Creating High-Quality Urban Living Spaces

The city is an important space for the people’s happy life. The Central Urban Work Conference [1]1 The Central Urban Work Conference is a high-level meeting convened by the CPC Central Committee to set policy directions for urban development. The July 2023 meeting referred to here is the most recent such gathering. held in July this year proposed “striving to build comfortable, convenient, and livable cities,” which points the direction and provides the fundamental guidance for constructing high-quality urban living spaces. The “Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Promoting High-Quality Urban Development” [2]2 This is a policy document jointly issued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, China’s cabinet, outlining guidelines for urban development. further made systematic arrangements for “creating high-quality urban living spaces.” Facing the new situation and new tasks, we must deeply grasp the stage-specific characteristics of China’s urbanization and urban development, thoroughly practice the people’s city concept, anchor the goal of a modernized people’s city, promote high-quality urban development, continuously strengthen the construction of high-quality urban living spaces, and steadily enhance the livability of cities, so that cities become a beautiful home that everyone aspires to.

城市是人民幸福生活的重要空间。今年7月召开的中央城市工作会议提出“着力建设舒适便利的宜居城市”，为构建高品质城市生活空间指明了方向、提供了根本遵循。《中共中央国务院关于推动城市高质量发展的意见》进一步对“营造高品质城市生活空间”作出了系统部署。面对新形势新任务，必须深刻把握我国城镇化和城市发展的阶段性特征，深入践行人民城市理念，锚定现代化人民城市目标，推动城市高质量发展，不断加强高品质城市生活空间建设，持续提升城市宜居水平，让城市成为人人向往的美好家园。

Urban living spaces are not only the dwelling places of urban residents but also comprehensive fields that carry economic activities, social relations, and cultural memory. The quality of urban living spaces directly relates to the people’s experience of a better life and is an important dimension reflecting the effectiveness of modern urban construction. Continuously improving the quality of urban living spaces helps promote consumption, stabilize investment, encourage innovation, and stimulate the endogenous driving force of high-quality urban development. Currently, China’s urbanization is transitioning from a period of rapid growth to a period of stable development, and urban development is shifting from a stage of large-scale incremental expansion to a stage primarily focused on improving the quality and efficiency of existing stock. Such a historic change endows high-quality urban living spaces with richer contemporary connotations. Specifically, in terms of value orientation, adhering to a people-centered approach requires not only meeting residents’ basic living needs but also promoting the leap of people’s livelihood and well-being to higher levels, such as common prosperity in spiritual life and the comprehensive development of individuals. In terms of construction content, it emphasizes both “investing in things,” improving the “hard conditions” of urban life such as housing, roads, pipe networks, and water, electricity, and gas supply, and “investing in people,” making sustained efforts in the supply of high-quality public services such as education, medical care, elderly care, and childcare. In terms of functional structure, it highlights a people-oriented approach, insists on the integrated planning of population, industry, towns, and transportation, optimizes urban spatial structure, improves urban spatial functions, releases the multi-dimensional synergistic effects of factors such as population, industry, transportation, and ecology, and promotes the deep integration and coordinated development of “people, industry, and city.”

城市生活空间不仅是城市居民的栖息之所，也是承载经济活动、社会关系与文化记忆的综合场域。城市生活空间的品质，直接关系到人民群众的美好生活体验，是体现现代化城市建设成效的重要维度。不断提升城市生活空间品质，有助于促进消费、稳定投资、鼓励创新，激发城市高质量发展的内生动力。当前，我国城镇化正从快速增长期转向稳定发展期，城市发展正从大规模增量扩张阶段转向存量提质增效为主的阶段。这样的历史性变化赋予高品质城市生活空间更为丰富的时代内涵。具体来看，在价值导向上，坚持以人民为中心，既需要满足居民基本生活需求，又需要推动民生福祉向精神生活共同富裕、促进人的全面发展等更高层次跃升。在建设内容上，既重视“投资于物”，改善住房、道路、管网、水电燃气等城市生活“硬条件”；又注重“投资于人”，在教育、医疗、养老、托育等优质公共服务供给上持续发力。在功能结构上，突出以人为本，坚持人口、产业、城镇、交通一体规划，优化城市空间结构，改进城市空间功能，释放人口、产业、交通、生态等要素的多维协同效应，推动“人、产、城”深度融合与协调发展。

Focus on “living in quality housing” [3]3 “Living in quality housing” (住有优居) is a policy slogan that upgrades the earlier goal of “housing for all” (住有所居) by emphasizing improved quality and living conditions. to consolidate the foundation of high-quality urban living spaces. “Living in quality housing” is the core representation of high-quality urban living spaces. Facing the major changes in the supply-demand relationship of China’s real estate market, only by continuously improving housing conditions while further optimizing the overall living environment and systematically promoting the construction of “good housing” and complete communities can we consolidate the foundation of high-quality urban living spaces. Promote incremental optimization. Drive innovation in the real estate development and construction model. In the housing design phase, balance architectural aesthetics and practical functions; in the construction phase, promote green and low-carbon building materials and prefabricated processes to enhance building durability and living comfort; in the operation and maintenance phase, improve the whole-life-cycle maintenance mechanism for housing and effectively link it with the action to improve property service quality, building new houses into safe, comfortable, green, and smart “good housing.” Promote the quality improvement of existing stock. Orderly promote the transformation of urban villages, dilapidated and dangerous houses, and the upgrading of old residential communities in cities and towns, promote the organic integration of land redevelopment with functions such as industry and culture, realize the iterative upgrading of the value of urban living spaces, and revitalize more old communities. Accelerate the construction of safe, healthy, well-equipped, and orderly managed complete communities, coordinating “good housing” with “good neighborhoods.” For example, the Binfen Community in Binjiang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, through measures such as full-area aging-friendly renovation and the construction of child-friendly facilities, has built a “15-minute living circle,” achieving convenient and efficient services and comprehensive population coverage, showing a new look of a modernized community in a once-old resettlement neighborhood.

聚焦“住有优居”，筑牢高品质城市生活空间根基。“住有优居”是高品质城市生活空间的核心表征。面对我国房地产市场供求关系的重大变化，唯有在持续改善住房条件的同时，进一步优化整体居住环境，系统推进“好房子”与完整社区建设，才能筑牢高品质城市生活空间根基。促进增量优化。推动房地产开发建设模式创新，在住房设计环节，兼顾建筑美学与实用功能；在建造环节，推广绿色低碳建材与装配式工艺，提升建筑耐久性与居住舒适度；在运维环节，健全房屋全生命周期养护机制，并与物业服务质量提升行动有效衔接，把新房子建成安全、舒适、绿色、智慧的“好房子”。促进存量提质。有序推动城中村、危旧房改造与城镇老旧小区升级，促进土地再开发与产业、文化等功能有机融合，实现城市生活空间价值迭代升级，让更多老社区焕发新活力。加快建设安全健康、设施完善、管理有序的完整社区，统筹“好房子”与“好小区”。比如，浙江省杭州市滨江区缤纷社区通过全域适老化改造、儿童友好设施建设等措施，构建起“15分钟生活圈”，实现服务便捷高效、人群覆盖全面，使昔日老旧安置小区展现出现代化社区新风貌。

Improve infrastructure to enhance the carrying capacity of high-quality urban living spaces. Infrastructure is the “lifeline” of urban operation and a solid support for high-quality living spaces. Currently, China’s urban spatial pattern and infrastructure framework have been basically formed. Against the backdrop of stabilizing urbanization speed and rapid changes in population structure, urban infrastructure construction needs to pay more attention to system integration and efficiency improvement. We must promote “filling the gaps” in traditional infrastructure. Focus on underground pipe networks such as gas, water supply, sewage, and heating, implement renovation and upgrading projects, build utility tunnels according to local conditions, and solve problems like “zipper roads” [4]4 “Zipper roads” (拉链马路) is a colloquial Chinese term for roads that are repeatedly dug up and repaved for different infrastructure projects (e.g., gas, water, telecom), resembling a zipper being opened and closed. and urban waterlogging. Dense the networks of rapid trunk transportation, living-oriented distribution transportation, and green slow-traffic systems, achieve convenient transfers between buses, subways, and slow-traffic systems, and enhance the travel convenience of urban residents. Deepen the integration of new-generation information technology with urban infrastructure, accelerate the layout of new infrastructure such as 5G, gigabit optical networks, computing power networks, and the Internet of Things, build a digital foundation connecting things, data, and intelligence, and realize the dual-wheel drive of “digital technology” and “living scenarios.” For example, the Jiefangbei Underground Loop urban renewal project in Yuzhong District, Chongqing City, on the basis of connecting ground and underground transportation facilities, deployed a “5G+Beidou” precise navigation system, achieving precise navigation in underground spaces, greatly alleviating the traffic pressure on residents, significantly improving the traffic efficiency of the core urban area, and demonstrating the practical effect of digital and intelligent technology empowering urban quality of life.

完善基础设施，提升高品质城市生活空间承载能力。基础设施是城市运行的“生命线”，也是高品质生活空间的坚实支撑。当前，我国城市空间格局与基础设施骨架已基本形成。在城镇化速度趋稳、人口结构快速变化的背景下，城市基础设施建设需要更加注重系统集成与效能提升。要推动传统基础设施“补短板”。聚焦燃气、供水、污水、供热等地下管网，实施更新改造工程，因地制宜建设综合管廊，破解“拉链马路”、城市内涝等问题。织密快速干线交通、生活性集散交通、绿色慢行交通网络，实现公交、地铁、慢行系统便捷换乘，增强城市居民出行便利性。推动新一代信息技术与城市基础设施深度融合，加快5G、千兆光网、算力网、物联网等新型基础设施布局，构建物联、数联、智联的数字底座，实现“数字技术”与“生活场景”双轮驱动。例如，重庆市渝中区解放碑地下环道城市更新项目，在联通地面与地下交通设施体系的基础上，布局“5G+北斗”精准导航系统，实现地下空间精准导航，极大缓解了居民交通出行压力，显著提升了核心城区通行效率，展现了数智技术赋能城市品质生活的实效。

Improve the level of public services to highlight the people’s livelihood warmth of high-quality urban living spaces. Public services are the core function of a city and directly affect the quality of life of urban residents. Creating high-quality urban living spaces requires not only solidly strengthening inclusive, basic, and bottom-line people’s livelihood construction but also increasing the supply of higher-quality and more balanced public services in areas such as education, medical care, and elderly care, so that high-quality urban public goods and services cover a wider range of groups and meet diverse needs. For example, Sichuan Province promotes the sinking and remote sharing of high-quality basic education resources, connecting high-quality schools within the province with schools in ethnic regions and remote, weak areas, leveraging the radiating and driving role of high-quality urban basic education resources, breaking geographical restrictions, and delivering high-quality educational resources to more schools. Increasing the supply of high-quality public services also requires fully considering the differences in the needs of different groups. For the elderly population, promote home aging-friendly renovations and increase the supply of smart elderly care services; for families with infants and young children, focus on improving community childcare service facilities; according to the needs of groups such as flexible workers, migrant workers, and workers in new forms of employment, improve employment and social security policies. Through the “precise drip irrigation” of high-quality public services, effectively transform the vision of people’s livelihood into a tangible and perceptible reality of high-quality urban living spaces.

提升公共服务水平，彰显高品质城市生活空间的民生温度。公共服务是城市的核心功能，直接影响城市居民的生活质量。营造高品质城市生活空间，不仅要扎实加强普惠性、基础性、兜底性民生建设，更要在教育、医疗、养老等领域，加大更高质量、更加均衡的公共服务供给力度，使优质城市公共产品和服务覆盖更广群体、满足多元需求。比如，四川省推动基础教育优质资源下沉和远程共享，将省内优质学校与民族地区、偏远薄弱地区学校连接，发挥城市基础教育优质资源的辐射带动作用，打破地域限制，将优质教育资源输送到更多学校。增加优质公共服务供给，还需充分考量不同群体需求差异。针对老年群体，推进家庭适老化改造，增加智慧养老服务供给；面向婴幼儿家庭，着力健全社区托育服务设施；根据灵活就业人员、农民工、新就业形态劳动者等群体需求，完善就业和社会保障政策。通过优质公共服务的“精准滴灌”，切实把民生愿景转化为可感可及的高品质城市生活空间实景。

(The author is a researcher at the Institute of Public Administration and Human Resources, Development Research Center of the State Council)

（作者为国务院发展研究中心公共管理与人力资源研究所研究员）

Online editor: Chu Yang

网络编辑：初阳