As the basic unit of political governance in China, communities face the need for renewal and remodeling with social and economic development.This paper is oriented to teaching problems, analyzing the various cognitive dilemmas students face in urban community renewal design, and establishing the structure of community spatial analysis. The course is a 16-week thematic design course for a community in Chengdu city, which combines the teaching needs of architecture majors. During the teaching process, students were confused by the challenges of large-scale design, the ambiguity of community concepts, and the sorting out of group spatial order. Based on the problem-oriented approach, students were guided to establish the structural cognition of “space-society”, propose feasible strategies of “place-time”, and construct “role-relationship” through data investigation and oral interviews. Based on the problem-oriented approach, students will be guided to establish the structural cognition of “space-society” through data investigation and oral interviews, and propose feasible strategies of “place-time”.