Urban configuration, human density and healthy city planning: History, new knowledge and what we do with it

Abstract:

In this talk, Professor Webster will reflect on the historical shared roots of public health and urban planning, which emerged in crowded un-planned cities of the industrial revolution, and go on to present some of his and his colleagues’ published work on urban density. He will point to the variety of methods used, and reflect on how the new science of healthy urban design is being used in practice. 

Biography:

Chris Webster is Professor of Urban Planning and Development Economics, and on the leadership team of the Urban Systems Institute, the University of Hong Kong (HKU). He was Dean of HKU’s Faculty of Architecture (FoA) for 11 years, where he spent much of his efforts building up its inter- and crossdisciplinary research agenda. With Professor Chinmoy Sarkar (Department of Urban Planning and Design) and the then Dean Gabriel Leung (HKMed), he initiated the Healthy High Density Cities research lab as a collaboration between HKU FoA, HKU Faculty of Medicine, and Oxford University Department of Psychiatry.