With the trend of cross-domain, high-frequency and quality of residents’ living behaviours, the living space gradually breaks through the single city boundary and forms a multi-scale and multi-level regional network. In this paper, we clarify the connotation of regional living space, identify the evolutionary trends of spatial expansion, pattern reconfiguration and value leap of regional living behaviours, and then integrate spatio-temporal behaviours and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory to construct a three-dimensional model of regional living space with the three dimensions of ‘time frequency-activity area-need hierarchy’. Taking the Great Shanghai Metropolitan as an example, we analyse the spatial scale differences driven by individual needs and the spatial organisation characteristics of the ‘hierarchy-flow’ combination, with a view to shedding light on the characteristics of living space and planning responses in the metropolitan area.