The development of big data, artificial intelligence, mobile network, cloud computing and other new technologies is triggering a new round of technological revolution in the world. The development of intelligent technology has not only become the innovative driving force of national economic and social development, but also has a profound impact on the operation and development of cities. In this context, smart cities are developing in all areas of the city at a faster rate than we thought. For example, smart transportation, smart energy, smart communication, smart governance, smart medical and so on involve almost all aspects of urban operation. The application of these intelligent technologies has had a great impact on urban life. So, what impact will it have on the future urban spatial pattern, what opportunities and challenges will it bring to urban design, or, on the other hand, what we can do in the fi eld of urban design by using intelligent technology, which is worthy of our further consideration. Because the concept of smart city has various statements in various contexts, there is no precise definition. This paper analyzes the frontier research in the fi eld of smart city broadly across the world, and combs the relevant definitions of smart city in the existing research literature, in which the six dimensions proposed by Rudolf Giffinger who is the professor of Technical University of Viennaare widely recognized by the academic community, namely: smart economy, smart governance, smart environment, smart people, smart mobility, smart living. These six dimensions also lay the basic framework for smart cities. Through extensive interdisciplinary literature review, this paper expounds the relevant components of smart city technology and its research progress. Generally speaking, there are many researches on all aspects of the components of smart citie, but relatively scattered and regardless of size. It is mainly based on the overall concept, system framework and technical means, and there is little discussion on the relationship between smart city technology and urban space form. This paper then points out the current research tendency of smart sustainable city from a large number of literature, and illustrates it with four cases of smart city new projects. On this basis, this paper reveals the influence and potential opportunities of smart city technology on all aspects of the city, and puts forward the new topics and research directions that will be faced by urban design in the context of utilization of intelligent technology in the future.