With the development of socio-economy and continuous changes in lifestyle, people's demands for living environment are also changing accordingly. Therefore, residential area planning and design are constantly renewed, design concepts and creative thinking are continuously updated, and human settlement landscape design is also developing continuously.
In the early days of liberation, most residential area planning adopted the "neighborhood unit" design theory proposed by American architect Cesar Pelli in the 1930s. The scope of residential areas was defined by the criterion that primary school students would not cross urban arterial roads to go to school, and primary schools and daily commerce points were set up within the residential areas; such as Caoyang New Village in Shanghai.
In the mid-1950s, influenced by the former Soviet Union's planning theory, the residential area - block planning method was adopted. Residential buildings were mainly located within the blocks, which were arranged in a closed peripheral style. Some blocks were equipped with a small number of public buildings, and children had to cross the block roads to go to school or for residents to go shopping.