Toward the Sustainable Development of the Old Community: Proposing a Conceptual Framework Based on Meaning Change for Space Redesign of Old Communities and Conducting Design Practices

Abstract

An increasing number of old communities are experiencing deterioration in their living environments, which negatively affects the sustainability of the urban environment. Many cities have tried to solve the above problems through reconstruction or micro-renovation, but the result is unsatisfactory. Social change has led to a shift in the meaning of community, so the space transformation of the old community cannot be carried out simply by increasing the function and beautifying the environment. To achieve sustainable development of the old community, we should recreate the contemporary meaning of the old community. This paper aims to innovate urban design approaches and promote sustainable urban development in its environmental, ecological, and cultural dimensions through the reinvention of vitality and contemporary values of built community spaces. Based on the theory of meaning change, this paper constructs a conceptual framework for the reinvention of space in the old community. In the case study of a block in Rongxiang, Wuxi, we verify the framework’s effectiveness and build spaces more in line with people’s lifestyles in the new era. Based on the study, we conclude that meaning change is the key to achieving sustainable development of old community spaces. The framework can provide a new reference for solving the social problems of aging urban space and achieving sustainable development of the urban environment.

1. Introduction

With rapid urban development, more and more communities built earlier in the city (collective residential areas funded by the government and employer) are experiencing deterioration of the living environment over time, such as single spatial function, inadequate supporting facilities, traffic congestion, and poor environmental hygiene. These problems lead to the unsustainable development of urban space and harm the sustainable development of the urban economy and culture.

To address the above challenges, many cities have conducted research and practice. In the early urban construction, many cities carried out the transformation of the old community space by means of large-scale demolition and construction, such as the community renovation of Regent’s Park in Toronto, the construction of a new city in the Greater London area of England, the urban reconstruction plans of many cities in the United States [1], and the demolition actions in Nanjing (in southeastern China’s Jiangsu Province), Qinhuangdao (in northeastern China’s Hebei Province), and Kunming (in southwestern China’s Yunnan Province) in China [2,3,4]. However, this urban construction mode of large-scale demolition and construction has gradually led to the shortage of urban land and the problem of the original lifestyle and memory of urban residents having been changed and erased. In order to avoid the problems caused by large-scale demolition and construction, many cities have begun to carry out the transformation of the old urban communities with the construction concepts of micro-renewal, Gearing Type city renewal, organic renewal, community renewal, such as the renovation of existing communities in Germany [5], the Gearing Type urban renewal in the Otemachi area of Tokyo in Japan [6], and the micro-renewal and organic renewal in Chongqing (in central China’s Chongqing Municipality), Hangzhou (in southeastern China’s Zhejiang Province), and Shanghai (in southeastern China’s Shanghai Municipality) in China [7,8,9]. However, the existing renovation methods still have their limitations. Although these methods can partly improve people’s living environment, as they mainly target the transformation of physical space and architectural forms, the transformed spaces still do not meet the needs of urban residents in their new lifestyles. Moreover, the transformed spaces will have problems, such as poor space utilization, traffic congestion, and poor environmental hygiene, again in a relatively short period.

In 2015, the United Nations announced 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in “Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, of which SDG 11 is “Building inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements,” which states that all countries need to strengthen their capacity for integrated and sustainable human settlements planning and management, and to provide safe, inclusive, accessible, and green public spaces for all, especially women, children, older persons, and persons with disabilities, and to build inclusive and sustainable cities [10]. Community space is the place with the closest contact with people among all spaces in the urban environment. Taking into account the needs of different people in improving community space and building safe, accessible, and inclusive public space is of great significance for the city’s sustainable development and the economy and culture of the whole society. In recent years, with the changes in the economy, culture, demographic structure, and people’s living habits, the meaning of community has changed. It has changed from a space to meet people’s basic living needs to a space that now needs to carry people’s new urban lifestyle. Therefore, it leads to the space being transformed by the existing transformation methods into physical space, which will have the problems of poor space utilization, traffic congestion, and poor environmental hygiene again in a relatively short period. So, the transformation of old communities should not only focus on the physical space but also on rethinking the meaning of the old community.

In summary, to enable the community’s sustainable development, we must fundamentally promote the change of the meaning and value of the old community. This paper aims to innovate urban design approaches and promote sustainable urban development in its environmental, ecological, and cultural dimensions through the reinvention of the vitality and contemporary values of built community spaces. We argue that the following questions need to be addressed: What transformations have occurred in the space’s meaning of old communities?; What new meanings should be given to these spaces?; How to use the new meanings to conduct design practice? To solve the above questions, this paper develops a conceptual framework for the redesign of the space in old community based on the theory of meaning change. It takes a block in Wuxi, China, as an example to validate and improve this conceptual framework, providing new ideas to solve the contradiction between urban life and urban space and to build a suitable living environment.

The rest of this article is structured as follows. The Literature Review section (Section 2) introduces the international debate on urban design and sustainable urban design, and summarizes the main barriers to sustainable urban design, i.e., the deterioration of the existing spatial environment. The Theory and Methods section (Section 3) describes the concept of meaning change, the role of meaning change in the space redesign of the old community, and a conceptual framework for space redesign of the old community based on meaning change. The Results section (Section 4) presents the changes in the space’s meaning in old communities and a case study on the space’s meaning reconstruction and design practice. The Discussion section (Section 5) discusses the role of the meaning-change-based design method. The Conclusion section (Section 6) identifies the future applications of the meaning-change-based design method and the limitations and future research directions of this study.

2. Literature Review

2.1. The International Debate on Urban Design

The term urban design was put forward in the late 1950s. In 1957, the American Institute of Architecture formed a Committee on Urban Design. The Institute’s Committee authorized Paul Spreiregen to write a series of articles about urban design for the American Institute of Architects’ Journal. Subsequently, based on these articles, Paul published his book with the title Urban Design: the architecture of towns and cities in which he encapsulates the history of urban design from its roots in Mesopotamia to the present day and summarizes the techniques of urban visual surveys, design principles for town layouts, components of land use within towns, introduction to the concept of urban areas, and the relationship between statutory control and urban planning [11].

During the same period, scholars such as Gibberd, Kevin Lynch, Cullen, and Jane Jacobs did not directly use urban design as the name of their research and practice, but there is no doubt that these studies and practices played an important role in promoting the formation of the concept of urban design. Gibberd states that urban design should focus on facilities and activity systems. He suggested making towns more livable by organizing facilities, such as streets, transportation, and public works, and activity systems, such as labor, housing, recreation, and assembly, through functional and aesthetic principles [12]. Kevin Lynch summarizes the physical form content of the image of the city into five elements, namely path, edge, district, node, and landmark, which provide basic design ideas for developing urban design practices [13]. Cullen has studied a large number of urban landscapes in terms of visual problems of perception through a series of excellent drawings and has made recommendations for urban landscape planning [14]. Jane Jacobs attacks the pitfalls of large-scale urban planning and redevelopment theory and points the way to new directions in urban design by presenting some well-functioning examples of real city life, such as safe streets, delightful urban gardens, and self-renewing slums [15].

After the 1970s, the concept of urban design became more and more mature with the thinking and practice of many researchers. Cook emphasizes that urban design as a process is about achieving four qualities: visual, functional, environmental, and urban experience [16]. Bentley et al. proposed seven qualities that urban design needs to achieve: permeability, variety, legibility, robustness, visual appropriateness, richness, and personalization [17]. Alexander et al. focused on urban design as a holistic aspect of the city. For the city to develop organically and with a sense of wholeness, they proposed a set of laws for this purpose and led their students to verify this set of laws through design practice [18].

To this day, there are still many scholars exploring what urban design is through research and practice. Steiner emphasizes that urban design is the discipline between planning and architecture. It gives a three-dimensional physical form to policies described in a comprehensive plan and focuses on the design of the public realm [19]. Frick stresses that urban design participates in the planning of buildings, or architecture, as well as in town and spatial planning [20]. Childs argues that urban design focuses on the collection of design activities that address settlements, including private and public spaces, and that urban design requires the involvement of a range of people, such as landscape architects, architects, civil engineers, public artists, physical planners, and others, who make a career of designing the physical forms of our settlements to accomplish this [21]. Belof found that urban design has taken a permanent place between architecture and urban planning by evaluating urban design teaching models at the academic level in Poland [22].

Urban design is a complex phenomenon, which is difficult to define, but its importance is undeniable [23].

2.2. Sustainable Urban Design

If we look at the areas that urban design focuses on, environmental considerations have always been an important aspect of urban design concerns. Kevin Lynch describes the city as part of nature, and he aims to build a design theory that treats nature with scientific rigor rather than immersion [24]. Among the four qualities that Cook advocates for urban design to achieve, environmental considerations are one of the very important ones. Cook emphasizes that we should pay attention to the ecological impact of urban design and put more emphasis on sustainable urban design.

Recently, more and more researchers have focused on sustainable urban design. Concerns include sustainable design concepts for climate and environment by reducing carbon emissions and saving energy and the ideas of making cities more sustainable by enhancing physical space.

Oktay addresses the deterioration of the physical environment of “traditional urbanism” in Turkish cities and proposes a set of design principles for achieving sustainable urban development, such as improving public spaces, combining urbanism and nature, and creating sustainable movement patterns [25]. Carmona attempts to establish a link between sustainability theory and urban design practice and emphasizes that the results of sustainable urban design are not only about reducing energy use and carbon emissions, but also about having an impact on the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of the built environment [26]. Meijer et al. discuss why a renewed approach to sustainable urban design is both necessary and rewarding and mentions that designing green spaces, building mixed-use and car-free communities can effectively reduce the urban heat island effect and enhance environmental sustainability [27]. Pourjafar’s research found that the pre-industrial period carried out sustainable urban design in an organic way, while many technical elements of the industrial period led to unsustainable urban design, resulting in a deteriorated urban environment. He emphasizes that urbanization must be oriented toward responsible, achievable, and livable urban forms and that we should adopt sustainable urban design approaches like the one practiced by the author for the design of the urban environment in Darabad River Valley in Tehran [28]. Medved et al. endeavor to unravel the social dimensions of eco-cities and sustainable neighborhood projects by investigating how sustainable urban development is articulated and manifested in Europe and northeast Asia. Ultimately, they propose sustainable urban design solutions (e.g., community centers, plazas, parks, green zones, etc.) and policies (e.g., affordable housing access, public transportation, diversity of housing typologies, etc.) [29]. Puchol-Salort et al. propose a systems-based sustainability framework for urban planning in response to the challenges posed by climate emergencies and population growth to water security and sustainable urban design in cities around the world [30].

Although the sustainable design of urban spaces has been a major focus of urban design, a major obstacle to sustainable urban design, namely the deterioration of the existing spatial environment, has not been adequately addressed. As the life span of buildings and communities far exceeds their expected lifespan, more and more existing spaces in cities are experiencing environmental degradation, which includes problems such as the deterioration of physical space, aging infrastructure, and traffic congestion, as well as non-physical problems, such as the aging of the community population, community problems caused by migration, and the loss of pride of urban residents due to the loss of community identity.

Many designs attempt to achieve sustainable urban design through large-scale demolition and construction or micro-renewal, such as city rebuilding, demolition, organic renewal, community renewal, green space renewal [31], etc. However, since the renovated space still cannot meet the needs of new lifestyles of urban residents or fundamentally change the environmental degradation, the renovated space will again have low space utilization, traffic congestion, poor environmental hygiene, and other problems in a relatively short period. Therefore, a new urban design framework is needed to guide urban design to address these existing environmental degradation issues to achieve the sustainable urban design. This paper develops a conceptual framework for urban design based on the theory of meaning change. We validate and refine this conceptual framework in the case study of a block in Wuxi, China, which provides a new idea to solve the contradictions of urban life and achieve sustainable development of the urban space environment.

3. Theory and Methods

3.1. The Concept of Meaning Change

Donald A. Norman and Roberto Verganti developed the concept of meaning change. Their study of product and service innovation found that innovation could be divided into two categories: incremental innovation and radical innovation. Incremental innovation advocates the further improvement of the function or appearance of existing products, which allows for a better solution to an existing problem. However, it does not solve new problems, let alone discover new ones. Radical innovation advocates thinking outside the box and identifying new problems and solutions. So, when a product’s design is in trouble, radical innovation can often provide a new solution. One of the best ways to achieve radical innovation in a product or service is the approach of meaning change. This approach can give the product or service a new meaning and language. It identifies new problems not addressed by existing products or services through an in-depth study of social changes and ultimately proposes solutions.

Meaning change is a design approach that proposes new directions for design and allows the design to be based on new rationales. This concept is often used in product, service, and enterprise economic management innovation, even in the education industry. However, it has not yet been applied to urban space design.

3.2. The Role of Meaning Change in the Space Redesign of the Old Community

The previous review of the transformation of spaces in the old communities revealed that both major demolitions and micro-renovations have failed to address the continued deterioration of space of the old community fundamentally, which is detrimental to the sustainable development of cities. The problem of continuous deterioration of space has not been solved because the above transformations have not fundamentally contributed to a change in the meaning and value of the community. Although the concept of meaning change was developed in product and service design, this logic of rethinking design issues based on social change to propose new solutions can provide an excellent solution to the problem of spatial deterioration in old communities during urban development. When redesigning the old urban space, if we rethink the economy, culture, and people’s living conditions of the new society, it is possible to discover new problems that arise in urban regeneration and reinvent the meaning of old urban spaces through the analysis of the problems. Eventually, we can redesign the community based on the new meaning to solve the environmental problems of the old community space and achieve the sustainable development of the old community (Figure 1).

3.3. A Conceptual Framework for Space Redesign of the Old Community Based on Meaning Change

Building a conceptual framework through the concept of meaning change is helpful to guide the design process and make the design have new significance [32]. Combined with the theory of meaning change, this paper develops a conceptual framework for redesigning the spaces in the old communities, divided into four steps. First, the country’s economy, culture, population structure, and people’s habits concerning the new era are analyzed to create a systematic perception of the new social changes. Second, the changes in the meaning of the old community space are analyzed with the new social change. Third, the meaning of the old community space is recreated combined with the new changes of meaning of the old community space. Finally, the physical space of the old community is redesigned based on the new meaning of the community space. This conceptual framework based on meaning change can guide the transformation of the space of the old community and the transformation of all kinds of old spaces in the city (Figure 2).

4. Results

4.1. Changes in the Meaning of Space in Old Communities

4.1.1. The Change of the Meaning of Space Due to Economic Development

Most of the old communities were built at the early stage of urban development. At that time, both the overall economic level of the society and the construction level of the buildings were relatively low, so the area of the buildings built in the community was small, the function was simple, and the whole community lacked public activity space. Taking the old communities in China as an example, the old communities in China nowadays mainly refer to the collective housing, such as staff quarters and new villages built between 1949 and 2000. During that period, China’s economy was beginning to develop, and the economic level of society was relatively low, so the area of the buildings built at that time was small, and the houses could only meet the basic living needs. For example, the area per capita of the houses built around the 1960s was only about five square meters, and there was no space for public activities outdoors. The area per capita of the houses built after the 1960s has increased, but there is still very little outdoor space in the community for public activities. With the development of China’s economy, people’s lives have become more affluent, and they have begun to have extensive social needs [33]. People living in the old community are starting to want space in the community that caters more to their social use, where they can square dance, play chess, and chat with friends. We can see that the meaning of the old community has changed. It has changed from a space that meets people’s basic residential needs to a space that needs to meet people’s social needs. However, the community spaces built in the earlier years could not meet people’s social needs.

4.1.2. The Change of the Meaning of Space Due to Population Migration and the Passage of Time

Whether it is Wright’s Geopiety or Duan Yifu’s Topophilia, they all emphasize that people have a deep connection with place emotionally under the influence of culture and society. Most of the residents in the city are immigrants. When they leave their original living environment and move to the city, they will have a strong sense of maladjustment at the initial stage because their emotional connection with the original environment disappears. Over time, these migrants will gradually develop a sense of attachment to their living space, and a new emotional connection between people and place is created. However, when the space they inhabit has problems in the spatial environment, such as spatial aging, untidy environment, and traffic congestion over time, this will again lead to the disappearance of their sense of belonging and pride in space. Take China as an example. The problem of change in the meaning of urban space caused by population migration and the passage of time are very prominent. In the urbanization process in China, there has been a large number of population migration, including farmers moving into cities, young people moving into cities, and people from small cities moving into big cities [34]. In the early stage of urban development, these immigrants came to work and contributed to the city’s construction. So, when they obtained urban housing through state allocation, they had a great sense of pride and belonging. With time, those who moved into the city have now become the elderly. There are many problems in the community where they live, such as poor infrastructure, unreasonable traffic, and an untidy community environment, so their sense of community pride is gradually disappearing. We can see that the meaning of the old community for these early immigrants to the city has changed. It has changed from a space full of belonging and pride for people to a dilapidated and backward place without a sense of belonging.

4.1.3. The Change of the Meaning of Space Due to Population Age Structure Change

The 1982 World Assembly on Aging in Vienna determined that if a country’s population aged 60 or above accounted for more than 10% of the total population, the country is considered an aging society. With time, more and more countries have entered an aging society. There are increasing numbers of elderly in the old communities of the cities in these countries, resulting in a growing lack of vitality in urban space. Take China as an example. The Fifth Nationwide Census released by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2000 showed that 10.25% of the country’s total population was aged 60 or above. So, since 2000, China has entered into an aging society. After that, the aging problem was becoming more and more serious, and the result of the Seventh National Census in 2021 shows that 18.70% of the country’s total population is aged 60 or above. With the aging problem in society becoming increasingly severe, the aging problem in the old communities is even more severe because the main group of people living in the old communities are the elderly. Compared with new communities, old communities often have poor education and medical facilities, lack of public space, untidy environment, and unreasonable traffic. The deterioration of the environment in older communities leads most young people with financial ability to move out of old communities and move into new residential communities with better facilities. The aging problem of the old community has been further exacerbated by the departure of the young people, resulting in old communities becoming less vibrant and more uninhabitable. We can see that the old community has changed from a space full of vitality to a place that is now lacking in vitality and sustainable momentum.

The above analysis shows that the meaning of space in old communities has changed over time under the influence of economic development, population migration, and population age structure change. Suppose we want to fundamentally solve the problem of continuous deterioration of space of the old community and enable the sustainable development of the community space. In that case, we need to recreate the meaning of the old community and then carry out the design practice of the community.

4.2. A Case Study on Space’s Meaning Reconstruction and Design Practice of Old Community Based on the Conceptual Framework of Meaning Change

Since the meaning of space in the old community has been transformed, it is necessary to recreate its meaning and value to reinvigorate the community and achieve sustainable development of the community. This section uses a typical case to study how to recreate the meaning of space in the old community. Based on the study, the conceptual framework proposed in the previous sections was verified and improved through the case study, and it has better maneuverability and broader applicability.

4.2.1. Case Selection

The case study is based on space in an old community in Rongxiang, Wuxi (in southeastern China’s Jiangsu Province), located near the Rongxiang Farmers’ Market on Liangxi Road, Binhu District, Wuxi. The Rongxiang block comprises the old community built in the 1980s and the mall building built at the beginning of 2000, including the Commonweal New Village, Rongxiang New Village, Xuxiang teacher New Village, Rongxiang Farmers’ Market (Figure 3).

4.2.2. Analysis of Selected Case

As shown in Figure 4, the main outdoor space within the Rongxiang block is an h-shaped street, and this site has one entrance to the north, two entrances to the south, and one entrance in the middle section.

Based on the study of behavior and activity time of residents of different age groups, we found the following phenomena. The main activities of the elderly are grocery shopping, playing chess, and chatting, which are basically during the daytime. The main activities of young people are shopping, chatting, shopping, and eating street food, basically in the evening, which is because they work during the day. The main activity of children is playing outdoors, and they are out at variable times, both during the day and in the evening.

The number of people in the outdoor space is significantly higher after 5:00 a.m. because many people get up early for grocery shopping in the farmers’ market. The number of people in the outdoor space reaches the highest around 5 p.m. due to many people gathering around the snack street and the farmers’ market after work. After 7 p.m., the number of people in the outdoor space starts to decrease because the vegetable markets and stores close one after another, and the existing outdoor space cannot provide a place for leisure activities. After 10 p.m., the outdoor space is almost empty because all stores are closed, and there are no places for leisure activities outdoors (Figure 5).

We propose the following strategies for the above analysis results. For the elderly, we should provide them with quiet activity places where they can rest, chat, and play chess during the day; for young people, we can provide them with activity places where they can watch movies, meet, and chat after work; for children, we should provide them with play equipment and a place to play.

Although this block had undergone several simple space transformations, there are still many problems in the space, such as single function, traffic congestion, poor environmental sanitation, and lack of regional characteristics, which greatly hinder the sustainable development of the community environment (Figure 6). In addition, because these communities were built earlier, there are no dedicated activity spaces around the community. People living in these communities usually use the space within the community as an activity space, which leads to a lack of privacy within the community. To improve the community’s livability, we should deal with the relationship between public and private spaces.

4.2.3. Space’s Meaning Reconstruction and Design Practice of the Old Community of Rong Xiang in Wuxi Based on the Framework

With the development of times and social changes, the old community spaces in the Rongxiang block are becoming increasingly dilapidated, outdated, and lacking in vitality, which will lead to unsustainable development of community spaces. In order to solve these problems, we need to recreate the meaning and value of this block. Bourdieu introduced the concept of the field. He emphasized that the field is a network of relationships composed of internal elements, and the force of the active elements within the field keeps the field in operation. As Bourdieu said, aesthetics has a field, and culture also has a field [35]. In order for communities to be revitalized and sustainable, we should define old communities as fields with multiple meanings and let the rich daily activities of people of all ages be the driving force for the operation of these fields (Figure 7). First, the old community space should be defined as a “Living Field” for daily activities. Putting rich functions into the site will make the original dilapidated and backward space new and full of vitality. Second, the old community should be defined as a “Memory Field” of the place spirit. Through the preservation of original streets and buildings, the placement of the community public living space, adapted to the living habits of the original residents, will make the community space a place with cohesion and memory. Third, the old community should be defined as a “Full Aged Field” of the generational balance. People of all ages can interact in the community by designing activity spaces for the elderly and leisure places for youth and children.

Kevin Lynch mentioned that residents’ imagery of the surrounding living scene is mainly composed of the path, edge, district, node, and landmark, so if we want to improve the residents’ sense of belonging to the living scene, we need to take into account the above five elements in the planning and design.

The Wuxi Rongxiang block is a square area composed of several communities, and the main outdoor space is the external street. Therefore, in the macro planning, we chose to separate the residents’ daily life and public life and use the street, the main path of the block, as the main carrier of public life, restoring the privacy of the community’s internal space. Through fieldwork, we found that residents gather on the street mainly in the southern entrance area, the middle intersection area, and around the farmers’ market (Figure 8). Therefore, these areas were planned as the nodes in the place. We extended the southern and central entrance locations into plazas and designed the farmers’ market as a place for both shopping and leisure activities. In the southern entrance plaza, we designed the landmark of the place using modular installations (Figure 9). In addition, we considered the relationship between privacy and publicness in the design of each node. The “edge effect” theory proposed by Western psychologist Derk de Jonge mentions that people instinctively move around the edge of a site, and the edge is a semi-open space where people can observe and hide simultaneously. Therefore, we created many edge spaces in the design of the node, so that the outdoor activity space can meet both privacy and publicness needs.

• “Living Field” for daily activities

The rich daily activities of the residents are the key to the continued vitality and sustainability of the community space, so we should define the old community as a “living place.” This new “living place” should be a space for rest and communication, a space for shopping and dining, and a space for cultural display of the area’s traditional crafts. Residents living in this “living place” will be able to experience the plot of life, to feel and participate in the daily life with their whole bodies and minds [36].

In the history of human settlement, streets and squares have been the center of cities and meeting places [37]. So, in the Rongxiang block of Wuxi, we use streets and the entrance square to create a “Living Field” for daily activities. In the design of the streets in the Rongxiang block, first, the transition from fast to slow traffic is achieved by parking cars on the periphery of the residential areas and creating a pedestrian zone [37]. Second, the storefronts and store signs along the street are repositioned through modular devices to create a unified street interface. Third, we use modular installations to create many edge spaces with privacy in the more public streets, providing places for people to rest, stay, and observe. Lastly, the design of the street interface is enriched by using elements with community cultural symbols based on modular installations (Figure 10). In the design of the entrance square, modular devices are used to build a multi-functional space that can provide a variety of functions, such as dancing, sightseeing, resting, and communicating. The modular devices can be reorganized to accommodate new spatial activities, such as walking, sunbathing, playing, stopping, resting, shopping, eating, talking, and greeting, according to different weather, time, and usage needs. The interior of each modular device is a private space, and the small square surrounded by them has become a public area for people’s collective activities. In the street part of the square, modular devices are used to design the landmark and sell space to enhance the identifiability and regional characteristics of the entrance (Figure 11).

2.

“Memory Field” of the place spirit

To gain a “grounding in existence,” one must have a “sense of direction” and “identity,” know where one is, and have a meaningful connection to the place [38]. Therefore, we should define the old community as a “Memory Field” of the place spirit. First, we need to preserve the memory of the site, including the preservation of the layout of the space, typical buildings, characteristic markers, and spontaneously formed areas on the material level, as well as the preservation of the pace and state of life of the people on the non-material level. Through the preservation of site memory, the spirit of the place is reconstructed, which allows residents to relate to their past social life and establish an emotional identity, allowing them to gain a sense of well-being during historical changes [39]. Second, we need to create a sense of belonging and pride for the residents by designing the space and designing the community space as a multi-functional space that can host multiple activities, such as shopping, rest, and communication. In this way, residents living in the community can establish an emotional connection with each other and with the place to have a sense of happiness and security.

In the design of the Rongxiang block, first, the layout of the “h”-shaped block around the Rongxiang Farmers’ Market is preserved, the characteristics of narrow streets are maintained, and the spatial nodes are created in the way of regional expansion at the intersection of the road. Second, the Farmers’ Market building is used to create a space with rich functions and for residents to stay, reconstructing it from space with only sales function to a container that can carry public life. In the design of the building, the overall transportation system of the building is redesigned. Through the erection of the outer ramp, the elderly and people with disabilities can easily enter and leave the market. The first floor is designed as a space for both selling and leisure activities. Through the removal of the enclosed wall, residents can enter and leave the mall conveniently, thus enhancing the openness of the building. The second and third floors are designed as selling spaces. Through the setting of the atrium, people can interact with each other while shopping. The fourth to sixth floors are designed as outdoor multi-functional spaces. Through the change of the space, people can have a variety of activities here. Since the peripheral ramp is an independent transportation system, even if the market from the first to the third floor is closed at night, the outdoor activity space above the fourth floor can be reached directly through the ramp. So, this outdoor activity space can be used as a venue for nighttime activities for young people and children (Figure 12). By creating the activity space that residents can occupy, community residents will spontaneously develop a sense of pride and belonging to the community space.

3.

“Full Aged Field” for the generational balance

In the fast-paced urban life, the problem of aging in the community is already severe. In order to rejuvenate the community, we should define the community space as a “Full Aged Field” for generational balance, where children have a place to play, young people have a place to relax, and the elderly have a place to rest and communicate. Through the design of this space, people of different ages can interact with each other, thus stimulating the community’s vitality and achieving sustainable community development. In the Rongxiang block of Wuxi, the central square is designed to create an activity space for people of all ages. First, children’s play facilities are arranged inside the site to provide a public place for children to play. Second, a more private roofed resting platform is set up on the outside of the site to provide the resting space for the elderly and facilitate them taking care of children, since children are usually accompanied by their elders when they go out. Finally, a two-story building is designed opposite the sitting platform to enclose the site. A movie-viewing screen is set up on the building façade to provide an interesting space for young people to watch movies and communicate (Figure 13).

Through the design practice of the Rongxiang block in Wuxi, we find it feasible to reconstruct the meaning of old communities and guide the design practice through the framework of meaning change. Compared with the transformation based on physical space, the design based on new meanings can make the spatial design of old communities more in line with people’s lifestyles in the new era due to the in-depth analysis of the transformation of the meaning of community, which can strengthen the desire for daily activities, the sense of belonging to places, and the communication between different generations of people, thus fundamentally stimulating the vitality of the community and making it sustainable.

5. Discussion

The study concluded that space renovation design through the framework of meaning change is a critical approach to the sustainable development of old community spaces that can cope with deterioration of the living environment of the old community and create new meaning for the old community.

There are two reasons for the increasing lack of vitality and unsustainable development of old communities. One is that space is deteriorating over time. As Farhadikhah et al. [40] found in their study of Tehran, more and more early built communities in cities are experiencing problems such as single spatial function, inadequate supporting facilities, traffic congestion, and poor environmental hygiene. The other is that people’s space requirements are increasing in the new era. Due to economic development, population migration, and population age structure change, the space’s meaning of the old communities has changed [41,42,43].

In the new era, people want communities to meet their basic living needs, better meet their social needs, and give them a sense of belonging in the community. However, the existing spaces cannot meet these new requirements. These two reasons lead to the fact that the transformation of physical space alone cannot fundamentally stimulate the community’s vitality and achieve the community’s sustainable development.

The design approach based on meaning change can effectively solve the above problems. Due to the analysis of the life needs of residents in the new era, the design based on the meaning change framework is not a renovation or beautification of existing physical spaces, but a redesign of spaces based on the new meaning of the community constructed by the new needs of urban residents. The space created by this method is improved in the physical space’s environment, and it is line with people’s new lifestyle. It can meet the rich daily activities of residents, let people of different ages communicate, and make people feel a sense of belonging.

6. Conclusions

In the design of the block of Rongxiang, Wuxi, we use the theory of meaning change to build a new framework for urban design. Based on the new design approach, we propose the direction of community meaning change in three aspects: “Living Field,” “Memory Field,” and “Full Aged Field.” We conduct specific design practices based on the new meaning of community. Finally, a community public activity place with the street as the carrier and the node as the core is constructed. It provides new design ideas for community redesign.

The urban design approach based on the framework of meaning change is a new approach to urban design, which is significant for the design of urban spaces. The core of this framework is to recognize the problems of urban space in both material and non-material aspects through the analysis of new social changes and then to give new meanings to existing spaces from new perspectives to guide the redesign of spaces. This approach can provide new ideas for the design of urban spaces and solve the problems caused by the deterioration of the urban space environment and the lack of urban space meaning, to design urban spaces with environmental, ecological, and cultural sustainability.

Although the design approach based on meaning change is practical and innovative, this study still has limitations. We carry out specific designs based on the meaningful change framework and achieve certain results. However, this is the success of applying this framework to one case, and whether this framework can guide the design of different scales and types of urban spaces needs to be explored in subsequent design practices. We hope to improve the framework through more design cases in future research and enrich the scientific aspect of this study through more quantitative analysis and statistical tools.