Feasible ecological strategy for informal public space of high density urban environment. Taking Shanghai as a case

Informal public space is a significant component of the urban public space system, as well as the living and communicating site for citizens, which may impact the informal economic development of the city. How to take feasible and ecological measures for regulating the microclimate of regional environment through improving the building energy consumption, urban heat island effect, and outdoor environment thermal comfort degree will be of great significance for improving the ecological benefits and social benefits of the informal space. In this paper, concepts and research perspectives of high-density urban informal public space are defined at first, and then related domestic and foreign spatial development and ecological design thoughts are concluded. On that basis, the research content and research framework is proposed. In the second part, component factors and features of high-density urban informal public space are analyzed and summarized at first, for studying the influential factors of the informal public space green design. Secondly, the relationship between human and informal public space is discussed from the perspective of users. Thirdly, the relevance between the informal urban public space and sustainable development is studied, and the thermal environmental influencing factors of the urban space are summarized. In the third part, with Shanghai as the research object, climatic conditions in Shanghai, such as the solar radiation, temperature and rainfall, wind environment, are investigated for digging the traditional ecological elements applicable for Shanghai. Meanwhile, current situation of the urban informal public space is investigated, as the basis of the ecological design. In the fourth part, three regional ecological evaluation systems, including American LEED-ND, British BREEAM-Communities, as well as the Technology Evaluation Manual of China’s Green Low-carbon Settlement, are introduced, and the only follow-up development case of Shanghai World Expo best practice region wining LEED-ND platinum in North America, as well as the first Manchester Media City Project in England wining BREEAM-Communities authentication is analyzed, so as to improve the basic guide rules for the ecological design of informal public space in high-density city. Based on the above research, the specific ecological design philosophy of informal public space is discussed in the fifth part. At first, the ecological design thought is proposed for the informal public space in Shanghai. Secondly, corresponding design strategies of informal public space are proposed from three perspectives, namely ‘surface, line and point’. Thirdly, innovative ecological technologies applicable for the outdoor public space are summarized, and scientific space maintenance and management methods are brought out. Eventually, the informal public space in the shanty town of Shanghai is taken as the research object, for verifying the ecological design strategies through reformation design and data simulation, and summarization and expectation of the sustainable development prospect of informal public space is conducted.