Abstract
Health has been considered as the pulse of the New Urban Agenda, while innovation districts have been acknowledged as the driving force of new economies. The health issues of innovation districts should be paid more attention to not only because both their irreplaceable roles in urban developments, but also because the residents of innovation districts i.e. knowledge workers tend to have sub-health conditions more easily, which could be turned around by improving urban amenities. The provision of urban public amenities, which include health and welfare services as well as sports and culture facilities, is closely related to the health of all knowledge workers. While more access to health and welfare services is essential for maintaining good health and ensuring health equity, sports and culture facilities could help improving sub-health conditions or mental health. Although studies have been conducted on the linkages between urban health and built environments, few focus on the planning of urban public amenities in innovation districts towards urban health. This paper focuses on how to integrate urban health into planning urban public amenities in innovation districts by the case study of the Optical Valley, namely the East Lake Independent Innovation Zone in Wuhan, China. By literature reviews and investigation of knowledge workers, the paper establishes a framework of providing urban public amenities in innovation districts in terms of planning indexes, systems and layouts. First, the standard of planning indexes for urban public amenities has all been customized to the age distribution and specific requirements of knowledge workers. Then, the system of urban public amenities is suggested to be simplified only including urban and community levels, adjusting to the life style of knowledge workers. Last but not least, the strategies of locating public amenities, commercial amenities and pocket parks together have been proposed, adapting to the behavior patterns of knowledge workers. This framework could be used as references in planning and policy making of urban public amenities in innovation districts.
