Strategies for Renewal and Quality Improvement of Green Spaces in the Essence Area of “Xiaoxishan − Three Hills and Five Gardens” in Beijing

<sec><title>Objective</title> At this stage, Beijing’s urban development has entered an era of stock renewal, and urban landscaping has also shifted from “incremental expansion” to “stock quality improvement”. In this context, the concept of the capital as a “Garden City” has emerged. It is a new idea and strategy for the high-quality development of the capital, pointing out the direction for Beijing to build itself into a “world-class, harmonious and livable capital”. To better achieve the goal of “building the capital into a large garden”, Beijing has, based on its green resource endowments, designated 15 essence areas for Garden City building. The “Xiaoxishan – Three Hills and Five Gardens” area is one of the 15 essence areas designated in Beijing. With the continuous deepening of the “government affairs guarantee function” in recent years, the “Three Hills and Five Gardens” area has entered a new stage of stock optimization. At present, a new round of environmental improvement and upgrading actions is being promoted in this region. How to align with the current requirements for Garden City building and explore pathways for the renewal and quality enhancement of green spaces in the essence areas is of great significance for protecting and inheriting historical and cultural context, optimizing ecosystem service functions, improving the overall environmental quality, and enhancing the attractiveness and vitality of the essence areas. </sec><sec><title>Methods</title> This research interprets the content of Garden City building and analyzes the natural and humanistic advantages that make the “Xiaoxishan – Three Hills and Five Gardens” area designated as an essence area. On this basis, this research focuses on three types of green spaces in the essence areas that are closely integrated with recreational functions, namely Yuanwaiyuan, historical gardens, and greenways, and takes them as the research object. Corresponding strategies for renewal and quality improvement are proposed in a problem-oriented manner from three aspects: overall planning of the area, meticulous shaping of nodes, and linear connectivity. </sec><sec><title>Results</title> By implementing the spatial coordination strategies of “overall area planning, meticulous node shaping, and linear connection”, the research aims to enhance the quality and efficiency of regional green spaces in essence areas. The objective of overall area planning is to achieve the integration and optimization of the Yuanwaiyuan area. It primarily adopts the following four strategies. 1) Shape landscape characters in different areas according to their respective landscape characteristics. 2) Dig deep into historical and cultural information in light of the current site conditions by methods of reproducing historical features and marking historical memories to realize the expression and presentation of historical cultural information. 3) Proceeding from ecological service functions and the actual usage needs of visitors, implement the “quantity reduction and quality improvement” strategy within green spaces. 4) Improve the recreational functions to enrich visitors’ experience. Meticulous node shaping, aiming at the green rebirth of historic famous gardens, mainly adopts the following three strategies. 1) Take the surrounding environment of historic gardens as an integral part of the green base of the “Three Hills and Five Gardens”, and ensure that such surrounding environment is consistent with the overall landscape of the “Three Hills and Five Gardens” in terms of spatial pattern and landscape style. 2) Enhance the quality of the historic gardens themselves. 3) Promote the activation and utilization of historic gardens to realize the transformation from a single “garden scene” to multiple “scenes”. The goal of linear connection is to energize greenway networks, and it primarily adopts the following three strategies. 1) Upgrade and enhance existing greenways. 2) Establish a greenway network system. 3) Create distinctive brand travel routes. </sec><sec><title>Conclusion</title> The development of green space in the “Xiaoxishan – Three Hills and Five Gardens” essence area needs to break the traditional concept of “garden” and regard different types of green spaces as organic components of the green base. By establishing a three-level spatial strategy system of “surface-point-line”, we can promote the transformation of project practice from the mindset of “protection and development of a single garden” to “integration and optimization of regional green spaces”, thus enhancing regional landscape quality and cultural value to foster the synergistic coexistence of historic preservation and contemporary urban development. </sec>