Sustainable Development in Old Communities in China—Using Redesigned Nucleic Acid Testing Booths for Community-Specific Needs

Abstract

The sustainable development of urban communities has attracted widespread attention from all sectors. So, the question regarding how to promote sustainable development in communities has become an important issue that warrants consideration and research. Sustainable development thinking can help create more effective strategies, enhance the ability to organize information, and build a preferred future. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the nucleic acid testing booths in China played an important role in providing fast screening to determine community outbreaks and effectively prevent the spread of the virus. However, with the overall relaxation of the zero COVID-19 policy, many nucleic acid testing booths are currently largely idle. The question regarding how to leverage these testing booths scientifically and reasonably by redesigning them for local conditions is a ready-to-research topic. Based on theories such as future design and sustainable development construction of future urban communities, we focused on old urban communities in China and explored how to use idle testing booths by conducting field research and resident interviews. We thus aimed to explore how to redesign idle nucleic acid testing booths and transform them into products or smart mobile convenience service stations by applying the study’s qualitative results. Through a case analysis, we constructed design models for intelligent mobile convenience service stations in old communities that met the needs of the future urban community residents and promoted the sustainable development of the community. We hope that our results will be further verified via the design of intelligent convenience service stations in other cities.

1. Introduction

The United Nations launched 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, among which good health and well-being, quality education, sustainable cities and communities, peace and justice, and responsible consumption and production are closely related to community sustainability and sustainable development [1]. These SDGs have provided a blueprint for a better future as well as ideas and theoretical guidance for the sustainable development of future urban communities [2]. In 2023, the United Nations, driven by future thinking, collaborated with Google to launch the Sustainable Development Goals Data Sharing Platform, which integrates authoritative SDG data from the entire United Nations system into a future intelligent public database with advanced search functions and innovative user interfaces. The research goal is to integrate high-quality data into shared products, thus allowing users to seamlessly explore various statistical datasets and global annual SDG reports and analyses, which will ultimately promote wise data-driven decision-making and future vision [3]. In recent years, with the promotion of concepts such as sustainable development and ecological planning and design, the concept of community sustainable development, which emphasizes ecological balance, economic efficiency, trans-generational equity, environmental friendliness, and public participation, has gradually received attention [4,5,6]. This concept further provides a comprehensive theoretical basis for examining the operations and empowerment of communities [7]. Intelligent mobile convenience service stations provide customized services to community residents through intelligent integration technologies as well as management, monitoring, support, and response services through various devices [8]. Intelligent mobile convenience service stations support community residents by improving their quality of life, assisting them in managing their health, and helping special groups live independently. These service stations also provide economic, social, health, emotional, sustainable, and safety benefits. They have a significant influence on humans, society, and urban communities [9] and can promote the sustainable development of the environment [10].

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, epidemic diseases have impacted all walks of life. The large-scale spread of COVID-19 revealed both the vulnerabilities and resilience of the urban system from its separate parts to the whole. On the other hand, it also led to a driving force that aims to change regional planning and renovate flexible global cities. Safe water, a green environment, adaptation-based climate change strategies, comprehensive community planning, de-densifying the inside of buildings, and similar seem to be the solutions for future urban built environment designs [11]. Based on the perspective of supply throughout the COVID-19 response period, cities need to ensure and improve the long-term development of community safety and people’s physical health to prevent future outbreaks. Throughout the fight against the large-scale spread of COVID-19, planned nucleic acid testing played a critical role in preventing the spread of the virus. Nucleic acid testing booths became increasingly important and were widely used medical facilities throughout China. Millions of residents received nucleic acid sampling and testing services every day, which greatly helped curb the spread of the virus, allowed patients to isolate in time, and prevented the wider spread of COVID-19. As of 12 May 2022, Shanghai had set up 9900 nucleic acid testing points and 16,583 testing stations throughout the city. According to public information, 1519 medical convenience service points were established in eight cities (counties) and districts in Wuxi City, and these included 499 reconstructed nucleic acid testing huts [12]. On 16 November 2022, there were a total of 4588 nucleic acid testing points in Shenzhen [13]. According to a reporter from First Financial, the price of a single nucleic acid testing booth ranged from 20,000 to 50,000 yuan [14]. The cost of a nucleic acid testing booth is thus relatively high. The government and communities invested huge resources in these booths, and considerable waste has been generated since the pandemic has passed.

With the comprehensive release of COVID-19, a large number of nucleic acid testing booths in China have been left idle (as shown in Figure 1). How to dispose of the nucleic acid testing booths has become an urgent problem that requires a solution. As a matter of urgency, the idle nucleic acid testing booths in communities need to be effectively and properly reused, with long-term planning regarding their use and deployment in the future. Currently, how to reasonably utilize these urban resources and transform nucleic acid testing booths into convenience service stations based on the actual needs of community residents [15] is an urgent research topic that needs to be solved. Based on the theories of future design and community sustainable development and using a qualitative approach, we aimed to create intelligent mobile convenience service stations to meet the actual living needs of residents in future urban communities through the redesign of idle nucleic acid testing booths. At present, there are some issues with the research on the transformation of the nucleic acid sampling kiosks. Taking the community situation in China as an example, the scientific contribution of this study was to determine the pain points of community development and the needs of community residents. In this study, we applied design methods to transform the nucleic acid testing booths into community mobile convenience service stations in order to solve the different needs and problems identified in different communities. We also conducted in-depth interviews with experts to construct design models for this transformation.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Future Communities and Sustainable Development

To explore the future scenarios of community residents’ lives, it is necessary to make assumptions about the future and predictions based on real-life research, as this will help with the development of future urban communities from a long-term perspective. Specifically, future scenarios refer to a hypothetical future [16]. The design of future scenarios therefore requires the application of strategies related to future research and strategic planning methods. This involves imagining and constructing possible future scenarios and thinking about current predicaments and the status quo based on experience and cognition. It can also help designers take a long-term view of the needs of people in these future scenarios and help them make better decisions, thereby improving the ability of future communities to handle uncertain events [17,18]. Design thinking is a way of thinking that solves real-world problems through the use of, for example, products, processes, services, tools, and the environment. The implementation of design thinking is related to organizational construction, such as organizational culture, and the characteristics of design thinking tools and cultural experiences enable people to actively participate in social practices and support one another [19]. Design thinking also involves how community residents, community management personnel, and designers explore the future through focus interviews and workshops on the future [20]. A basic task of future research is to identify and study future scenarios by analyzing a range of information, thereby assisting individuals and groups in imagining, developing, organizing, and constructing future landscapes [21]. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a transformative research paradigm that has emerged in recent decades. It builds a bridge between science and practice through community engagement and social activities. This can improve health equity in communities. CBPR can promote mutual help and knowledge transfer between a community and multiple organizations [22].

One of the important types of communities, urban communities, has five fundamental elements, namely a region, a population, production and living facilities, an organizational system, and a common social culture [23]. The concept of sustainable development has been widely used to describe an ideal state of long-term harmonious coexistence between people-to-people and people-to-environment relationships. This concept reveals that development behavior should seek a balance between human needs, resource constraints, environmental carrying capacity, intergenerational equity, and social justice and equity [4]. With the promotion of sustainable development and ecological design concepts, the concept of sustainable communities has become an important planning trend. The basic concept of a sustainable community is to integrate concepts such as sustainable development, ecological planning and design, and community empowerment into community planning to establish a humanistic community living space that features ecological sustainability, convenience of life, community safety, resource allocation, rationality of actions, equity and justice, a cultural atmosphere, humanistic care, and efficient community governance [4,5,6,24]. The best way to promote the construction of future communities should be to encourage and assist community residents to actively reflect their needs and to build communities with shared awareness and the ability to mobilize through personal participation. To achieve this goal, the concept of community empowerment, which is the gradual delivery of power and resources to community residents, provides a useful theoretical framework [24]. Non-governmental organizations can help communities take control of their lives and achieve sustainable development by building community capacity, including mobilizing resources, planning and assessing community problem-solving capacity, and transferring skills and knowledge [25]. At the Seattle Forum on Sustainability, a range of issues that affect the long-term well-being of cities and communities, including environmental, society, urban planning, and economic topics, was discussed. The conference sparked debate on the definition of sustainable development and explored how to measure a city’s progress in achieving sustainable development [26]. To build a sustainable community, it is necessary to deeply analyze the needs of the community’s residents, as this can enable designers to better explore the direction and picture of the future development of the community as well as solve its current problems [18,27,28].

2.2. Community Residents’ Needs

Community residents need to have sufficient ability and appropriate opportunities to participate in the mechanisms of sustainable community empowerment, become leaders in their communities, and be able to fundamentally share available resources to meet their needs on an equal footing [29]. However, based on the experience of community construction, community empowerment cannot be achieved overnight. It requires collaboration regarding and the implementation of mechanisms such as public participation, community learning, consensus building, and conflict resolution. The purpose of public participation is to encourage the residents in a community to express their needs and to demonstrate an actual willingness to participate so that they can take part in the process of sustainable development in their community and share the process and results at the same time [27,28,30].

In the context of rapidly developing science and technology, envisioning future changes has become a new opportunity. Understanding and applying the theories and methods of future research can enable people to effectively predict more distant futures [21,31]. Considering the hierarchy of needs of urban community residents from the perspective of future design and future thinking is therefore of great significance for future generations and society. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs proposed in 1943—and which has remained applicable for 80 years, people’s needs can be divided hierarchically from low to high into physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization needs [32,33]. In the context of sustainable community development, residents’ needs are more refined, and they are used to establish humanistic community living spaces that encompass ecological sustainability, convenience of life, community safety, resource allocation, rationality of behavior, equity and justice, a cultural atmosphere, humanistic care, and the efficiency of community governance [4,5,6,27,34]. In addition, researchers have emphasized the impact of interactions between service providers, customers, intelligent technologies, services, and interactions on the satisfaction of the hierarchy of human needs [35]. Some researchers have further grouped these experiences into three categories: usability, emotional experience, and user value [36,37].

The satisfaction of the needs of the residents in a community at all levels requires community empowerment, which necessitates the coordination and implementation of learning mechanisms. Building a learning community has become an important theoretical foundation for community empowerment [27,38]. Learning community theory incorporates three concepts: (1) Social learning theory emphasizes how to create an environment with a mutual learning atmosphere that allows participants to accumulate practical planning knowledge through actual community empowerment activities [27]. (2) The establishment of innovative and reflective ideal learning communities emphasized in educational philosophy allows participants to have the power and ability to participate in the design and improvement of existing community empowerment mechanisms [38]. (3) The role and value adjustment of environmental design professionals emphasized in the participatory design concept, as well as the application of participatory aesthetics, enable professionals to participate in a collaborative and supportive manner when assisting in the empowerment of sustainable communities. This helps residents define their real needs and further meet the ideal needs of their community [32].

2.3. Community Convenience Service Stations

In recent years, the importance of the service industry in global economic development has been increasing, and research on service design has gradually attracted interest from all sectors [39,40]. Service design is a new field that emphasizes integrity, cross-domain, and integration. Service is the activity or performance provided by one group (organization or individual) to another group (organization or individual). It is intangible, with no ownership of the transaction, and its emergence may be related to a physical product [41]. Suxuan proposed five crucial research and development directions for future service design: multi-channel service design, product service system design and application, service experience co-creation, social innovation and public service design, and sustainable service design [42,43]. Community service will also greatly affect the construction of sustainable communities in the future. Community service stations can be open and interactive community service platforms and community products that apply the design concept of intelligent system services as public platforms. To customize such stations for community-based functions, data from the environment, residents, quality, roads, resources, needs, and other conditions and factors can be utilized to create active health management community service stations for residents. They can then be used to empower communities and fulfill the guidance of the sustainable community development concept [34,43]. Based on this, we defined community convenience service stations as a process that involves residents’ participation, through which they obtain experiences and satisfy their needs via collaboration with and through the concerted efforts of community management and the community systems [41]. Researchers evaluated the development of an educational program in Japan, which was designed to promote cooperation between communities and convenience store service stations. It was concluded that the educational program could contribute to the development of a sustainable community by leading to an age-friendly community [35]. Igarashi et al. started CBPR in Tokyo, Japan, to develop multilateral partnerships that could support older people in integrated caring systems in their communities [37].

Lockton noted that design can guide sustainable behaviors, but conversely, it can hinder people and limit their behaviors. For example, low-quality and inefficient public recycling designs may fail to engage community residents and may even leave them feeling annoyed and frustrated (as shown in Figure 2).

When exploring high-quality designs for sustainable urban services, it is necessary to consider community residents’ contexts in multiple ways, including the human, economic, cultural, needs, emotional, and behavioral factors [42]. Mason et al. investigated citizens’ perceptions of their service experiences at South African Police Service Community Service Centers (CCSs). The study focused on their motivations before the visit, experiences during the visit, and whether these experiences differed with respect to demographic factors [39]. The renovation and design of nucleic acid testing booths not only reuses a large number of idle urban resources, but also gradually affects people’s way of life in the renovated space, reshapes people’s lifestyles, and transforms the community system, mechanisms, and atmosphere [34,44].

3. Research Methods

Urban communities in China can be divided into commercial residential areas, unit-type communities, affordable housing residential areas, and old residential areas [44,45]. We focused on the old communities in China. To obtain an in-depth understanding of the needs and pain points in the process of sustainable community development, we visited the communities located in the downtown and suburban areas of Shenzhen and conducted field research via in-depth interviews with 20 community residents, 10 community managers, and 12 community design experts from different cities (i.e., Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Heyuan). The interviews covered topics such as the sustainable development of the community, the needs of the residents of the community, and the community convenience service stations. Each interview lasted 15–60 min. We followed a rigorous research methodology: the proposed research questions and hypotheses were analyzed and interpreted using a detailed scientific methodology through field visits, data collection, and interviews with residents, and the research process was well documented (as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2).

A large number of abandoned nucleic acid testing booths in the communities needed to be redesigned and renovated according to the actual needs of the community residents using, for example, the concept of sustainable development of the community, the needs of the community residents, community empowerment, future design, and the design methodology, so as to create mobile convenience stations that could satisfy the needs of the residents in the community and the sustainable development of the community in the future (as shown in Figure 3) [45,46,47]. The themes of the renovations of the nucleic acid testing booths corresponded to the concept of sustainable development, future design, and the future strategies of the communities. The purpose of the renovations corresponded to the needs of the residents and the design of the community services, which were organized and practiced by and included the participation of multiple parties. The results of the remodeling were the cultivation of the community, design direction, and the application of the design methodology. The needs of community residents exist in different categories and levels and require the application of different design methods to solve their problems [45,46]. The applied design methods tailored to the residents’ needs included functional design, safety design, experiential design, human-centered design, emotional design, fun design, and unconscious design. Design methods that are environmentally friendly for communities include green design, sustainable design, low-carbon design, and energy-saving design. Design methods that emphasize community system construction are system design, interdisciplinary design, sustainable design, service design, among others [46,47].

With regard to the target population, in this study we focused on the residents of China’s old neighborhoods, which comprise citizens of different ages, genders, social backgrounds, and lengths of residence. They had different needs and perceptions of the sustainable development of their neighborhoods. We therefore followed the method and principle of purposive random sampling to interview as many community residents of different ages, genders, and social backgrounds as possible to improve and enrich the scientific nature of this study [48]. We examined the needs of the residents in some of the old communities in China as an example so that we could study the involvement of community services in social work. Through our data collection in the early stages of our social work, we found that the residents in the communities had weak awareness and lacked action and awareness of community co-construction. In addition, the communities lacked complete public service systems. We used purposive sampling to select the interviewees from a total of 10 communities and snowball sampling to select the experts. The selection criteria for the community designers were experts holding the position of associate professor or professor in a university who have about 10–15 years of experience in community design or senior designers working in companies. Through face-to-face interviews, 20 community residents, 10 community managers, and 12 community designers and experts were interviewed. We used a semi-structured format for the interviews, which mainly included the following questions for each group of participants:

Community residents:

• What is it like to live in this community? Are there any disadvantages, and do you have any needs?
• Do you think the community management and public services are comprehensive?
• Do you have any ideas or suggestions about the public services in the community?

Community managers:

• What are the needs and pain points of the residents of the community?
• How are community public services conducted?
• What are the pain points and difficulties in carrying out public services in the community?

Community experts:

• Please talk about the dimensions through which the community design addresses the needs of the residents of the community based on your design experience?
• What are your suggestions for remodeling and designing the unused nucleic acid testing booths in the community?
• How do you think community kiosks should be designed to better serve the community?
• Could you please share your experiences and methods of developing a sustainable community?

We interviewed each community resident, community manager, and expert using the relevant interview outline. The characteristics of the interviewees are provided in

Table 1. Demographic characteristics of the community resident interviewees.

No.	Gender	Age	Community	Residence Time (Years)
A1	Male	65	Binhai	20 or above
A2	Male	60	Binhai	15–19
A3	Male	58	Jinlong	10–14
A4	Male	45	Jinlong	7–9
A5	Female	55	Binhai	7–9
A6	Female	50	Binhai	1–3
A7	Female	52	Jinlong	4–6
A8	Female	45	Jinlong	7–9
A9	Female	32	Xuelin Yayuan	4–6
A10	Female	13	Binhai	4–6
A11	Female	16	Xuelin Yayuan	7–9
A12	Female	22	Xuelin Yayuan	1–3
A13	Male	24	Haibin	4–6
A14	Male	24	Xiaomeisha Xinju	4–6
A15	Male	50	Bigui Yuan	7–9
A16	Female	48	Bigui Yuan	7–9
A17	Female	52	Changhu Yuan	7–9
A18	Male	17	Bigui Yuan	4–6
A19	Male	24	Dongtian	4–6
A20	Male	24	Yanta	1–3

,

Table 2. Demographic characteristics of the community manager interviewees.

No.	Gender	Age	Community	Occupation
B1	Male	50	Binhai	Community security captain
B2	Male	45	Jinlong	Community security
B3	Male	40	Jinlong	Community security
B4	Female	28	Binhai	Community management director
B5	Female	24	Binhai	Community social worker
B6	Female	24	Binhai	Community social worker
B7	Female	23	Jinlong	Community social worker
B8	Female	22	Jinlong	Community social worker
B9	Female	25	Haibin	Community social worker
B10	Female	40	Haibin	Community director

and

Table 3. Demographic characteristics of the community designers and specialists.

No.	Gender	Research Area	Affiliated Unit	Research Experiences (Years)	Occupation	Age
C1	Male	Community design	Wuhan University	35	Professor	65
C2	Female	Interior design, environmental design	Wuhan University	30	Professor	55
C3	Female	Design education	Shenzhen University	26	Professor	55
C4	Male	Service design	Shenzhen University	22	Associate professor	50
C5	Male	Community planning design	Nanjing Tech University	18–20	Professor	47
C6	Male	Service design	Guangdong University of Finance & Economics	12–14	Associate professor	37
C7	Male	Community residential program design	East China Architectural Design 8 Research Institute Co., Ltd. (ECADI)	16	Senior architect	38
C8	Male	Residential and recreational building design	ECADI	10	Intermediate architect	29
C9	Male	Urban and rural planning design	Yunnan Urban and Rural Planning and Design Institute	16	Senior engineer	38
C10	Male	Product design, interaction design	Xiaopeng Motors	10–12	Professional designer	30
C11	Male	Community design	Ningbo Yongshang Fenghua Culture Media Co.	18	Head designer	40
C12	Male	Service design, product design	Artop Group	10–12	Professional designer	30

. We analyzed the transcripts of the recordings (as shown in Figure 4). When no new views emerged, the addition of research samples was stopped [49].

4. Qualitative Research Analysis

4.1. Analysis of the Interviews with the Community Residents and Managers

Through interviews with the community residents and management personnel, we found that the actual needs of the residents in different communities varied. This information needed to be combined with that pertaining to the residents’ economic statuses, education levels, work situations, and social environments. Most of the residents had a high level of satisfaction with the community in which they lived. However, due to economic constraints in some old communities, many of the residents were concerned about the living conditions and sustainable construction of their communities. Based on the literature review, we addressed various directions involved in the sustainable development of communities.

(1)

Humanistic care: Older people aged 65 years noted the lack of channels through which to establish connections with other residents in the community. They often lacked social interactions since they were unfamiliar with other residents, even though they often encountered these residents within the community (A1). This made them feel depressed. At the same time, another older person expressed their concern and need regarding their inability to control their physical functions, namely, urination and excretion, and expressed the hope that the community would find ways to address these physiological needs (A2). The Haibin community has a large number of elderly people, and there is a great need for young people to hang on to them. The Haibin community therefore often organizes activities for university students to visit the elderly (B10). B3 hoped that the community management would pay more attention to the community workers and protect their legitimate rights and interests. Based on this, B3 felt that more concern and care should be given to environmental sanitation workers, cleaning aunts, and security uncles to improve their happiness when working. A14 deemed psychological counseling services to be necessary for community residents to help improve their emotions and alleviate depression since many young workers who had recently entered the workplace were experiencing a significant psychological gap between campus and the workplace. With the current economic recession, the residents of the Bigui Yuan community hoped that they could receive financial management education to increase their financial awareness (A18) as well as reduce the cost of property management and unnecessary services and thereby alleviate the financial burden on families (A15, A16).

(2)

Life convenience: The health of community residents cannot be separated from sports and fitness. A13 expressed a desire for communities to have sports activity rooms for residents to use so as to improve their quality of life and physical health. The interactions between community service providers, community residents, and intelligent technologies services have a significant impact on the satisfaction of residents’ need levels [33]. According to A5, having healthcare facilities within a community can greatly improve the convenience of life, as it would remove the need for residents to travel to more distant hospitals and clinics, which thus reduces the amount of time and energy spent on this activity. A10 proposed that communities provide more entertainment facilities for children to play in and experience, as these would improve the connection between the residents and the quality of children’s entertainment. A20 asserted that communities should provide convenient information services, such as community websites, WeChat official accounts, and community bulletin boards. These information facilities should have timely updates to make it easy for residents to access detailed information regarding their community (A20). Volunteer services were identified as a way to improve the quantity and quality of the services provided in a community (A12) and enhance the convenience of life [34]. B10 felt that communities should also have places for residents to relax and have fun so that they can cool off in summer, and in winter, they can bask in the sun. These spaces would also be used for elderly people to play chess, cards, and kung fu and chat, for women to sing, dance, and put on fashion shows, and for children to play and chase around.

(3)

Community safety: Community security is crucial and a prerequisite for community living (A7). Community public facilities for fire and disaster prevention should be ready in the event of these emergencies, and community preparedness should be undertaken (A6). Many elderly people and children live in the communities. The public emergency rescue equipment should be used in the case of accidents to reduce risks or harm (A2). Residents of the Changhu Yuan community emphasized that the community needs to maintain a hygienic environment to prevent and control the spread of disease and ensure the health of the residents (A17). A19 was concerned about the public facilities and equipment in his community. He upheld that the community should maintain the facilities and equipment regularly to ensure they are operational and to prevent accidents.

(4)

Efficiency of community governance: As a member of the community management staff, B4 affirmed that the establishment of a community service system was very necessary [29], as it could greatly optimize a community’s self-management ability and form a virtuous cycle. She mentioned that the community needs to know the needs of the residents, which can be achieved through resident interviews, literature reviews, and field research. Annual implementation plans can then be developed. Midterm feedback and later reporting would be needed during the mid-stage of activities, and finally, the entire community plan would need to be evaluated [38]. B2 indicated that there were conflicts between residents, and the consequences of these conflicts were uncontrollable. In such situations, mediation was needed to help the community resolve the conflicts and reduce unnecessary harm (B2). At the same time, ways to improve the efficiency of community governance, such as complaint reporting boxes (B4), livelihood micro practical affairs (B4), wish collection boxes (B4), and goodwill boxes (A9), were also mentioned. B4 indicated that, with improvements to the social work service system, the restrictions on community activities would become less over time.

(5)

Knowledge sharing: Community knowledge sharing is essential for empowering communities [34]. In the community where A9 lives, the majority of residents are newborns. The other residents expressed a willingness to establish children’s bookstores in the community so that residents could take their children to read shared books in their free time, thereby building a platform for community knowledge sharing and a learning-oriented community, which draws close to developing a sustainable community [27,50]. The popularization and promotion of knowledge of law is also necessary. In a modern civilized society, the promotion of legal awareness is becoming increasingly important. The establishment and improvement of a community system cannot be separated from improvements in legal awareness among residents (A4). Student tutoring (A9) and the study of basic skills by children (A8) are also needed.

(6)

Cultural sustainability: The education levels of the residents in the different communities varied significantly. Cultural sustainability plays a significant role in the sustainable development of communities (B4). It can improve residents’ innovation abilities, humanistic literacy, moral character, ideological depth, spiritual strength, and community cohesion [38]. It can further inspire residents to spontaneously organize and develop communities [30]. Improvements in community quality and culture contribute to the sustainable development and external image of the community, thereby reducing contradictions and conflicts among residents (A12, A13). A9 had high requirements for self-improvement. These included appearance, temperament, social interactions between neighbors, and the improvement of family parent–child relationships. Community manager B9 thought that the cultural atmosphere of a community could also be changed through design, such as changing the visual effects of some small spaces. The cultural atmosphere of a community can be created through colors, graphics, plants, and even artworks, such as sculptures (B9).

Based on these interview results and previous research [4,5,6,24], the needs of the residents roughly comprised three aspects: community life, community system, and community environment (see Figure 4).

Table 4. Conclusions drawn from the interviews with the community residents and managers.

Interviewees	Need	Sustainable Development
A1, A2, A14, A15, A16, A18	Social, physical, and psychological counseling, financial management, financial burden	Humanistic care
B3, B10	Lonely elderly people, rest for community workers
A5, A10, A12, A13, A20	Sports rooms, medical clinics, entertainment venues, information platforms, support services	Life convenience
B7, B8, B10	Leisure and entertainment, express delivery stations, shared piano rooms
A2, A6, A7, A17, A19	Public security, fire prevention, emergency equipment, health safety, equipment safety	Community safety
B1, B2	Fire stations, shelters
A3, A4, A9	Donation boxes, livelihood liaison stations	Efficient community governance
B2, B4	Service system, resident mediation, opinion collection boxes
A4, A8, A9	Children’s libraries, sharing books, knowledge platforms, tutoring	Knowledge sharing
B5, B6, B11	Legal knowledge, resident participation
A1, A6, A12, A13, A17, A20	Spring Festival shopping stalls, parent–child relationships, cultural festivals	Cultural sustainability
B4, B9	Educational level, cultural atmosphere, community building

shows are analysis of the needs of the residents and managers of the studied communities.

As Table 4 shows, different community residents and managers had different specific needs and pain points, and these corresponded to the different directions in the theory of community sustainable development. How to better meet the needs of community residents requires these factors to be addressed comprehensively, such as via multiparty cooperation and residents’ participation.

4.2. Community Designers and Specialists Analysis

We interviewed 12 experts in community research who had been in the research field for between 10 and 37 years. They had very rich experience in community design and an in-depth understanding of the needs of the residents of communities. Most of their research fields related to community design, service design, urban and rural planning and design, and interior design, which were very close to the content and direction of the current study. We asked each expert to certify the accuracy of the interview content. An analysis of the expert’s responses to the interview questions is provided below.

The first question of the interview with the experts was based on the experts’ practical experience. The aim was to analyze the dimensions that should be used to address the needs of residents in communities from the perspectives of their needs and pain points. The second question focused on the renovations of the unused nucleic acid sampling kiosks in the communities in this study, and we solicited the experts’ suggestions for these renovations. The third question sought the experts’ understanding and perceptions of how the community kiosks could better serve the communities, and the fourth question required the experts to share their rich experience and methods of community design and sustainable development.

(1)

Addressing the needs of residents: C1 asserted that the renovation of the unused nucleic acid sampling kiosks in a community necessitated conducting a large number of social interviews with the residents in the community and listening to their feedback. The residents’ opinions and demands regarding the existing environment, the management of the hardware in the district, and the residents’ behaviors and physical conditions need to be understood. In addition, the cultural atmosphere of the community can be changed through some design methods, such as changing the visual effects of the environment through the use of color, graphics, plants, and even art, such as sculptures. C4 and C5 emphasized that the community should pay attention to the social value needs of the elderly. They felt that the energy of middle-aged people needed to be utilized, and by providing them with venues and spaces, they could participate fully in helping the elderly with leisure activities in their spare time. They could also be organized to carry out some public welfare activities. The sense of public welfare among the older generation is usually weaker, so this is one way to spread the idea of public welfare.

(2)

Nucleic Acid Testing Booths Renovation: C2 and C3 emphasized the need to renovate the unused nucleic acid testing booths in the communities and to provide data support. The transformation of the unused community nucleic acid testing booths into convenient service stations should focus on the needs of the residents in the community and be planned and designed in a coordinated manner with multiple departments, organizations, and properties. The transformation of the unused community nucleic acid testing booths could be piloted as multifunctional space conversions, health and well-being services, community interaction spaces, sustainable development, cultural and artistic spaces, education and training centers, and green leisure spaces.

(3)

Community Planning: C6 indicated that an excellent community planning program could meet the various needs of residents, provide a good living environment and social services, promote communication and interaction among residents, and enhance community cohesion and a sense of belonging. At the same time, managers of community planning programs can utilize resources rationally, improve the sustainability of the community, and promote the overall development of the city. C10 and C12 felt that community design is very difficult. Intricate social environments and cultural relationships allow different communities and regions to adopt different solutions.

(4)

Community Design: C7 and C8 noted that social and cultural attributes need to be strengthened most in community design, and the starting point for strengthening social attributes is the restoration of neighborhood relations. In contemporary urban life, the chances of neighbors getting to know one another are diminishing. First of all, community design is a human-centered design, so the users’ habits should be considered first. Designers should be fully aware of the users’ preferences and habits so that they can develop the basis of the design scheme and create adaptive designs. Second, for the dimension of public activity areas, designers should pay attention to the construction of a sense of place. Starting with human behavior, the layout is developed according to the nature and scale of the space. Finally, designers should consider the sustainable development of the community, collect user feedback, and then update the design. C9 and C11 noted that the layout of the convenience service stations should be concise and clear, so that residents can find the corresponding service areas easily. This requires designers to take into account accessibility and to provide people with special needs with convenient access through the design.

We drew a word frequency count based on the interviews with the experts. Our results showed that “human-centered”, “sustainability”, “service design”, “community design”, “resident participation”, and “barrier-free design”, among others, were mentioned repeatedly (Figure 5).

We then studied the descriptions related to the high-frequency words and analyzed the content of the interviews with the experts (

Table 5. Conclusions drawn from the interviews with the experts.

Interviewees	Opinion	Direction
C1: Talk to the residents, look around the community, and see what they have to say about the environment.	Pay more attention to the living conditions of the community residents	Address the needs of the community residents
C4: Create a sense of community and provide space for public activities.	Meet the social needs of the elderly, provide space for the elderly and children’s outdoor activities, labor needs, sports needs
C5: Ensure that all areas within the community are safe, accessible, and suitable for people of all ages and abilities.	Human-centered design
C2: Transform the community nucleic acid testing booths.	Multifunctional space. Concentration on health and well-being, community interaction spaces, and sustainable development	Nucleic acid testing booth renovation
C3: Transformation should focus on the needs of the residents in the community. Multiparty coordination is needed for overall planning.	Culture and art space, education and training center, green leisure space, etc.
C6: Focus on providing convenient and diversified services.	Optimize the community service design	Community planning
C10: Think of the nucleic acid sampling kiosk as a space with a constant size, and think about the other uses it can have.	Optimize the community space design
C12: Encourage community participation, including decision-making, project planning, and problem-solving.	Encourage the active participation of residents
C7: Social and cultural attributes need to be strengthened most. Start with the restoration of the neighborhood relationships.	Enhance community interaction and socializing	Community design
C8: Start with the dimension of users’ habits. Design with a full understanding of the users’ preferences and habits.	Study residents’ living habits and behavior patterns
C9: The purpose is to create a harmonious living environment and to motivate communication among human beings and the environment through the reasonable organization of the space.	Attach importance to communication among communities
C11: Create a livable and safe environment. The needs of the residents need to be considered during construction.	Consider safety and livability

).

The experts put forward various suggestions that could be categorized into three main themes: the needs of the community residents; the transformation of the nucleic acid sampling kiosks; and the sustainable development of the community. Experts C1, C4, and C5 observed that designers should consider the living conditions of residents, especially those of the elderly and children. Experts C2 and C3 noted that the transformation of the nucleic acid sampling booths was very necessary and provided many suggestions for their transformation. Experts C6, C10, and C12 asserted that residents can be encouraged to actively participate in community design, while experts C7, C8, C9, and C11 maintained that, in community design, attention should be paid to the interactions between neighbors, and focus should be placed on safety and livability. Interdisciplinary knowledge is the key to sustainable community development in the future, and multidisciplinary integration contributes to this.

5. Design Case Analysis

5.1. Renovation Design: Community Workers’ Rest Stations

In the Jinlong community, the interviewees A4 and B3 expressed their hope that the community would pay more attention to the working conditions and needs of community workers. The idle nucleic acid testing booths were redesigned based on the needs of community workers (see Figure 6). The booths were upgraded both internally and externally. Due to the limited space inside the booths and to maximize the efficient use of the interior space, we adopted a modular design to functionally divide the interior space and provide basic services, such as hot water, charging services, seat backs, and sanitary boxes. To create a relaxing atmosphere, the community workers’ rest stations were remodeled with simple décor to make them more approachable and relaxing to be inside. In addition to fulfilling community workers’ daily needs, the rest stations are social places where workers can get extra supplies, chat with others, rest both physically and mentally, and shelter from the cold and heat. In the stations, workers can enjoy moments of rest, tranquility, and joy during working hours. They are like the “homes” of workers during working hours, and every community worker is welcome to take a break at a rest station at any time. This shows better concern and care for community workers. Meanwhile, having better rest enables these workers to improve their work efficiency [34].

In the process of renovating the community workers’ rest stations, the designers preferred to design more practical, functional, controllable, feasible, and recyclable booths. For example, simple storage bins were set up for the community workers to put their personal belongings, and separate garbage cans are available for different kinds of waste. The designers paid attention to the visual design of both the external and internal spaces and ensured they can be recognized by people. The functionality of the external space is emphasized through its presentation, and the internal space is simple and practical. The redesign and strategy of the nucleic acid testing booths demonstrates the warm care that is present in urban communities, and at the same time, idle community resources have been reused in line with local conditions.

5.2. Renovation Design: Fever Clinics

In the Binhai community, where influenza is prevalent and the climate is unstable, interviewee A5 indicated that health and medical public facilities in the community would greatly improve the convenience of community life and meet the pain points of local residents. As a result, community managers and designers collaborated with the community health service center to transform the nucleic acid testing booths into fever clinics (see Figure 7). The most important functions of the diagnostic process are carried out in these clinics. The fever clinics enable residents with mild illnesses such as fever to access correspondent medical diagnoses and medicines within a short distance without hospitals or community healthcare service centers. Different from the general medical consultation rooms in hospitals, the fever clinics only provide diagnoses and medical treatment for fever and influenza for the residents of the community, which has led to an efficient, simple, and convenient medical experience and process. The fever clinics can accommodate two medical staff working simultaneously: one responsible for consultations and prescriptions and the other for taking medicine and filling prescriptions. Internal air conditioning, disinfection equipment, medical facilities, positive pressure ventilation system, and other electrical equipment are all in place to provide the medical staff with a basic working environment and meet the general medical needs of the residents and thus improve the convenience of their lives. The fever clinics are based on the concept of convenience for community sustainable development, and the redesign of the nucleic acid testing booths was adopted to meet the practicalities and convenience of community functions, which has made them suitable for the sustainable development of future communities. In the Futian and Bao’an districts of Shenzhen, there have also been cases where multiple idle nucleic acid testing booths have been transformed into fever clinics. Residents can complete their registration, diagnosis, treatment, and payment and have their prescription filled at once, which reduces the risk of cross-infection in the community. Some idle nucleic acid testing booths in Suzhou have also been transformed into fever clinics, and community residents have responded well [14].

5.3. Renovation Design: Mini-Fire Stations

Interviewee A7 stated that community security and disaster resilience are crucial as well as being necessary conditions for long-term residency in a community. Due to the high levels of uncertainty and uncontrollable factors associated with fires in the Jinlong community, A8 emphasized that community public emergency facilities for fire and disaster prevention can play crucial roles in the event of such emergencies. In the Jinlong community, designers and managers redesigned the idle nucleic acid testing booths according to the requirements of the local community, which included the high mobility and complexity of the people, to improve fire safety in the community and transform the booths into mini-fire stations (see Figure 8).

The designers also hoped to popularize science education among residents through the mini-fire stations, while at the same time noting that the stations could play a role in providing warnings and publicity about fires. Cognitive communication could be used to improve the residents’ awareness of fire and disaster prevention and thus subconsciously change the behavior of the residents.

The mini-fire stations are well-equipped with complete firefighting tools and self-rescue equipment and are open to residents 24 h a day. They mainly serve as community emergency rescue service stations for handling fires and related dangerous situations in community emergencies. Residents can use the fire equipment and first-aid equipment in the mini-fire stations for emergency responses to disasters. For example, in the event of a fire in the community, residents can promptly access and use the gas masks, protective gear, fire extinguishers, safety helmets, and other equipment in the mini-fire stations to carry out fire-extinguishing and self-rescue operations at the fastest speed, in the shortest time, and with maximum efficiency. In addition, the mini-fire stations offer fire prevention brochures, equipment instruction brochures, and emergency self-rescue methods brochures to residents, management personnel, tourists, and others so that they can learn about fire prevention, fire prevention methods, and self-rescue methods and enhance their self-rescue capabilities. Suzhou North Station has a large pedestrian flow and a dense population with a high level of mobility, which makes the nearby urban communities prone to unexpected situations and events. If there is a fire, staff, passengers, community residents, and others may experience unexpected crises and consequences [51]. As a result, community mini-fire stations can play a role in assisting fire and disaster prevention in times of crisis. In daily life, the mini-fire stations can provide education, publicity, and warnings about fires for the sustainable development of the community.

5.4. Renovation Design: People’s Livelihood Liaison Stations

In the Binhai community, there is a relative lack of reasonable and effective channels for residents to communicate suggestions and problems to the community. As a member of the management staff of the Binhai community, interviewee B4 asserted that the establishment of a community service system was very necessary [29]. Designers therefore transformed the nucleic acid testing booths into people’s livelihood liaison stations (Figure 9), which are used to collect feedback, opinions, and suggestions from the public and help solve key but small matters and livelihood issues of vital interest to the people (B4).

The designers intended for residents to write letters about the problems they encounter in community life and difficulties they have in carrying out community activities and to deliver the letters to the people’s livelihood liaison stations. Visually, the stations have a calm color tone and looks like large mailboxes. The stations optimize the self-management ability of the community and form a virtuous cycle. Interviewee B4 mentioned that the community can ascertain the needs of residents through interviews, literature reviews, and field research and then develop annual implementation plans. Midterm feedback and later reporting are needed during the mid-stage of activities, and finally, the entire community plan is evaluated. Under the principle of adapting to local conditions and making the best use of resources, the people’s livelihood liaison stations, starting from community management and the needs of the community, involve a combination of contact methods, such as mailboxes, letter collection, face-to-face interviews, and messages. In the future, other contact methods based on the actual context will be explored and added. In terms of design, the people’s livelihood liaison stations were designed with several aspects in mind, including functionality, operations, convenience, interactions, and practicality based on the cultural characteristics, living habits, social communication, and emotional needs of the residents so that the residents would see them as convenience service stations established by the community management service system.

5.5. Renovation Design: Love Drifting Bookstores

A9 indicated that, since children make up the majority of residents in the Xuelin Yayuan community, she hoped to establish a shared bookstore within the community to provide a public reading space for residents and children. The Love Drifting Bookstore, which can also be called a community-shared library, houses many books donated by community residents (Figure 10).

At present, this convenience service station is open and can be used 24 h a day, and all of the residents in the community can borrow or donate books. Due to the large number of teachers and students in the Xuelin Yayuan community, the residents strongly supported the idea of transforming the nucleic acid testing booths into Love Drifting Bookstores. The designers used wood for the interior of the bookstores and decorated these spaces with traditional Chinese colors and fixtures to create a warm, welcoming, and peaceful atmosphere. Four shelves have been designated to accommodate the books donated by residents, and three chairs made of wood have been placed inside the bookstores for readers. Many families donate finished books to the Love Drifting Bookstores, which makes it easier for residents to access and contribute to building a learning community [27,50]. This approach affects the lifestyles and philosophies of the residents in the community, reshapes the ecological capacity of the community system [52], and contributes to knowledge sharing for community sustainable development. The internal space of the bookstore has notices with the borrowing rules and instructions, and community volunteers help register borrowing information. After examining the local cultural characteristics and environmental status, the designers carried out renovations according to the specific needs of the community, such as the opening times of the bookstores and the specific requirements for volunteer work. As a civilized and convenient service station for the community, the Love Drifting Bookstores effectively meet the reading needs of the community and enrich communication and interactions between residents.

5.6. Renovation Design: Spring Festival Shopping Stalls

B4 noted that the education levels of the residents in her community were different, but their cultural roots were the same. A12 and A13 indicated that improvements in community culture contributes to the sustainable development of community culture, which can encourage residents to spontaneously organize and develop their communities. In the Haibin community, the designer transformed the nucleic acid testing booths into Spring Festival shopping stalls (Figure 11), which are provided free of charge to community residents and nearby merchants as stalls for the Spring Festival promotion.

On the exterior, the designers applied couplets and lanterns with different symbols and content to create a festive atmosphere for the Chinese New Year, thus changing the previously serious and solemn visual impression of the booths. Inside, the space has been widened to the maximum extent for traders to present more commodities and New Year goods. This not only provides convenience for nearby community residents to do Spring Festival shopping, but also helps merchants attract more people and promote consumption, thus creating a festive atmosphere. The Spring Festival shopping stall activities are divided into four themes: agricultural by-products; trade promotion; catering, New Year’s shopping, and handicrafts; and the promotion of cultural and creative products. People can buy New Year’s goods at the market and experience the cultural characteristics and festive atmosphere of the local cities and residents. The designers focused on the practice of multiculturalism, storytelling, and cultural origins in the community as well as the interpretation and creativity of viewers and users in the sustainable empowerment of the culture of the community [30,38]. Culture, through the use of material carriers such as Spring Festival shopping stalls, is showcased in important cultural festivals and thus affects the breadth and depth of culture from the perspective of both the user experience and consumption. It deepens the connotations of community spiritual civilization and influences residents’ emotions and cognition and thereby plays a critical role in integrating local material life and cultural characteristics [27,50].

6. Discussion

Exploring the development of future sustainable communities based on the actual situations and needs of residents can help advance the concept of sustainable community development from a long-term perspective [4,32]. In this regard, future design methods are one of the approaches used in future studies to develop future community scenarios [46]. Exploring the needs of the residents of communities through future design also drives future practice and design activities, which reflect the sustainable development of residents’ needs and triggers people’s thinking and reflection on the sustainable development of their future communities [17]. How can residents cooperate with community management personnel and designers to construct sustainable communities? How can management personnel spontaneously contribute to a community’s future research and vision? How can management personnel and designers create a preferred future community landscape by effectively utilizing limited community resources to find efficient strategies for community development and enhance community information organization capabilities? In this study, we found that a large number of the nucleic acid testing booths that had been left idle since the COVID-19 pandemic greatly occupied and consumed the resources of the respective cities and communities. The focus of this study was how to utilize these booths for the sustainable development of communities by applying a future design approach.

We found that the residents in the studied communities paid more attention to the convenience of life. In the Jinlong community (A3, A4, B2, B3), the renovated nucleic acid sampling kiosks were turned into rest stations for community workers to provide rest space for workers in the community. In the Binhai community (A5, A6, B4, B5), the fever clinics improved the efficiency, simplicity, and convenience of the community medical services. The mini-fire stations in the Jinlong community (A7, A8, B7, B8) provided emergency rescue equipment for fire prevention. The people’s livelihood liaison stations in the coastal communities (A1, A2, B4, B6) provided a channel for residents to give feedback and suggestions regarding problems. The Xuelin Yayuan community’s (A11, A12) Love Drifting Bookstores resulted in shared library facilities for the community and provided channels for knowledge acquisition. The Spring Festival shopping stalls in the Haibin community (A13, B9, B10) expanded the content of the community activities and created a cultural festival atmosphere in the community. These renovation measures either improved the efficiency of the community services, enhanced the communication between residents, or enriched the cultural experience of the community. Of course, in the specific implementation scenarios of these transformations, new problems are likely to occur, and they need to be investigated further in our subsequent studies.

The basic concept of sustainable community development is to integrate the concepts of sustainable development, ecological planning and design, and community empowerment into the community planning concept to establish a humanistic community living space featuring and presenting ecological sustainability, convenience of life, rationality of resource allocation, equity and justice, community safety, efficiency of community governance, knowledge sharing, cultural sustainability, humanistic care, and environmental friendliness [4,5,6,24]. In this study, we constructed a model for the sustainable development of old urban communities via mobile convenience service stations (as shown in Figure 12). Redesigning idle nucleic acid testing booths into mobile convenience service stations in the community can promote future community empowerment and encourage and assist community residents to actively reflect on their needs. Through personal participation, a community with common awareness and a mobilization ability can be developed to gradually promote the satisfaction of the residents’ needs [32]. To achieve this goal, the renovation rights and resources of nucleic acid testing booths can be gradually transferred to residents, which provides a useful theoretical framework and practical case for the concept of sustainable community development and community empowerment [27,34,38]. There are five levels of needs for community residents: physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization needs [32]. The specific content of these levels includes community socializing, caring for community workers, psychological counseling services, outdoor sports, public bookstores, community security, entertainment facilities, emergency medical care, and community service systems. The fulfillment of the needs of residents is a necessary condition and goal of sustainable community development. Sustainable community development also promotes the construction of services to meet the needs of residents [16,44]. The redesign of the idle nucleic acid testing booths in this study serves the specific needs of the residents in the studied communities in practice. For example, the community workers’ rest stations meet the needs of community workers in terms of rest, the fever clinics meet the basic needs of community medical care, the mini-fire stations meet the needs of community fire safety, the people’s livelihood liaison stations meet the needs of the community to collect public opinion, the Love Drifting Bookstores meet the needs of the community’s knowledge and education dissemination, and the Spring Festival shopping stalls meet the needs of the community’s festive atmosphere creation, among others. The redesign of the nucleic acid testing booths, on the one hand, reuses these idle resources in the communities and avoids a large amount of waste, and at the same time, through their transformation using future design methods, they also meet the needs of the residents’ lives and ultimately builds on the sustainable development community [17,27,32,44]. Sustainable development promotes community empowerment, which is important for residents when establishing learning and cultural-oriented communities [42]. In this study, it also guided the transformation of nucleic acid testing booths into convenience service stations and enhanced aspects like community empowerment, commitment, systems, culture, beliefs, ecology, and regulation [1,6,10,27,34,44]. Future design drove the redesign of the convenience service stations to service, meet, and implement the specific strategies and means of the residents and included future seminars, future landscapes, future communities, and so on [16,17]. The design methods were aimed at the needs of the residents and included functional design, safety design, experiential design, human-centered design, emotional design, fun design and unconscious design, and the designed convenience service stations subsequently served the residents of the communities. Design methods that are environmentally friendly for communities include green design, sustainable design, low-carbon design, energy-saving design, etc. Design methods that emphasize community system construction include system design, interdisciplinary design, and service design, among other design methods [46,47].

The designers in this study verified through design practice and case studies that: (1) the community workers’ rest stations reflect the characteristics of humanistic care in sustainable development communities; (2) the Fever clinics reflect the characteristics of convenient living in a sustainable community; (3) the mini-fire stations reflect community safety; (4) the people’s livelihood liaison stations reflect community governance efficiency; (5) the Love Drifting Bookstores reflect knowledge sharing; and (6) the Spring Festival shopping stalls reflect cultural sustainability. Guided by the concept of future design and sustainable community development, the redesign of the nucleic acid testing booths into convenience service stations has to some extent promoted the satisfaction of community residents by addressing their needs and indirectly contributed to community empowerment and learning-oriented communities, thus ultimately supporting the sustainable development of old communities in service cities.

7. Conclusions

By conducting interviews, designers and community management personnel envisioned future solutions to current problems and explored the future landscape by combining practical and reflective design activities. We divided this process into three stages: critique (identifying current problems), construction (creating a future picture), and implementation (solving future problems) [20,48]. Future researchers of community sustainable development should identify, study, and explore the future landscape of communities in order to assist residents, management personnel, and designers in jointly constructing a preferred future community that is sustainable. They should further analyze information, such as that related to the residents and environmental conditions, in different communities [21,49]. Community design is a human-centered design. In this study, we visited 10 community residents and managers from different backgrounds and 12 experts in the field of community design and carried out community designs based on the specific interview content. Using future design thinking, the experts pointed out that the transformability of community systems can be improved by creating prerequisites for the transformation of community attributes. This process includes the construction and organization of the community culture, community systems, and residents’ lifestyles and ways of thinking [53]. At the same time, the experts put more emphasis on designing for the specific conditions of the different communities. The community convenience service stations in this study, for example, required necessary and spontaneous activity space. In addition to the appropriate design of spaces with clear functions, the design of public spaces should be based on the characteristics of the community residents. The purpose of a design is not to deliberately emphasize a specific function for residents but to improve the functional adaptability of the public space. In the context of this study, the designers needed to make each activity more possible and weaken the sense of intervention in the design so that the residents could actively interact with the convenience service stations. Only in this way could the public space be gradually built into convenient service stations and become suitable for the needs of the residents in the community.

The sustainable development of communities plays a very important role in the process of urbanization in China. The redesign of the nucleic acid testing booths meets the needs of urban development, while redesigning and reusing abandoned and idle urban resources can greatly affects residents’ lifestyles and life philosophies in combination with the future design of communities, thus reshaping the social-ecological capacity of the social system [44]. It can also lead to fundamental or paradigmatic changes in institutional structures [41]. Starting from sustainable development and community empowerment, the redesign of idle nucleic acid testing booths can help enhance sustainable development by serving old communities in the following six ways: (1) humanistic care, (2) convenience of life, (3) community safety, (4) efficiency of community governance, (5) knowledge sharing, and (6) cultural sustainability. These six levels can be achieved by applying different redesign methods to the nucleic acid testing booths and allowing the participation of community residents. Satisfying community needs at all levels necessitates community empowerment, which involves the coordination and implementation of learning mechanisms. By empowering a community, a learning-oriented community can be achieved, thereby forming a virtuous cycle of the sustainable development of the community [27,34,41].

In the future, designers can contribute to the sustainable development of communities by collecting more information about residents’ needs and applying theoretical methods and practical experience in studies based on the specific situations of different communities. This study is one of a series of studies on sustainable design in communities. The quantitative methodology used in this study will be applied in our future research on sustainable urban communities. The conclusions drawn from this study can be further validated through the redesign and renovation of intelligent mobile convenience service stations in other cities.