ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Antonio ISMAEL RISANTO, Indonesia
Antonio Ismael Risianto is the founder of TRIACO & Associates, one of the most well known planning and architecture firms in Indonesia whose work focuses on redevelopment planning and design for the poor and by the poor. With offices in Bali and Jakarta, TRIACO has, for the past thirty years, been actively involved in numerous participatory community planning and design efforts in poverty alleviation and environmental improvement. As a professional practice, TRIACO has managed to balance private commissions and real estate ventures with the work on community participation. Faced with harsh realities of local politics and the extreme inequities of income and private land ownership, the challenges of an activist approach on behalf of the poor and powerless have been monumental. Antonio has confronted these challenges and has developed exemplary projects which have earned him awards and accolades including the 1989 Aga Khan Award.
Chawanad LUANSANG, Thailand
Co-founder Openspace base in Thailand
Coordinator of CAN, Community Architects Network in Asia
He has been working with urban and rural poor communities in Thailand and in Asian countries for 15 years and keeps experimenting and searching for the process which can uncover people’s potential to co-create for their own communities and their own cities. HIs background is an architect and he is much inspired from his practice and collaboration with multi-disciplinary group of people that becomes his new emerging role to facilitate CAN network as a platform for professionals and grassroots network in Asian countries to bring together their knowledge, practice and re-create it through working together in real projects in different context in Asia. Now with CAN and his personal practice, they are trying to explore the co-creation process to transform the cities in Asia. He was selected as Asoka fellow in 2008 by the Asoka Foundation and received the Architects of the Future award from Vienna, Austria in 2010.
CHEN Yuchen 陳育貞, Taiwan
Chief of Yilan office, National Taiwan University, Building & Planning Research Foundation
She conducts the Community Planner Training program in Yilan county and is currently Adjunct Associate Professor in the National Taiwan University Graduate Institute of Building & Planning and also past executive director of the Foundation. She has spent 25 years immersed in the County of Yilan doing both very large scale as well as very local small projects, ranging from architecture to landscape projects, all using various methods and approaches of participation.
JEONG Seok, Professor, Department of Urban Planning and Design, College of Urban Science, University of Seoul, South Korea
He is Professor of Urban Planning and Design at the University of Seoul. Before joining UOS in 2014, Professor Jeong served as Senior Researcher at Seoul Development Institute for 13 years and taught urban design at Kyungwon University for 7 years. He received an BE in Urban Engineering, ME and Ph.D in urban design from Seoul National University. Professor Jeong’s current research interests focus on urban design, with a particular emphasis on participatory community design and the conservation and regeneration of historic districts. He has published on several topics including: conservation and management system of Seoul City Wall, conservation policies and guidelines for Bukchon and Insadong historic districts, case studies on the conservation policies in Chinese historic cities including Beijing and Nanjing, developing manuals for participatory community design, etc.
CHO Im Sik, Assistant Professor
Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore
She is an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture, School of Design and Environment, at the National University of Singapore where she serves as the leader for urban studies research and teaching and as principal investigator for many research projects, related to urban space planning for sustainable high-density environments and design for social sustainability involving community-based, participatory approaches. Her research interests address the challenges and opportunities that Asian cities face with accelerating social change, especially in the context of neighbourhood planning, focusing on the social dimension of sustainable development. Her recent publications as lead author include Re-framing Urban Space: Urban Design for Emerging Hybrid and High-Density Conditions (Routledge, 2016), Community-based Urban Development: Evolving Urban Paradigms in Singapore and Seoul (Springer, 2017), and Changing approaches to community participation for social sustainability: Neighbourhood planning in Singapore and Seoul in Caprotti and Yu (eds), Sustainable Cities in Asia (Routledge, forthcoming).
HO Puay Peng, Professor
Head of Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore
He was former Director of the Centre for Architectural Heritage Research (CAHR) in academic and research work including conservation and consultancy services for historic buildings in Hong Kong. Some projects have received awards from professional bodies, such as Hong Kong Institute of Planners. He also directed the MSc programme in Architectural Conservation and Design and worked with faculty and students of various universities in China for the conservation and adaptive reuse of historic structures.
Mizah RAHMAN, Director & Co-founder of Participate In Design (P!D), Singapore
P!D is a registered non-profit organisation that helps neighbourhoods and public institutions in Singapore design community-owned spaces and solutions using participatory methods.
Mizah is a designer and community organiser who is a strong advocate for a participatory and community-centric approach in the design and planning of cities and neighbourhoods. She is currently an Associate Lecturer at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, School of Design and Environment, and was previously a researcher at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities. Since the thesis for her Masters of Architecture at the National University of Singapore, Mizah’s portfolio of participatory-based works has expanded to include neighbourhood planning, public space design, and community art installations; working in partnership with grassroots organisations, educational institutions, civic groups and government agencies.
ABOUT THE MODERATORS
John KC LIU, Distinguished Visiting Professor
Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore
He is a Professor in the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University, since 1999, Principal of John K.C. Liu Architects and Chairman of the Board, Former Chief Executive Officer of Building and Planning Research Foundation. His interests are in cross-cultural issues in design, methods of collaboration in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural settings, and community participation. In his four decades of work, he has completed many large and small scale projects with community participation in different countries. He has completed many large & small scale projects with community participation. He is currently visiting professor at the Department of Architecture, School of Design and Environment of the National University of Singapore.
Dr. TAN Beng Kiang
Leader Community & Housing Design Section
Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore
As leader of the Community & Housing Design Section in the Department of Architecture, NUS and a strong advocate of participatory community design, Dr. Tan Beng Kiang has led many Design Studios involving user-centric and community engagement design approach for projects in Singapore, Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia such as the Rail Ideas: Vision for the Rail Corridor, Vision for a 21st Century Macpherson, Reimagining Tampines Blueprint (in collaboration with Centre for Liveable Cities & Gehl Architects), Elderly friendly Neighbourhood in Bukit Merah View, Enchanted Farm – A Social Enterprise Campus in Philippines and Smile Village in Cambodia. She has also supervised students in overseas Design & Build projects involving stakeholders’ participation. Her research interests are in the process and application of participatory community design to empower communities; service learning applied through design; designing for social and environmental sustainability in high density environment.