Future Community: Global Wisdom and Six Case Studies on Urban Regeneration is a book of urban studies compiled by Urban China and the Enterprise Research Institute of Hangzhou Blue Lion Cultural Creativity Company.

In 2019, Zhejiang Province proposed a pilot work plan on building ‘Future Communities’ throughout the province. The context behind this idea is Chinese cities’ general transition from extensive development to urban regeneration. It is put forward as a concept to guide renewal practices of large-scale residential areas in Chinese cities that has become outdated in modern living. The concept seeks to provide a global, systematic perspective towards the upgrading of such living spaces. However, the ‘139’ top-level design (one central idea, three coordinating values, nine future scenarios) proposed by the provincial government has posed some drawbacks. While covering major technical aspects, the plan has overly underlined the importance of improving physical environments and neglected the significance of service upgrade. It focuses on providing solution to visible problems at the present, while lacking an in-depth theoretical framework and a visionary analysis.

With a comprehensive methodology in urban studies, Urban China opens up a discussion on the idea of ‘future city’, raising questions on its theoretical development, historical context, and cross-disciplinary conceptualisation, putting forward case studies in China, Japan, Singapore, Canada, the Netherlands, France and so forth. The Urban China Overseas Observer (UCO) programme has provided great support for the book, by offering global, interdisciplinary field investigations and researches. It also put forward progressive and creative perspectives into the case studies, as opposed to the often superficial research that relies on a domestic perspective observation and lacks a thorough analysis on its mechanism beneath.

Instead of being a textbook or manual that provides pragmatic plans for projects, the book aims to bridge theory and practice. Juxtaposing theses and cases, the book provokes rethinking and imagination into the possibilities for future cities and future communities. By doing so, it also hopes to reshape the current vision and fields of research on future cities and smart cities.