People*

Dan ABRAMSON is Associate Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington. He has been active in the PacRim Network since 2002 and organized the Network’s 2007 conference in Quanzhou, China. He has researched and practiced urban and rural community planning, design, and development for housing, historic preservation, disaster recovery, and hazard mitigation in Massachusetts and Washington States, USA; Vancouver, Canada; Fujian, Guangdong, and Sichuan provinces, China; and Kobe, Japan.

Rachel BERNEY is Assistant Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the Univesity of Washinton, Seattle. Her interests focus on sustainable development and livability at the neighborhood level.

Graeme BRISTOL is a Canadian architect and director of the Centre for Architecture and Human Rights (CAHR).  He teaches architecture in Thailand, focusing on human rights, community design and professional ethics.  He is currently writing a book on human rights in the practice of architecture and planning.

Shenglin CHANG is Professor and Director of the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University. Born in Taiwan, she has developed and implemented innovative approaches to public involvement in environmental issues through civic arts, community design participation, and social-political activism.

Wallace CHANG Ping Hung is Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong, currently a Visiting Scholar in Harvard-Yenching Institute, Harvard University.  He is both an architectural practitioner and theorist on urban design, cultural conservation and community participation. His latest research in Harvard focuses on the cultural identity issue during the urban transformation process in southern Chinese cities and the Pearl River Delta region.

Caroline CHEN received her PhD in Environmental Planning and Master of Public Health from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research examines how seniors spontaneously improvise group dancing - such as yangge, hiphop and disco - in interstitial spaces in order to achieve health, happiness and active aging in contemporary Beijing. She holds a BA in Art Practice and German, and a MLA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Rex CURRY has twenty years of experience in the urban planning and community development field.  He specializes in community-based planning, neighborhood market analysis, and historic preservation. He also consults on the planning and development of community design centers in universities and economically distressed communities. As the former President of the national Association for Community Design, Inc. (ACD), he furthered its development in representing a combination of advocacy planning and architectural practices in the United States. 

Yeong-tyi Timothy DAY is Associate Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture, at Chun Yuan Christian University. His researches apply Cultural Ecology to spatial studies in a broad scale such as national land planning, site planning, and permaculture. Now he is studying how to use Ethnographical field method to uncover the local knowledge, which should become permaculture design foundation for certain community in remote area.

Christian DIMMER earned his PhD in Urban Engineering from the University of Tokyo. As a JSPS post-doctoral fellow he researched on the ‘politics of public space’ at the Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies of the University of Tokyo. As urban design consultant he has collaborated with architectural firms such as Arata Isozaki & Associates, and property developers like Mitsubishi Estate Inc. He is co-founder of the Tokyo chapter of the design-led charitable disaster response organisation, Architecture For Humanity and teaches courses on sustainable urbanism, public space, mega-cities and planning theory at Waseda University and works as research associate at the University of Tokyo.

Mark FRANCIS is a landscape architect, community designer, and Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis.

Taichi GOTO is Principal of Fukuoka Urban Laboratory LLC. His practice focuses on urban management, public private partnership, community business and Internet GIS application. Having moved to Fukuoka in August 2003, he has been leading Fukuoka City Center Plan development in collaboration with citizens, government, local businesses and a variety of professionals.

Mayumi HAYASHI is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at University of Hyogo in Japan.  She also belongs to Awaji Landscape and Planning Horticulture Academy. Her research and practice focuses on community design, educational program, activism, and the history and cultural background.  Her most recent projects include a town management in the city of Awajisima, park management in Awaji Isand, and educational programming for mature people.

Yasuyoshi HAYASHI is a planner, founded consulting firm in Tokyo in 1969. Now he is a director of a community-based NPO he established with residents in neighborhood where he lives. His research and practice focuses on community development, participatory planning and related law system and social system of the National and local governments. He has worked for promoting non-profit sector in Japan and at the same time he is supporting the various activities of non-profit groups working for community development and revitalization.

Randolph T. HESTER is a founder of the participatory design movement in landscape architecture.  He is Professor Emeritus of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California Berkeley, and a partner in the firm Community Development by Design.  He is an award-winning landscape architect, acclaimed for his designs in complex environments, from wetlands to chaparral canyons, from small towns to central cities and economically depressed communities.  

Margarita HILL is Professor of Landscape Architecture at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.  She has taught community planning and design for over 15 years in Maryland, Seattle, California and as visiting lecturer in Israel, Uruguay, Costa Rica and Spain. Her research program attempts to assist grassroots development practices that protect the environment and make wise use of resources while supporting the ability of stakeholders to mobilize and focus their resources on local problem solving efforts.  Her more recent efforts include the support of community revitalization efforts in the Gateway Communities of Prince George's County through design, planning and research.  She is currently conducting research on the Best Practices for Sustainable Development Program of the United Nations.  

Jeff HOU is Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture at University of Washington in Seattle.  His research and practice focuses on community design, cultural landscape, environmental activism, and social and ecological hybridity in landscape.  He has worked with indigenous communities, fishing villages, and rural townships in Taiwan, as well as inner-city youths and ethnic communities in the United States. Through the Pacific Rim network, he has developed projects that focus on cross-cultural collaboration and comparison of participatory practices.

Liling HUANG is Associate Professor of the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning at National Taiwan University.  Her research and practice focuses on community design, activism and urban policy. After finished recently a research of generally reviewing the participation of community planning in Taipei in the past decades. Now she is conducting a research on how historical preservation play the role in urban regeneration in Taipei city.

Antonio ISHMAEL is a community development practitioner.  Graduated from Berkeley and MIT, Antonio has extensive experiences in slum improvement, urban development, and poverty alleviation projects in neighborhoods in various cities and villages in Indonesia, Mexico, and the United States.  The projects were all based on a “stakeholder participatory planning” approach, or "co –development.”  Antonio received the UNDP's Best Practices and the Aga Khan Award for two of his projects.

Kyung A KANG is a PhD student in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Seoul National University. His interests focus on sustainable development.

Min Jay KANG is Associate Professor at the Graduate Institure of Building and Planning, Natinal Taiwan University. His research and practice focuses on dialectics in cultural landscape, creative sustainability, identity politics and 'artivism,' representation of landscape in arts and literature, urban design, and landscape narratives. His most recent projects include a comprehensive survey and planning for Taipei's cultural landscape, interpretation and construction of landscape narratives for a waterfront settlement, and action planning for the Treasure Hill squatters in Taipei's Gong Guan district.  

Shu Jen KAO worked with the NTU Building & Planiing Research Foundation in Taiwan for many years. He has been living in Beijing for more than 3 years, observing some interesting participatory community events there.

Sean KEITHLY is an urban planner focused on community-based land use planning and development, economic development, and sustainability strategy. His planning career began as an intern for the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements (KRIHS) in Seoul. After receiving his Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Washington, he worked as a consultant for KRIHS and the Urban Land Institute. He is currently an urban planner at CollinsWoerman, a Seattle-based Architecture and Planning firm.

Mintai KIM is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Virginia Tech. His current teaching and research interest include Feng Shui as a tool of site planning, environmental planning, quantitative methods and international landscape architecture focusing on megacities of the third world. Through his megacity project, he promotes exchange of knowledge between the first world and the third world scholars of megacities. (megacitysite.com)  

Isami KINOSHITA is Professor of Landscape Architecture at Chiba University, Japan.  His research and practice focus on community design, children’s participation, urban open space design and legal planning system. He and his colleagues were the first in Japan to develop three-generation maps as a community design method by interviewing three generations of people who grew up in one community.  He is active in many projects in different areas, including the neighborhood where he lives and the project of the Web-based collaborative design studio with UW was practiced recently.  

Yekang KO is a PhD Candidate in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at University of California, Berkeley. Since 2008, Yekang has been working on developing ecological land use plans and eco-tourism strategies for Ganghwa Island and Songdo International City in South Korea. She also investigated the potential environmental and social impact of Incheon's large-scale tidal power plants on endangered birds' habitats and local communities. Her works are based on environmental science, planning, design, policy, and active collaboration with local NGOs and residents. Yekang has taught about these projects in the Environmental Planning Studio at UC Berkeley from 2009 to 2011 with Randy Hester and Marcia McNally.

I-Chun KUO worked in pristine taiwan countryside government constructing eco-tunnels for crabs and doing rail-to-trail projects for 4 years, after receiving bachelor of horticultural science in Taiwan University and master of landscape architecture from U. C. Berkeley. She is now studying again, diving into biblical theology, trying to know more about God, people and the environment-their origins, values, interaction; tension forming resilience between time and space, culture and nature, the Godly and worldly. She believes that environmentalists and missionaries are kindred.

Naomichi KURATA is Professor of Urban Design at Kogakuin University and an urban designer who runs an urban planning and design firm, Studio Urban House in Tokyo. His research and practice focuses on urban design methodology, planning and design of public spaces, sustainable community and downtown revitalization, His most recent projects include planning and design of station plazas and streets in Moriya City, Komatsu City, Saitama City and Shimada City, downtown revitalization of Jiyugaoka, Chino City, and Sapporo City, International Urban Design and Planning Workshop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and (English-Japanese) Dictionary of Urban Planning for International Professionals.  

Michael K. C. LAI is the Chief Executive Officer of St. James' Settlement (a welfare, education and urban renewal NGO in Hong Kong). Educated in Hong Kong with a social sciences background, Michael has worked in the welfare field for over 30 years and sat on a number of important government advisory committee in welfare and urban Planning. He is currently a Board member of the Urban Renewal Authority, HK and since 1999 a member of the Town Planning Board. His organization is a strong advocate in community planning and it co-organized the last Conference in Hong Kong in 2002.　

Laura LAWSON is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Rutgers University.  She served on the executive committee of the East St. Louis Action Research Project (ESLARP), which engages students and faculty in interdisciplinary, service-learning projects with neighborhood groups in East St. Louis, Illinois.  Her teaching and research interests include community design, urban environmental-design history and practice, environmental justice, and participatory design and planning.  Her book, City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America, will be published by the University of California Press in 2005.  

Kuei-Hsien LIAO is a doctoral candidate in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, at University of Washington. She received her Master in Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003 and a BA in Economic from National Taiwan University. Her interests include sustainability landscape design and planning, urban design, design theory, and historic preservation.  

John K.C. LIU is an architect practicing participatory community design in Taiwan at the National Taiwan University Building and Planning Research Foundation.  He is also a professor at the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning at NTU.  His interests are cross-cultural issues in design, methods of collaboration in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural settings, and community participation.  Currently he is on leave from NTU and is teaching at the Tsinghua Univeristy in Beijing.  

Marcia J. McNALLY is Associate Adjunct Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and a partner in the firm Community Development by Design.  Her work centers on three issues: what actions can participants take to achieve sustainable outcomes; what are the tools to enable citizens to make informed decisions; and what characteristics of community design work are shared across the Pacific Rim.   

Shuichi MURAKAMI is Instructor of Landscape Architecture at Kyoto University.  His research focuses on landscape design. As a member of Kyoto University team, he has been working on a 250 years old weir of the Yoshino River at Shikoku, Japan since 2002, trying to find out its attractiveness as waterfront space as well as its significance in the region through observing how people act on and around the weir.  

Sawako ONO is Professor of Landscape Architecture at Chiba University.   Her research focuses on history of garden and open spaces.  Her most recent projects include a study of natural environment re-creation and effective use of abandoned coastal industrial site.  In this project she took part of historical study of seashore as sacred place that affected Japanese culture in many ways.  

Sohyun PARK is Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. Her research interests include preservation planning, community and street design, walkable neighborhoods, as well as downtown revitalization. She and her students are currently working on the refinement of participatory processes and design tools in neighborhood plan makings and on the development of neighborhood walkability measures. The projects recently conducted by her lab include a neighborhood pocket park in Sungsan-dong, Seoul; development of family-friendly neighborhood concepts and measuring elements; and preliminary review of neighborhood characteristics reflecting walkability in Seoul's old residential areas. She used to teach at the University of Colorado's College of Architecture and Planning, before she joined the Seoul National University. 

Michael RIOS is Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at University of California, Davis. His research focuses on citizen participation in the public sphere, governance and institutions, and community design pedagogy. Current collaborations include the US/Brazil Consortium on Sustainable Urban Design and Rebuilding After Katrina Using Local Resources.

Kin Wai Michael SIU is a registered professional engineer and chartered designer. He is also an associate professor of the School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research and design practice focuses on public space, public sphere, street furniture and public facilities, and user experience. He is now affiliated with the National University of Singapore to conduct his research on public space and human behaviour. His most recent research and design projects are "Street Furniture for Pedestrian Precincts in Hong Kong” and “The Reception of Public Spaces in Asian Cities”.

Takayoshi YAMAMURA is a Lecturer of Heritage Tourism Planning & Management at Kyoto Saga University of Arts, Japan. He is also a Joint researcher of Heritage Tourism at The National Museum of Ethnology, Japan. His study major is regional development and tourism policy making of Japan and China.  

Ching-fen YANG is a PhD student at Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University.  She was a planner at Building and Planning Research Foundation for several years and has practiced for variety of projects in different scales.  Currently her major interests focus on the collaboration between school and community; participatory design for school campus; and environmental education.

Perry YANG is Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture at Georgia Tech. Perry's current research focuses on ecologically sustainable city, urban simulation and 3D GIS. Through studio work, field survey and consultant work, he is also interested in the radical transformation of cities in East Asian and South East Asia. Recent works include downtown urban design at Singapore's Clemenceau Corridor, industrial redevelopment of Singapore's Kallang Basin and the master plan of new city center at the city of Pekanbaru, Capital of Riau Province of Indonesia.  

Tianxin ZHANG is Associate Professor in Department of Urban & Regional Planning, College of Environmental Sciences, Peking University. His research focuses on urban design, landscape planning and national park planning. His recent works includes researches on waterfront landscape, waterfront neighborhood land use, and conservation of cultural landscape. Some of the projects he is currently involved include a detailed plan for a little town and a master plan for a national park. He teaches Urban Design in Peking University.  

Kyung-Jin ZOH was born in Seoul, studied landscape architecture at Seoul National University and completed his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning at the University of Pennsylvania, Graduate School of Fine Art. He was a former professor of the University of Seoul between 1996 and 2007. He is now a chairperson at the department of landscape architecture in Graduate School of Environment Studies, Seoul National University. He has edited many books on contemporary landscape in Korea. He has also participated in several public landscape projects. He won the design competition for Seoul Forest Park with Dongsimwon Landscape Design.

* Not a complete list.