for the construction of child-friendly open spaces: respecting children's psychological behaviour in play, stimulating children's curiosity, highlighting safety and accessibility, strengthening the application of natural elements and increasing opportunities for children to participate in the design process.
3.2 Reasonable Definition of Community Green Open Space Types
On the basis of fully exploring the potential of various types of urban land use, the Guide defines community green open space types and divides them into five categories according to their functional characteristics, spatial forms and land use types, including community parks, community sports parks, pocket parks, community green paths and others, and clarifies the definition of each type and its relationship with urban land use.
3.3 Planning Classification Allocation and Total Control
The Guide is fully integrated with existing green space planning standards, green space classification standards, residential area planning and design standards, urban public service facility standards, park design standards and residential green space design standards, etc., and clarified the graded allocation, scale indicators and layout requirements of community green open space in the planning layout, and to determine the bottom line, encouragement and guidance directions. It is proposed that community green open space should be configured at both 15 minutes and 5-10 minutes levels with a balanced layout, and combined with various types of urban land to create open space that combines size and level and reflects humanistic characteristics, so as to meet residents' needs for daily activities within walking distance.
It is appropriate to quantify the scale of community green open space in terms of people, and to reasonably determine the total area of community green open space and subarea requirements according to the scale of the community population. In newly built areas, it is appropriate to set the target for the total area of community green open space per capita at no less than 5 square metres per person; in urban renewal areas, it is appropriate to set the total area of community green open space per capita at no less than 70% of the guiding target, i.e. 3.5 square metres per person.
3.4 Classified Policy to Determine Different Implementation Paths
The planning and implementation strategy focuses on solving practical problems to better facilitate guidance of practice. According to the different construction types such as new construction, renewal and upgrading, different implementation methods are proposed for planning and building greenery, adding new greenery, upgrading and brightening greenery and sharing and adding greenery.
Examples of Adding New Greenery: Chongqing Uses Urban 'Corner Space' to Build Community Parks
Community park using a slope protection （left）； basketball court in community park （right）
In particular, it is proposed to "share and add greenery". For communities or mixed neighbourhoods adjacent to urban public services, commercial or office facilities, advocated for "mix functions and open up and share", mobilize elements such as public institutions and enterprises, social organizations, community residents and professional groups, in order to supplement green and open activity spaces for the surrounding communities in a way of joint discussion, joint construction, joint governance and sharing, and to meet the diversified needs of leisure, fitness, culture and interaction.
3.5 Design Guidelines Highlighting High Quality of Life and Innovation Orientation
The Guide provides more refined design guidelines for small and micro-scale green open spaces in communities, highlighting the guidance to high quality of life and innovation. The design guidelines for each type of green open space specify control indicators such as green space ratio and land use ratio, as well as specific content such as functional zoning, facility setup and construction requirements. The design guidelines reflect the high quality of life in the new era as well as the needs of child-friendly and elderly-oriented development, with equal emphasis on design orientation and guidelines, highlighting the values of safety, accessibility, economic, ecology, culture, publicity and education, and sponge construction.
The design guidelines highlight people's demand for healthy living in the post-epidemic era, improve public activity spaces and build national fitness venues and facilities to better meet people's needs for fitness and exercise. For example, it is proposed that walking paths or running tracks should be set up in community parks, and running tracks should be designed in the form of a wrap-around closure with distance marked, and the road surface should be continuous and smooth, with priority given to anti-slip, permeable and wear-resistant paving and surfacing materials.
3.6 Enhancing Public Participation in Community Green Open Space
The Guide proposes procedures and methods for public participation in the construction of community green open spaces, taking into account the needs for refined community governance in the urban renewal stage. The participation procedures include the awareness and participation stage, the organisation and cultivation stage, the planning and design stage, the implementation stage and the maintenance and management stage. Through extensive public participation, all parties in society will be mobilised to promote the common construction, governance and sharing of community habitat.
Sources: <https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/KlAxz-tMo8FMLK-6zJ0OJg>
Translated by Fan Junyi
Copyright @ 2014 Urban Planning Society of China
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