社區生活圈與綠色空間

從古至今人們一直在尋求理想的城市空間。北宋的開封，里坊制已不復存在，市肆商業不再限定在特定的市內，而是分布全城，與居住街坊混雜，沿街開店，形成熙熙攘攘的商業街?！肚迕魃虾訄D》描繪了當時高度成熟的手工業城市的繁華風貌——居住、衙署、市肆、碼頭和寺廟在空間上高度融合，尺幅之間即表達出極富煙火氣息的城市社區“生活圈”；同時，一切城市繁華圖景皆流轉于汴河兩岸的豐茂樹木與城郊區域之間，園林與風景自然地成為市民活動的重要載體。由《東京夢華錄》記載清明游春盛況——“士庶闐塞諸門……四野皆市，往往就芳樹之下，或園囿之間，羅列杯盤，互相勸酬。都市之歌兒舞女，遍滿園亭，抵暮而歸”，可見城市園林與郊野風景區域即是社區商業買賣、社交與文化游賞活動中不可忽視的空間場所。此類由宜人的城市尺度、開敞的郊野空間基底混合城市功能所構成的社區生活場景延續了千余年。

人類社會每一次重大的技術變革，城市的居住環境模式不斷經歷顛覆和再創造。第一次工業技術革命實現了農業經濟主導的手工業型城市邁向工業化城市的進程，沿著郊區蔓延的工廠林立，億萬人口從繁重的農業耕作中解放并涌入城市，社區生活場景由充滿人文氣息、具有田園郊野風光的開敞空間轉變為狹窄局促的城市空間。

隨著提升居住環境、回歸自然的呼聲日益高漲，18世紀末—19世紀初，約翰·納什（John Nash）、漢弗萊·萊普頓（Humphrey Repton）為代表的建筑師和風景園林師，嘗試通過風景園林的規劃手法改善城鄉居住環境，在工業化的語境下對社區環境的綠色空間規劃進行探索。在這類“田園城郊”的規劃中，社區的綠色開放空間由住宅周邊的小花園和中心綠地構成，兩側設置優美的林蔭街道將商店、服務區和運輸區間進行了有效的連通，生活住宅和公共設施被綠地緊密聯系成一個整體，形成了依托綠色空間的社區生活圈雛形。倫敦貝德福德公園（Bedford Park）作為最有代表性的案例，被當時的規劃者稱贊為“世界上最健康的地方”。這種以綠色空間帶動的社區景觀規劃方式被不斷模仿和復制，對歐美國家的社區規劃產生了長遠影響。奧姆斯特德延續田園城郊的規劃手法，營造風景與居住融合的城市社區環境，應對美國農業向工業轉變中產生的居住環境問題。對于河谷地帶的里弗賽德（Riverside）片區，他將河流以及兩側的土地規劃為公園，作為最大的一處娛樂性公共綠地，并且利用步行道將公園和各個社區的綠地連接為一個整體，形成了沿河谷的一條綠帶。這一類社區綠色空間規劃的早期模式，幫助當時的居民克服了工業發展下城鎮生活的弊端，為解決住宅困難和城市發展的難題奠定強有力的基礎，同時也為構建一種平衡的、公正的居住環境開辟了道路。

第二次工業技術革命帶來不可逆轉的城市擴張浪潮，更多的人口進入城市進行更高效率的合作生產，伴隨《雅典憲章》《馬丘比丘憲章》的實施、日漸改進的規劃方法使社區的宜居品質有了質的改變；然而現代主義城市規劃機械的分區模式，導致功能空間及公共資源布局失衡，城市規模越大，居民快捷公平地利用城市資源越難。亞洲的日本率先在規劃中應用“地方生活圈”和“定住圈”的概念，提出以人的活動需求為核心，針對居民各項日常生活需要、規劃一日生活所需的空間規劃單元，旨在縮小地區、城鄉之間的環境建設水平差距，謀求不同尺度空間公共資源的合理分布，“社區生活圈”的概念應運而生。中國在2018年《城市居住區規劃設計標準》中，將15分鐘、10分鐘、5分鐘生活圈居住區和居住街坊作為居住空間組織的核心理念，取代了沿用多年的居住區、小區和組團概念，標志著從“見物不見人”到“以人為本”的規劃思路轉變，至今多個城市已持續展開社區生活圈的規劃實踐。

綠色空間作為社區生活圈中最重要的公共資源之一，與人的活動具有密切的關系，對于塑造人居環境有機秩序具有相當重要的作用。在當下中國城市空間存量提質的形勢下，社區公共利益和改善民生的訴求更加凸顯，推動社區生活圈的綠色空間規劃滿足公平性、精細化配置的需求，以實現更大尺度下對綠地空間規劃的管控。在深化“以人為本”理念下，以公眾的文化、情感、精神和實際需求作為基本出發點，“量體裁衣”打造激發居民地方歸屬感和生活獲得感的綠色空間，為創建社區鄰里和睦氛圍、營建社區家園感提供契機，創造真正健康、公正、和諧的社區生活圈，實現人們長久以來工作創造與幸福生活平衡的理想。

Community Life Circle and Green Space

Since ancient times, people have always been seeking an ideal urban space.In Kaifeng of the Northern Song Dynasty, neighborhood system was no longer executed. Shops and businesses in downtown streets were no longer constrained in a specific urban area but distributed all over the city. In this circumstance,a bustling business street was formed together by mixed residential neighbors and shops opened along the street. TheRiverside Scene at Qingming Festivaldepicts the flourishing scene of Kaifeng which had had highly mature handicraft industry at that time, shows the highly integrated residence, government office,shops, wharf and temples in space, and demonstrates a colorful “community life circle”. At the same time, all prosperous scenes in the city are presented between the luxuriant trees along Bian River and the suburb area. Gardens and landscapes naturally become the key carriers of citizen activities. As recorded in theRecords of the Dreamlike Splendors of the Eastern Capital, “Gentries and civilians are crowded at the entrances … shops are here and there. People often have meals or communicate with each other under trees or in gardens. Singers and dancers gather in gardens and pavilions and return until sunset”. This shows that gardens and suburb landscape areas are considerable spaces for conducting community commercial transaction, social activity, cultural visit and sightseeing activity. This living scene in community constituted by pleasant urban scale, open suburb space and complex urban functions has lasted for more than a thousand years.

Every time the human society experienced significant technological change,the living environment in urban area would undergo constant subversion and recreation. The first industrial revolution realized the transform from handicraft industrial city dominated by agricultural economy to industrialized city. In this process, many factories were distributed in suburb area. Billions of people were liberated from the heavy agricultural cultivation work and poured into urban area. In response, the living scene in community was transformed from open space with countryside suburb scenery and full of humanity into narrow and confined urban space.

From the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century,with the increasingly high appeal for improving the living environment and returning to nature, architects and landscape architects represented by John Nash and Humphrey Repton tried to take the planning method of landscape architect to improve the urban and rural living environment and explored to make plan for green spaces in community in the context of industrialization.In this “suburban village” plan, green open space in community is composed of small gardens and central green space around residence. Two sides of community were provided with beautiful tree-lined street which got shops,service areas and transportation areas effectively connected. Residence and public utilities were closely interlinked by green space, forming a prototype of community life circle based on green space. Most representatively, London Bedford Park was praised as “the healthiest place in the world” by planners at the time. Such method of landscape planning for community driven by green space was imitated and copied continuously and posed long-term impact on community planning in European and American countries. Olmsted continued the suburban village planning method and created an urban community environment where landscape and residence were integrated to cope with the living environment problems caused by the transition from agricultural to industrial development in America. In the Riverside area located in river valley region, the river and the land on both sides of it were planned as park, one of the largest public green spaces for entertainment. The park and the land in each community were connected together by walkway to form a green belt along the river valley. This early mode of planning for green space in community helped residents at that time overcoming the shortcomings of urban life under industrial development and laid a firm foundation for overcoming the difficulties in providing residence and urban development. Meanwhile, this mode also opened a new way for constructing a balanced living environment with equity.

The second industrial revolution raised an irreversible wave of urban expansion. Followed by, more and more people entered urban area and contributed to more efficient cooperative production. With the execution of theAthens CharterandThe Charter of Machu Picchu, the living quality of community had been substantially changed in the increasingly improved planning method. However, the inflexible zoning mode of modernist urban planning led to an imbalance in the layout of functional spaces and public resources. Consequently, the larger the urban scale is, the more difficult it is for residents to get quick and equitable access to urban resources. In Asia, Japan initiatively applied the concepts of “local community life circle” and “fixed residence circle” in urban planning and proposed a space orienting to residents’activity demand and daily living needs, aiming to shorten the gap between the environmental construction levels among regions, and between urban and rural areas, seeking rational distribution of public resources in spaces of different scales. Accordingly, the concept of “community life circle” emerged.In theStandard for Urban Residential Area Planning and Design (2018)of China, 15-minute, 10-minute and 5-minute pedestrian-scale community and neighborhood block are regarded as the core concepts of residential spatial organization and substitute the residence zone, housing estate and cluster that have been used for many years, which marks the change from “object-oriented”to humanity-oriented planning ideas. Up to now, the planning practice of community life circle has already been continuously conducted in many cities.

As one of the most important public resources in community life circle,green space is closely correlated to human activities and plays a vital role in shaping the organic order of the living environment. At present, the quality of urban space in China has been gradually improved. In this context, the appeal for pursuing public interest and improving people’s livelihood in community becomes more prominent. To solve this problem, it is necessary to promote the green space planning for community life circle to meet the demand for refined and equitable allocation and control the green space planning in larger scale. In the principle of deepening the “humanity-oriented” concept, a truly healthy,equitable and harmonious community life circle can be created derive from the public’s cultural, emotional, spiritual and actual demands, by stimulating residents’senses of belonging to the local place and acquisition from life based on actual situation and providing an opportunity for creating harmonious neighborhood atmosphere and homeland flavor in community, so as to realize people’s longterm dream of maintaining a balance between working and joyful life.

Editor-in-Chief: Professor ZHENG Xi

March 28th, 2021