The evolution of urban innovation space and its spatial relationships with talents’ living demands: evidence from Hangzhou, China

Urban innovation space functions not only as physical carriers for innovative activities but also as coordinating entities for balancing innovation production and talents’ living demands in the city. However, existing studies pay inadequate attention to the demand side of high-skilled talents who build urban innovation space. This paper, therefore, focuses on the evolution of urban innovation space and its spatial relationships with supporting factors (i.e. high-tech enterprises, intellectual carriers, public transportation, commercial facilities) satisfying talents’ living demands in Hangzhou, China. It is found that the urban innovation space in Hangzhou has evolved from a monocentric pattern towards a polycentric one, which is coined as ‘one main core, three sub-cores and six groups’. The spatial agglomerations of high-tech enterprises reflect the recent expansion trends of urban innovation space. The intellectual carriers have intensified a high-level spatial agglomeration of innovation in central and peripheral urban areas. Transportation conditions operate to enhance the agglomeration and selective dissemination of urban innovation space along key traffic corridors. Urban innovation space is primarily located within the service scope of business and commercial facilities. In short, the four supporting factors spatially match well with the urban innovation space in Hangzhou at present, which contributes to sustainable innovation and people-oriented urban development.