Center for Asian Urbanism. The College of Built Environments at the University of Washington recently established a new Center for Asian Urbanism. Co-founded by network members including Dan Abramson and Jeff Hou, the Center

BEOutThere! courses in the Faculty of Built Environment at UNSW/Sydney are interdisciplinary studio-format electives. In 2012, we have undertaken two key projects. The first involved working with tenants of the Northcott Public Housing Estate in Sydney to design proposals for renovating their community centre. Students also analysed public use of pathways through the estate in order to better define the landscape interfaces with the neighborhood. The second project has focused on school gardens with three primary schools (K-6): Crown Street Public School, in inner city Sydney, and two schools located in the far west of NSW at Ungarrie and Tulligibigeal,. Because we couldn’t visit these schools, consultations have occurred via teleconferencing facilities at Crown Street . This has been challenging, however, the students out west are very familiar with this means of engaging in their learning—it’s often the only means for them to connect with required courses. Other contrasts between the schools have enlightened our students to major urban-rural differences: Crown Street is ‘land-poor’ but well supported by parent and community groups, while the remote schools have acres of land—they keep sheep and chickens and have planted an orchard!—and supportive teachers, but are in low socio-economic areas and rely less on parent and community support. -- Linda Corkery

Personal Notes

Yuko Hamasaki (Kurume University) has been engaged in practical activities to develop a well-being community through cooperation of university and neighborhing community. A NPO reused a former community center and a grove surrounding the village shrine called "Chinjyu-no-Mori" as the hub for the community. Another project in Fukuoka is establishing collective housing as a care home for old people with dementia. This project is also being carried out through a participatory design process.

Photo by Chengyu Lien

John Liu received the 2012 Taipei Culture Award from the City of Taipei for his contribution toward preserving the cultural heritage and everyday places of minority and disadvantaged people in the city through projects including the Treasure Hill Village, Wen-zhou Street Neighborhood Park, Wisteria Tea House, and Jizhou-An Culturla Center. John continues to lead the Building and Planning Research Foundation that has been working continuously on the restoration of coastal wetlands for the black-faced spoonbills, flood mitigation and community development. In long-term collaboration with Randy Hester and SAVE International, the foundation has been successful in raising and stablizing the spoonbill population. This year, many spoonbill did not leave, and many have arrived early. As Randy says, maybe the birds like us so much they won't leave at all.

Jeff Hou received the 2012 Places Book Award from the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) for his edited book Insurgent Public Space: Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities (Routledge 2010). In May, he received the Community Builder Award from the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority for his collaborative work in the district over the past decade.

Liao Kuei-Hsien recently obtained her Ph.D.degree in Built Environment from the University of Washington in June 2012. Her dissertation is titled: The Dynamics and Resilience of River Cities as Coupled Human-Natural Systems. She has joined the Department of Architecture at National University of Singapore as assistant professor in July 2012. Her paper "A Theory on Urban Resilience to Floods: The Basis for Alternative Planning Practices is recently accepted by the journal Ecology and Society. In Singapore, she will continue to focus her research on how to design with environmental dynamics

Vera Zambonelli worked with eleven teenage girls, age 13-17, to create an inspiring learning environment. The girls primarily acquired knowledge about film, its power and its craft, but also the time management, communications and interpersonal skills needed to carry on collaborative projects. Click here for more info and pics.

Recent Publications

Corkery, L. and Quinlan, A. 2011, Toward a Scholarship of Engagement: A model from Australia, in Agnotti, R., Doble, C. and Horrigan, P. 2011, Service Learning in Design and Planning: Educating at the Boundaries, New Village Press, Oakland, California, pp. 253-271.

Hou, Jeffrey. 2012. Vertical Urbanism, Horizontal Urbanity: Notes from East Asian Cities. In Bharn, Vinayak (ed.), The Emerging Asian City: Concomitant Urbanities and Urbanisms. London and New York: Routledge.

Hou, Jeffrey. 2012. Makign Public, Beyond Public Space. In Shiffman, Ron, Rick Bell, Lance J. Brown, and Lynne Elizabeth (eds.), Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space. Berkeley, CA: New Village Press.

Umemoto, Karen and Vera Zambonelli, 2012. Cultural Diversity. In Rachel Weber and Randall Crane, Oxford Handbook of Urban Planning. New York: Oxford University Press.