Authors - The City at Eye Level

The City at Eye Level was written together with 200+ contributors all over the globe and the still growing. Scroll down to meet the authors and click on the link to get in touch with them.

Design Director and Co-Founder, West8

Adriaan Geuze is one of the founders and partner of West 8 urban design & landscape architecture in Rotterdam, a leading urban design practice that has won various international competitions. Amongst numerous design awards, Geuze and West 8 recently received the prestigious American Society of Landscape Architecture Honor Award 2009 and the Lifetime Achievement Award 2011 from the BKVB. Internationally respected as a professor in Architecture and Urban Design, he frequently lectures and teaches at universities worldwide. www.west8.nl

Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the University of Tokyo

Akito Murayama is Associate Professor of Urban Planning at the Department of Urban Engineering, School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo. After graduating from the same course in 2004, he worked as a Project Researcher at the Center for Sustainable Urban Regeneration at the University of Tokyo. From October 2006 to March 2014, he worked as an Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University. In addition to research and education, he also participates in municipal urban planning and a low-carbon community development project in the Nishiki 2 District, Nagoya.

CEO of Spacescape

Alexander Ståhle is the CEO of Spacescape, an urban research and design studio based in Stockholm, Sweden. He holds a PhD in urban design at the School of Architecture in the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. At Spacescape he conducts analyses on housing and office markets, walkability and urban development potential in Scandinavian cities. He lives in central Stockholm with two kids and no car. www.spacescape.se.

Assistant Project Manager at UN-Habitat

Amira Badran is an architect, urban Planner and placemaker and is Assistant Project Manager for UN-Habitat.

Partner at Abraham John Architects

Anca Abraham is a Partner at Abraham John Architects. Originally from Romania, she has made Mumbai her home since 2005. She is one of the lead designers of The Bombay Greenway Project, a series of urban planning proposals for a city for people, where open spaces, connectivity and alternative modes of transport are the key to thriving communities. She chooses to give back to the city through design and participation in several social initiatives.

Member of Konsorsium Kota Tua Jakarta

Angeline Basuki is a member of Konsorsium Kota Tua Jakarta. The consortium aims for reviving the present for the future of Jakarta Old Town. The Konsorsium does this through restoration, venue, event & heritage management.

Landscape architect at Bureau B+B, Amsterdam

Anna Fink is a socially engaged designer. She looks for the identity of a place to express its multiple atmospheres of culture and nature through design. After studying landscape architecture at the University of Life Sciences in Vienna she completed her masters at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam. Recently Anna published the book ‘Landscape as House’ illustrating a new form of engaged living in a village in the Alps. Contact: anna.fink@bplusb.nl

PhD candidate from the University of Salzburg

Anna Kovács-Györi is a PhD candidate from the University of Salzburg, working at the Department of Geoinformatics - Z_GIS. The research interest of Anna lies in understanding how urban form and functions along with various socio-economic factors define and affect the livability of a place. Contact: anna.gyori@sbg.ac.at

Associate Director, Urban Design at AECOM

Anna is an urban designer with 15 years’ experience in urban design, strategic planning and master planning for a diverse range of projects around the world. Most recently, her work has addressed the challenges facing Sydney as a rapidly growing city through a manifesto to make Sydney brilliant at 8 million people: https://www.aecom.com/au/brilliantcityinsights/sydney-manifesto/ Contact: anna.robinson@aecom.com

Senior policy officer, spatial planning and project manager of the 21st-century inner city strategy for the Municipality of Tilburg

Programme manager for the Municipality of Tilburg

Anouk Thijssen is Programme manager of the Spoorzone for the Municipality of Tilburg.

Founder and Artistic Director of G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture

Anuradha Parikh is the Founder and Artistic Director of G5A Foundation for Contemporary Culture. Next to G5A, she is Founder Director of Chapter 24 Consulting Private Limited, Co-Founder Director at Tropicfilm Private Limited, principal at Matrix Architecture (design studio) and an active figure the field of architecture, film and culture.

Planner & Operations Manager at TQ

Arik C. Day is a spatial planner and writer-editor based in Amsterdam. Originally from Toronto, Canada, he has contributed editorial work to The Class of 2020 and Sustainable Amsterdam, and has helped build TQ, a the tech startup space and community, from the ground up. With a background in planning, arts & cultural management and real estate, he is passionate about cities, spaces, innovation, and culture. He graduated with an MSc in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Amsterdam in 2016.

Architect researcher at Van Schagen architekten

Arjan Gooijer studied architecture at Delft University of Technology. Since 1998 he has been working at Van Schagen Architekten as a project architect of a number of larger projects, from design to realisation. Arjan is also a researcher involved in studies and publications. www.vanschagenarchitecten.com.

Project manager at the Municipality of Amsterdam

Arwen Schram is Project manager of the Sloterdijk area development team at the Municipality of Amsterdam.

Founder of NEXT architects

Bart Reuser is the founder of NEXT architects, an international agency with offices in Amsterdam and Beijing, China. In addition to architectural projects, he works on various research-oriented projects, including Seoulutions, which relates to urban development transformations. In 2010-2011, he was a visiting professor at the University of Seoul, Korea.

Project manager for the Municipality of Doetinchem

Bart Teunissen is Project manager for the inner city of the Municipality of Doetinchem.

Neighborhood manager for the Municipality of The Hague

Bastiaan de Jong is neighborhood manager in the Mariahoeve for the Municipality of The Hague

Independent strategic media consultant

Ben Ruse has been the Director of Media & PR for HS1 Ltd since 2007. HS1 Ltd own and operate the UK’s first and only high speed railway, High Speed 1, as well as St Pancras International and other international railway stations.

Social Work Supervisor of Caritas Mok Cheung Sui Kun Community Centre

Benjamin Sin obtained his Master of Social Work degree from the University of Hong Kong in 2002 and joined Caritas Hong Kong, becoming the Social Work Supervisor of Caritas Mok Cheung Sui Kun Community Centre. In his work, he practices Assetbased Community Development approaches, and promotes poverty alleviation, community resilience, authentic craftsmanship, and social innovation.

Founder of Berry Kessels

Berry Kessels was the housing manager at housing corporation Volkshuisvesting Arnhem, The Netherlands. He is a district developer responsible for the development of the fashion quarter Klarendal.

Director Business management for the Vereniging Verenigd Schouwburgplein

Bert Determann is director Business management for the Vereniging Verenigd Schouwburgplein

Programme manager at Via Breda

Chairwoman for Era Contour

Bianca Seekles is chairwoman for Era Contour.

Professor at the Department of Architecture at Delft University of Technology

Birgit Jürgenhake is an architect, researcher in architecture and residential housing, and co-founders of startruimte010, an incubator for starting talents in spatial design in Rotterdam. She now is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture at Delft University of Technology, where she works on her PhD on the façades of residential housing and its social filter. www.startruimte010.nl

Manager at Omgeving & Beleving

Camilla Meijer studied Applied Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, including specialized coursework environmental psychology and technology at the Technical University of Eindhoven and completed an internship at the department of environmental psychology at the City University of New York. Her work focuses on the unique interaction between humans, their behaviour and well-being, and the built environment.

Team member of the Sponge City Programme

Camille Fong is part of the Delft University of Technology team, involved in the Sponge City Programme. For the programme Camille is focusing on water management.

Urban Safety Expert, UN-Habitat

Cecilia Andersson, an urban and regional planner, is currently the Manager of the Global Public Space Programme of UN-Habitat which supports cities in developing public space and city-wide strategies/policies that ensure safe, socially inclusive, and accessible urban public space. Prior, she worked with the Safer Cities Programme of UN-Habitat, providing technical support and developing prevention strategies to cities in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe.

Urban sociologist & advisor at STIPO

Charlot Schans is an urban sociologist and anthropologist by training. She is fascinated by processes that enhance collaborative city-making, cross-cutting barriers between disciplinary silos and public and private domains. As advisor at STIPO she translates this vision into long term projects in the field of area and real estate development, placemaking and urban regeneration, co-creating better cities and places with innovative partners and professional friends. Charlot is co-director of Placemaking Europe, project leader for Placemaking Week Europe, co-editor of The City at Eye Level Asia and start-up team member for PlacemakingX, the global network to accelerate the impact of placemaking.

Founder of Johor Green

Chris Parry is the founder of Johor Green, a platform focusing on cultivating green urban lifestyles. Chris knew edible landscapes to be a successful ideahaving lived in New York City, but he also knew that the edible landscapes of his youth were fast disappearing. He designed and operates Medini Green Parks, a pair of urban parks in Johor which includes an Edible Park and a Heritage Forest.

Founding director of the Oval Partnership

Christopher Law is the founding director of the Oval Partnership, with offices in Hong Kong, London and China. Working across disciplines of architecture, design and planning, his projects have won numerous accolades. Chris is also a tireless advocate of progressing the urban planning profession in Hong Kong; he’s amember of many public committees and initiator of several ground-breaking heritage conservation and public space activation initiatives in the city.

Lecturer in Urban Planning at the Dublin Institute of Technology

Ciarán Cuffe is an architect, city councillor and former Minister for Planning based in Dublin, Ireland. He lectures in urban regeneration at the Dublin Institute of Technology.

Formally area manager for the Municipality of Zaanstad (now retired)

Coos Hoekstra is formally area manager for the Municipality of Zaanstad and now retired

Lead of the Placemaking practice at ThinkCity

Daniel Lim leads the Placemaking practice for ThinkCity, a Malaysia-based social-purpose organisation that aims to make cities people-friendly and resilient by being a catalyst for change in the way cities are planned, curated, developed and celebrated. He has spent the last decade pioneering programmes to conserve, restore or rejuvenate spaces through placemaking and space activation.

City planner, project manager and professor at the EU Barcelona School.

David Brito is an city planner, project manager and working on placemaking. He is from originally New York, but is currently living in Barcelona and professor, teaching 'Project Management and Environmental Sustainability' at the EU Barcelona School.

Emeritus Professor at The University of Liverpool

Since his publications in the 1970’s, notably The Psychology of Place, Psychology for Architects and Psychology and the Built Environment David Canter has continued to have an interest in the processes that shape our experience of places, and how we shape our buildings and cities. While there was a hiatus in interest in these topics for many years, over the past decade there has been a reawakening that has enabled him to engage directly again with various aspects. Get in contact: profcanter@gmail.com, www.davidcanter.com, or Twitter @ProfDavidCanter

Managing Director of Development at Lendlease Asia

David Hutton is Managing Director of Development at Lendlease Asia and Russell Dart of the Lendlease Urbanisation Practice. Lendlease is a leading internationalproperty and infrastructure group with core expertise in shaping cities and a vision “to create the best places”. Headquartered in Sydney, they operate in four regions: Australia, Europe, the Americas and Asia. Lendlease is currently undertaking 21 major urbanisation projects in nine gateway cities around the world including The Exchange TRX In Kuala Lumpur.

Urban developer and area coordinator at the Municipality of The Hague

Demet Voûte is urban developer and was area coordinator at the Municipality of The Hague. Demet is not full time traveling in Australia.

Senior transportation engineer of the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP)

Deng Han is a senior transportation engineer of the Institute for Transportation & Development Policy(ITDP) and a consultant of the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank who focuses on Non-motorised Traffic, Bike Sharing, Childfriendly City and Sustainable Transportation Policy.

Architect and planner

Dorothee Huber is a viennese architect and planner, who is prone to leave Austria in frequent intervals to pursue her personal field of interest - human centred design und planning (with a focus on the challenges of the urban Global South). Dorothee studied Architecture at the UT of Vienna and ETSAM Madrid, worked and lived in South Africa, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain, the Netherlands and, of course, Austria.

Senior principal and Academic Director of St. James’ Church Kindergarten

Dr. Jacqueline Chung is the senior principal and Academic Director of St. James’ Church Kindergarten, Singapore (SJCK). She believes that play is essential for developing children’s cognitive and social skills, as well as their creativity and imagination. Under her leadership, SJCK’s Nature Playscape and Creative Sensory Playscape have won national early childhood innovation awards.

Head of Initiative & Concept for Era Contour

Edward van Dongen is head of Initiative & Concept for Era Contour.

Team member of the Placemaking Team at Think City

Eke Omardin is part of the Placemaking Team in Think City. She is the main curator for Think City’s Space Activation programme and in charge of the Grants programme. She manages and organises projects under Citi Foundation Grants, including being part of the editorial team for A City for Everyone Shared Spaces Impact Report, Experiments in Greening the City Outcomes Report and the Turning Spaces into People Places Outcomes Report. Eke has over 15 years of experience in advertising and branding.

CEO, Research Triangle Africa

Elijah Agevi is a an urban and regional planner with over 25 years’ experience in urban development issues, and currently the advisor to the Safer Nairobi Initiative (SNI) with the Nairobi City County/UN-Habitat. Elijah has researched widely and lectured in selected Universities in Europe and in Africa for over 10 years; and is the author of “Double Standards Single Purpose” and numerous articles and papers. He is also leading expert on Governance, Decentralization and Devolution having been a member of the national committee on devolution.

Programme manager at the Zuidas

Eline is working for the project Zuidas (www.zuidas.nl) for the City of Amsterdam. Zuidas is an area in the South of Amsterdam and started as a business area and now transforming to an innovation district. High buildings and corporate business company’s. 40.000 people are working there every day and about 25.000 students go to the University VU in the area. Already 2500 houses are developed in the area. To make this place a success they are working on human scale, placemaking and connecting people. Feel free to connect. Twitter: @elineamsterdam Instagram: Elineamsterdam020

Senior researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research

Elisabeth Peyroux is a geographer at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) (UMR Prodig, Paris). She works on urban policy mobility, governance and socio-spatial transformation in South Africa. Her current research focuses on “smart urbanism” and the role of geo-technologies in governance and planning in South Africa.

Senior advisor on urban affairs for the City of Rotterdam

Emiel Arends studied Urban Planning at the Rijkshogeschool IJsselland in Deventer and Urban Design at the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and Urban Design. Since 2001, Emiel is an urban planner/designer for the municipality of Rotterdam. He has worked on several city-wide strategies and policies, which includes the latest city-centre master plan, the plinth strategy, the high-rise vision, the sustainable agenda, the parking strategy and the residential policy for the entire city.

Founder and Director of Doh Eain

Emilie Roell is the founder and director of Doh Eain, focusing on overall organisational strategy and growth. Emilie has been based in Myanmar since early 2013, working on heritage and nature conservation projects. An anthropologist by training, she is interested in social business opportunities that make use of and preserve cultural and natural capital while also creating sustainable community impact

Location marketer for Club Rhijnhuizen

Emilie Vlieger is a location marketeer and area developer. She develops areas and buildings together with entrepreneurs, residents, developers, government and colleagues. In my work I organize meetings and activities and she researches the identity of a place while doing so. The image of an area changes step by step through new places and events and appropriate communication.Emilie is currently working on two projects: ZO! City in Amsterdam Southeast and Rijnhuizen in Nieuwegein. For this to Merwede in Utrecht. See projects for more.

Director at Meanwhile Space

Emily Berwyn has a broad background in the creative industries and the built environment. She is founder Director of Meanwhile Space - a Community Interest Company specialising in ‘Meanwhile use’ of vacant buildings or land for social gain until they can be brought back into commercial use again - breaking new ground, generating a zeitgeist to re-imagine commercial use of property and the untapped opportunities that vacant spaces present in the UK. www.meanwhilespace.com.

European Research Director at Savills

Eri Mitsostergiou is a qualified Architect and in 1999 joined Savills, a global real estate services provider. After working from and within both Greece and the UK, she is currently based in the Netherlands. Here she coordinates Savills’ European research and gives direct external advice to Savills clients with their European projects, especially in the South East region. www.savills.com.

Founding member of STEK de stadstuinwinkel

Eric van Ulden is an urban designer with a passion for plants and interest in the relationship between urban / architectural planning and user behaviour. He designs gardens and is member at “STEK de stadstuinwinkel”: a shop, an inspiration platform and a design studio for urban gardens. In addition he researches the transitional zones between house and street which contributes to more informed designs and hopefully better functioning neighbourhoods. www.stekrotterdam.nl.

Co-founder of Urban Discovery

Ester van Steekelenburg is co-founder of Urban Discovery, a social enterprise that has developed an app-based methodology for community-led cultural mapping in historic neighbourhoods in Asia. Ester is based in Hong Kong and is partner of The City at Eye Level Asia publication.

Executive Director from PlacemakingX

Ethan Kent works to support public space organizations, projects, and leadership around the world to build a global placemaking movement. Ethan has traveled to more than 1000 cities and 60 countries to advance the cause of leading urban development with inclusive public spaces and placemaking. In 2019 he co founded PlacemakingX to network, amplify, and accelerate placemaking leadership and impact globally. He builds on more than 20 years of working on placemaking projects and campaigns with Project for Public Spaces. Ethan has been integral to the development of placemaking as a transformative approach to economic development, environmentalism, transportation planning, governance, resilience, social equity, design, digital space, and innovation.

Preschool educator in St James’ Church Kindergarten

Eudora Tan is a preschool educator in St James’ Church Kindergarten who had worked as an architectural designer before entering the early childhood education field. She believes that environments have the power to inspire children and conversely, children can also be empowered to inspire changes to their surroundings.

Urban & Spatial Planner

Eva Papakonstanti Urban & Spatial Planner from Thessaloniki, Greece.

Co-founder of #WeAreFromHere

Firi Rahman is an artist who lives and works in Slave Island. He captures the uniqueness of place in his conceptual cartography and ink pen drawings. In an effort to save the soul of his neighbourhood and protect its buildings from the threat of demolition, he and his artist friends started the campaign #WeAreFromHere.

Founders of SHAU

Architects Dr. Florian Heinzelmann and Daliana Suryawinata founded their firm SHAU in 2009 in the Netherlands and later in Indonesia. SHAU works on all scales of architecture, from microlibraries to vertical housing and masterplans. Main concerns of their projects are social and environmental responsibilities and they were named eco-modernists of their time by FuturArc magazine in 2018. SHAU’s work has received international awards including the LafargeHolcim Silver Award for Sustainable Construction in 2017 for the Asia-Pacific region and being shortlisted for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2019.

Co-founder and co-manager of 4 VC funds

Co-founded and co-managed 4 VC funds with EUR 370M committed capital. Invested in 60+ seed and early stage IT and telecoms companies in Western Europe and the US since 1997. Board member at numerous startups, RefugeesForward.org and Calefax.com. Interested in social impact ventures. Formally chief government architect of the Central Government Real Estate Agency, Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relationships.

Co-founder of dérive LAB

Francisco Pailliè Pérez is a Social and Cultural Psychologist in Mexico City, Mexico. His affinity towards urbanism, architecture and sociology has brought him to work exploring and understanding public space, the civic right to the city, walkability, and the way we shape cities. With his wife and partner, he founded dérive LAB, an organisation whose purpose is to explore, comprehend and inspire other (new) ways of living and thinking of life. He is also director of El Caminante an independent editorial focused in publishing on urban topics.

Program manager, Municipality of Rotterdam

Frank Belderbos has nearly 30 years experience with project management and urban renewal. He studied Town Planning and Political Sciences at the University of Amsterdam. He worked for the city of The Hague in Urban Renewal, and specialized in the programme Urban renewal as cultural activity. For the last three decades he has worked in the city of Rotterdam specialising in urban renewal and cultural-economic activities. Latest, Frank was the project manager for revitalising the Nieuwe Binnenweg, financed with European EFRO-money.

Advisor

Frank van Beek is the director and co-owner of Lingotto in Amsterdam. Lingotto specializes in transformation and redevelopment of existing buildings and sites in an urban context. Their strength lies in inventing and realizing effective concepts. Lingotto develops projects at own account and risk, and as managing developer on behalf of a client. www.lingotto.nl

Project Manager of Pasar Papringan 1.

Fransisca Callista was born in Banjar City, West Java. Sisca studied Product Design at the Bandung Institute of Technology, then continued to pursue a Master Programme of Design Culture at Chiba University in Japan. She became involved in the Spedagi project while she was a student in Japan as a participant of ICVR # 1. In 2015, she was trusted as the Project Manager of Pasar Papringan 1. In 2018, Sisca became The Chairman of ICVR#3. Now Sisca is active in the field of permaculture and contextual education, while also taking on independent projects.

Co-Founder of the Placemaking Fund (The Social Life Project and PlacemakingX)

Fred Kent is the founder and president of Project for Public Spaces (PPS), based in New York. He is a leading authority on revitalizing city spaces and one of the foremost thinkers in liveability, smart growth and the future of the city. In addition to US and international projects, Fred leads trainings around the world, and is intimately involved with the expansion of Placemaking into a global agenda. www.pps.org.

Manager of BUKATSUDO for Rebita Inc.

Fumi Kawashima was born in 1985 in Fukuoka prefecture, Japan. Fumi studied how to make community spaces through fieldworks at Keio University Fumitoshi Kato lab. In 2014, she joined Rebita Inc. as a manager of shared space BUKATSUDO. She currently manages the communication between users and office workers around Yokohama Minato Mirai area. Her hobby is making dumplings.

Project manager at the City of Rotterdam

Gábor Everraert studied Human Geography at the University of Amsterdam with a mayor in Urban Geography. His field of interest lies specifically in placemaking and acupunctural development of city streets and neighbourhoods. He is currently a project manager at the department of urban development in Rotterdam and over the last 4 years he has been involved in many projects to embellish the city-centre, including a innercity plinth strategy.

Owner of Van Osnabrugge Interimmanagement

Gavin van Osnabrugge is a freelance programme manager for among others the Municipality of Groningen

Lecturer at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences

Gerard Peet is Lecturer at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences

Professor at the Radboud University

Professor Gert-Jan Hospers is a geographer at Radboud University, the Netherlands. Besides, he is director of Stichting Stad en Regio, a foundation promoting urban and regional development at a human scale. He is interested in placemaking issues in villages and small and medium-sized towns. Email: g.hospers@fm.ru.nl Phone +31243612099

Owner of Vanschagen architecten

Gert Jan te Velde is educated as architect at Delft University of Technology. In 1993 he joined Van Schagen Architecten, and he is director since 2001. Gert Jan is involved in advising clients in the often diffuse initial phase of a project and leads the firm’s research team. www.vanschagenarchitecten.com.

Manager and landscape architect at Bureau B+B, Amsterdam

Gert-Jan Wisse is a landscape architect with vast experience with planning landscape transformations and public space in complex urban environments. He is a member of the Bureau B+B management team. He studied at the MMU in Manchester, Larenstein and the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture where he also teaches. Landscape and public space serve as a medium for human interaction.

Director Of Program Operations/Programma directeur Economie en Europa for the Province of Noord-Brabant

Gido ten Dolle is Director Of Program Operations/Programma directeur Economie en Europa for the Province of Noord-Brabant. He was formally the director of urban development for the Municipality of Delft.

Founder of St+art India Foundation

Giulia Ambrogi is a curator specialized in contemporary art and management of cultural heritage. She has been working in museums such as MAXXI in Rome as well as on public art projects since 2007. In 2014 she founded St+art India Foundation — the first Urban Art platform in India — and in 2016 the XXL Collective art & design agency.

Owner, Duikelman

Hans Appelboom is the owner of Duikelman, a shop specialized in kitchen and cooking supplies, located in the Ferdinand Bolstraat in the 19th century Amsterdam quarter De Pijp. www.duikelman.nl.

Senior Sector analyst Construction & Area development at Rabobank

As a Social Geographer and City Developer Hans-Hugo Smit wants to understand how people use the city and how we can make the built city more responsive to their needs. He believes in the power of the city and want to contribute to sustainable densification and the creation of meaningful urban places where people like to live, work, shop and live. Hans-Hugo Smit was formally active as area marketer at BPD.

Partner at STIPO

Hans Karssenberg is founding partner of STIPO. With many other partners, he has helped to build the international programmes The City at Eye Level, Placemaking Europe and Placemakers Asia. Key words are human scale area development, community building, co-creating streets and places for people, place management and place-led development, and connecting top-down long term strategies with short term bottom-up initiatives. Hans works as strategic advisor, senior project manager, public developer, placemaker, trainer and lecturer. He works with and for governments, private sector as well as civic initiatives and international networks.

Director of Urban Planning and Management of the Municipality of Leeuwarden

Specialized in tailored interventions to generate physical and social impact. Co-founder of Leeuwarden/Fryslân European Capital of Culture 2018. Culture is often a accelerator on themes of ecology, water and shared space. (High quality) art can facilitate this process.

Special Envoy for International Water Affairs at Kingdom of the Netherlands

Henk Ovink is principal of ‘Rebuild by Design’ and Senior Advisor of the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force. Before he was the director of National Spatial Planning for the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, and was curator for the 5th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam 2012 “Making City”. He regularly teaches, lectures, and writes on new ways of planning, the position of politics and design, and the exchange between governance and planning. He is also the co-editor of the "Design and Politics" book series.

Development manager at BPD

Henri Schimmel is development manager at BPD.

Heritage and urban development advisor at The Missing Link heritage advise

Ilya Lindhout graduated in 2018 from the Reinwardt Academy and is specialised in urban intangible heritage, placemaking and storytelling. During her internship at STIPO she, together with colleagues, developed a new tool 'The Time Machine' and a story route through the Park Rhijnhuizen. After graduating she further developed the story route into a audio tour, available on iziTRAVEL to discover the 26 heritage stories from the area Rhijnhuizen in Nieuwegein. Ilya currently works as a heritage and urban development advisor at The Missing Link heritage advise

Local Initiator of Pasar Papringan Ngadiprono

Imam Abdul Rofiq studied Literature at Sebelas Maret University in Solo City, Indonesia. Concerns about his home district of Ngadiprono brought him back to build an initiative with young people in his village. Since then, Imam has helped to organise several local and international events in the area, including the Spedagi Movement in the Pasar Papringan Project, ICVR#3 and the Sindoro Sumbing Festival. Now Imam actively assists the Temanggung Regency Government in community development projects.

Project Engineer at White Lioness technologies

Ioanna Tsakalakidou Urban & Spatial Planner from Thessaloniki, Greece. She is an Urban planning graduate student and interested in spatial and socio-spatial issues, geographic information systems, crowds in urban environments. Currently she's a Project Engineer at White Lioness technologies

Landscape architect and policy officer at the Municipality of The Hague

Irene is landscape architect and policy officer at the Urban Development & Planning Department of the municipality of The Hague. Her focus is on green inclusive building, green urban space and metropolitan landscapes.

Founding director of Cistri’s Singapore

Jack Backen specialises in the economics behind property performance. With qualifications in economics, law and finance, Jack was one of the founding directors of Cistri’s Singapore office, having previously worked with Cistri’s parent company, Urbis Australia. In recent years, Jack and his team have worked closely with master planners, landscape designers, social researchers, property valuers, and other economists to help build up a deep understanding of placemaking and the value that it brings to real estate.

Urban designer and landscape-architect for the City of Groningen

Strategic urban design, public design, building regulations. Studied Landscape-architecture at the Wageningen University (1986) and Research, Urban Micro Environment at the School of Arts Utrecht (1991). Worked for the Urban Planning Department at the city of Amsterdam from 1991 to 2002. From 2002 to 2016 as a self-employed designer.

Urban planner for the Municipality of Maastricht

Jake Wiersma is an urban planner for the Municipality of Maastricht

Owner of Gehl Architects

Jan Gehl is a Danish architect and urban designer based in Copenhagen, and founder of Gehl Architects. His career has focused on improving the public realm especially for pedestrians and cyclists. His influential work Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space (1971, English translation 1987) documents human social interaction and perception, urban recreation, and sensory experience of public spaces. Since then he has published many books and articles on public space and city life. Gehl Architects works on several projects in cities worldwide. www.gehlarchitects.com.

Independent City watcher and Urbanist

As former senior advisor on urban development and affairs to the city of Rotterdam Jan van Teeffelen contributed to the whole range of strong, top down, physical, budget driven urban supply planning on the one hand, and later on to more demand oriented, bottom up strategies based on the strengthening potential qualities of the existing city. After his retirement he was involved in gentrification questions in the area of the Pijp in Amsterdam, the challenge how to deal with the fast-growing city of Stockholm, participation on the place making subject in the Habitat conference in Buenos Aires, advise to the further development of the inner city of Helmond, articles and contributions to several publications. His latest activity in this field was a to write a chapter in the comprehensive book “Dansen met dilemma’s” and a fieldtrip on urban issues in Tokio.

Strategic advisor of the Municipality of Papendrecht

Jantine Prins is Strategic advisor of the Municipality of Papendrecht

Professor of Landscape Architecture and Director of the Urban Commons Lab at the University of Washington

Jeffrey Hou is Professor of Landscape Architecture and Director of the Urban Commons Lab at the University of Washington, Seattle. Hou is best known for his pioneering writing on guerrilla urbanism, insurgent public space, and bottom-up placemaking.

Researcher on sustainable cities at Erasmus University

Jeniffer Heemann is one of the creators of Curativos Urbanos and founding partner at Bela Rua. She currently works at Erasmus University, where she is involved in teaching and research on sustainable cities. She is interested in sustainability transition, complexity theory, the co-evolution of social and environmental systems, and governance. Contact: jenheemann@gmail.com

Consultant Business Urban Development at the Municipality of Nijmegen

Jeroen Jansen is Consultant Business Urban Development at the Municipality of Nijmegen

Partner at STIPO

Jeroen Laven is partner at STIPO. He leads the European Placemaking Network and Dutch Placemaking Network and works in many projects in the Netherlands and abroad. With European Placemakers Jeroen is building an European Placemaking Toolbox, to provide the right mix of tools for each placemaking challenge.

Founder WeTheCity

Jesse Jorg is founder WeTheCity. He has been an urban explorer ever since I could ride a bike and in all those years I’ve only become more enthusiastic about the creative side of urban development. Check out some of his favorite projects on Jesse's website www.wethecity.nl.

Founder of Tempatico

Jia Ping Lee heads Tempatico, a consultancy that designs futures that fosters hope and wellbeing in four key places, that of the urban, corporate, cultural and inner place. She was previously Programme Director, KL and Partnerships, at Think City. She is currently a board member of Placemakingx, a global placemaking network with the objective to advocate a more human-centric approach to urban planning and design through placemaking.

Founder of JM Urban Design & Planning

Joanne Mun was a Sydney-based architect-urban designer with over a decade of experience in urban renewal. In 2015, she returned to Malaysia and joined Think City for nearly four years. Her passion for community empowerment remains unabated and she is now volunteering with two non-profit organisations.

Founder of zoarchitecten

Joep Klabbers is founder of zoarchitecten. He is a lover of places: places in the city and inside buildings, carefully designed places and coincidental places - it is always about the love for the place. His open minded, enthusiastic and concerned approach transfers his love of simple architecture and details. The name of the office is like the design result: to the point, simple but not banal. www.zoarchitecten.nl.

Architect and co-founder of DEGW

John Worthington is architect and co-founder of DEGW in 1973. Since then John has pioneered methods of adapting urban and space planning techniques to meet the needs of the emerging knowledge economy. Recent assignments include high building strategies for the cities of Rotterdam and Dublin, where he continues to advise both cities on managing the process of innovation and change. He has held a number of academic posts and is currently a visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield and Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg. www.degw.com.

Chief Planner at the Planning Department Economy and Space, Municipality of Amsterdam

Jos Gadet is an urban geographer. He works for the Urban Planning Department of the City of Amsterdam. Gadet wrote on the rise of successful Amsterdam neighbourhoods in the collection of essays “De levende stad” (2009), which accompanied the first Dutch translation of Jane Jacobs’ masterpiece ‘The Death and Life of Great American Cities’. In 2011 his book “Terug naar de Stad” was published, in which he describes the development of various districts of Amsterdam.

Programme Management Officer at UN-Habitat

José Chong works as Programme Management Officer for the Global Public Space Programme at the Planning, Finance and Economy Section of UNHabitat. He leads the development of new tools for public space assessments / city-wide strategies and applies innovative tools for community participation / collaborative urban design. He is an urban planner and licentiate architect (Lima, Peru) with master studies in Renewable Energies, Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism (Huelva, Spain), and International Cooperation and Urban Development (Darmstadt, Germany) specialising in Sustainable Emergency Architecture (Barcelona, Spain).

Co-owner of Bureau op het Plein and part-time area advisor for the Office for Monuments and Archaeology in Amsterdam

Jouke van der Werf is an architectural historian and works part-time at the Office for Monuments and Archaeology in Amsterdam. In addition, he publishes on architecture and urbanism in the last two centuries. In recent years his research is particularly related to the cultural and historical aspects of the public space.

Programme Manager at Right To Play Thailand Foundation

Julia Schipper is Programme Manager at Right To Play Thailand Foundation. With an advanced master in international development, a master in cultural and social anthropology, and a bachelor in European studies, Julia has over 10 years of international work experience in the humanitarian and development sector.

Architect

Kamila Momot, A graduate student of Architecture and Urban Planning at Warsaw University of Technology. Sociology enthusiast and city lover. She is a flaneur who explores metropolises across the world. Currently she is BDP Architectural Designer at BDP (Building Design Partnership Ltd).

Co-founder and environmental designer at Project for Public Spaces

Kathy Madden is the co-founder of Project for Public Spaces. She is involved in all aspects of the organization’s work and has directed over 300 research and urban design projects along with training programs throughout the U.S and abroad. She has published several books and previously taught at Pratt Institute School of Architecture.

Independent Music Professional

Kees Went is a composer and sound designer, based in the Netherlands. As a researcher on sound culture and sound in public space he is also active as a sound designer and consultant for urban design and development projects. He regularly conducts workshops and masterclasses on Urban Sound Design at home and abroad.

Policy coordinator at MOOI Noord-Holland

Kim Zweerink is a policy coordinator at MOOI Noord-Holland - adviseurs omgevingskwaliteit

Owner of Vanschagen architecten

Klaas Waarheid joined Van Schagen Architekten in 1996, and he is director since 2001. Klaas is supervisor of several projects within the office, and has a decisive voice in the firm’s design decisions and in monitoring the project realisations. He received his education at the HTS, Academy of Architecture, and the Delft University of Technology. www.vanschagenarchitekten.com.

Writer at Sotonoba

Koichiro Tamura is writer at Sotonoba and director of QUOL. Active in advocacy, capacity development, and consulting for public spaces in Japan. Koichiro acquired a master’s degree in urban placemaking and management at Pratt Institute in New York.

Project Manager at City and County of San Francisco

Project Manager for the San Francisco International Airport responsible for the Airport’s Revenue Enhancement and Customer Hospitality (REACH) Program, which aims to transform the overall guest experience. Working collaboratively with Airport staff, consultants and vendors, Kris plays a critical role in assisting SFO in meeting the goals of the Principles of REACH.

Co-founder of Bureau KM

Kyra Kuitert is together with Rosemarie Maas founder of Bureau KM.

Project manager for the South Harbour area, Municipality of Copenhagen.

Lars Korn is an architect and planner and works as project manager for the South Harbour area, at the Municipality of Copenhagen. He has been working with the South Harbour area since 1999.

Member of the neighborhood initiative Zuiddijk en Zaan

Laura Dumas is member of the neighborhood initiative Zuiddijk en Zaan.

Head of the City Planning, Extension and Design Unit of UN-Habitat

Laura Petrella is the head of the City Planning, Extension and Design Unit of UN-Habitat which supports city, regional and national authorities in developing and implementing policies, plans and designs through a participatory process for more compact, better integrated and connected cities that foster equitable sustainable urban development. Prior, she was the coordinator for the Safer Cities Programme of UN-Habitat for more than 8 years.

Founder of Awearness Kollektif.

Laura Suijkerbuijk is founder + Director Strategy & Development at Awearness Kollektif. Previously active as urban development project assistant for the Municipality of Tilburg

Managing Director of Eutropian

Levente Polyak is urban planner, researcher and policy adviser. He has worked on urban regeneration programmes for the New York, Paris, Rome, Vienna and Budapest municipalities. He taught at MOME and BUTE (Budapest) and TU Wien, was visiting fellow at Columbia University and the ENSA Paris-Malaquais and holds a PhD in Sociology from the Central European University. He is editor of Cooperative City, co-founder of Eutropian Research & Action (Vienna-Rome) and member of KÉK (Budapest). He has been working as Lead Expert in URBACT and Urban Innovative Actions projects. In the past years, he has been researching new organisational and economic models of community-led urban development projects and methodologies of civic ecosystem-building, co-authoring the books Vacant City, Civil Város and Funding the Cooperative City. Email: levente.polyak@kek.org.hu, Twitter: @levenpoly

Urban Innovator at UrbanBoost

As an urban innovator Lex works on community driven projects, making the difference in the public space and cities more livable. From small public scale to major area development projects. Community building and placemaking are always the main components of the projects. UrbanBoost designs also interventions in the public space. Email: Lex@urbanboost.nl Phone: +31 6 28128755 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/urbanboostnl/

Freelance hands-on project manager

Lisette van Rhijn is a hands-on project manager who operates on the interface of sustainable urban development, livability and social impact. For Lisette, living in Hong Kong for five years has stirred up a huge fascination for human scale and authenticity within urban environments. She is drawn to creative initiatives that aim to make a difference within cities. Lisette’s broad and international experience and network enables her to think outside the box and build new bridges. She loves to help organisations and projects move forward, ideally together with the people around her.

Researcher based at the Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University

Lorena Axinte is part of the SUSPLACE Innovative Training Network. Based at the Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University, she is interested in how 'unusual suspects', such as young people, can have a say in planning and decision-making to influence the development of their communities. Find out more on her Twitter @lorena_ax

Founder of LOPELAB

Lorenzo Petrillo is a service designer and community driver stationed in Singapore. He started his career in Italy, designing for Esterni, a creative agency that develops cultural projects for public spaces. In 2015 he founded LOPELAB, a design consultancy agency, marrying urban design and social ideas for a more enjoyable and sustainable city. He loves to create places for people to reconnect with the city.

City architect for the Municipality of Arnhem

Luuk Tepe is city architect for the Municipality of Arnhem.

Senior Programme Manager at ESAF

Manju George is a Senior Programme Manager with a decade-long experience in advocating and placemaking for accessible and barrier-free open public spaces, open street events, and car-free days. She heads the Livable City Program, which is spread in four states in India with ESAF, a pan-India NGO. Listed as one among the country’s top 50 female change-makers, Manju George is a trained psychiatric social worker from Bangalore.

Management-Beratung | Environmental and Sustainability | MBA Candidate at WHU

Marat Troina has been working in urbanism for ten years, and has participated in interventions in the favelas and working-class neighbourhoods in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro. He is working on a PhD at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and is the Vice President at The Institute of Brazilian Architects (2014-2016) and an elected member at the Council of Architecture and Urbanism (2015-2017).

Chief Operations Officer at KAI ASSETS

Placemaker by day and artist by night, Mardiana Rahayu started as an architect who always questioned the ‘education of an architect’. Over the years, the advice she has given herself is to not obsess with design but rather with what design can contribute to the community and to the environment, voiceless animals included.

Chairwoman of the Heritage Hong Kong Foundation

Margaret (Maggie) Brooke has worked in the property profession in the Asia Pacific region for over 40 years. Based in Hong Kong, she’s a leading industry professional and long-time advocate for heritage preservation in Hong Kong. Maggie is also the chairwoman of the Heritage Hong Kong Foundation, the agency behind the award-winning revitalisation of the Blue House Cluster in Wanchai.

Co-founder and Executive Director of the Design Trust initiative

Marisa Yiu is the co-founder and Executive Director of the Design Trust initiative, which supports creative and research content related to Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area. She has been instrumental in shaping the growth of the NGO since 2014, conceptualising the Design Trust Futures Studio programme. Yiu is also an architect and Founding Partner of ESKYIU and Chief Curator of the 2009 Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture. She has taught at London’s Architectural Association, Parsons, HKU, School of Architecture at CUHK. Yiu is an AIA member, HKIA associate, member on the Board of Advisors for RTHK, and is formerly a Board member of the Hong Kong Ambassadors of Design.

Environmental psychologist and policy advisor for the Municipality of Dordrecht

Mariska Kien is environmental psychologist and policy advisor for the Municipality of Dordrecht

Director-director at Woningstichting Samenwerking Vlaardingen

Mark van de Velde is an (urban) sociologist. In his career he has worked from various perspectives on the development of the city, among others within cultural organizations, the government and consulting firms. He is now member of the management of housing corporation Havensteder (Rotterdam) where he works on tactic policies and area development. Mark was previously working as Program manager Strategy for Havensteder.

Architect-Director at Marlies Rohmer Architects & Urbanists

Marlies Rohmer studied Architecture and Urbanism at the Delft University of Technology. In 1986 she started her architectural office in Amsterdam, which currently has 15 employees. The agency is working internationally on various types of architectural projects. Additionally Marlies Rohmer is supervisor of various urban projects, member of quality teams, and a visiting teacher at colleges and universities of architecture at home and abroad. www.rohmer.nl.

Co-founder and partner of OKRA Landscape Architects

Martin Knuijt is founding partner of OKRA, a prominent landscape architecture and urban planning office in the Netherlands. Within his work on complex urban and landscape development projects he is driven to integrate social relevant themes, such as design for all, healthy city and climate resilient design. Contact martinknuijt@okra.nl

Program Manager of WBB Trust

Maruf Hossain is currently managing UN-Habitat supported public space pilot projects in Dhaka and is also in charge of multiple place-making events organised by different Government and International Organisations in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Urbanist and associate at STIPO

Mattijs van ‘t Hoff is an urbanist, graduated at the Delft University of Technology. He has worked for the city development department of the City of Rotterdam on various projects in urban design and transformation. Since 2013 he works as an urban designer and researcher, independent and in cooperation with Stipo team for urban strategy. In addition he is a visiting lecturer in urbanism at Delft University of Technology.

Manager of the Inner-city, Municipality The Hague

Max Jeleniewski is manager of the Inner-city in The Hague, and advisor for local governments in Russia (e.g. Moscow) on issues of restructuring, implementing and managing Urban Development Programs. Beside this he lectures on the subject of Urban and Inner-city Development in a number of academic institutions in the Netherlands and abroad.

PhD Candidate, University of Amsterdam

Meredith is an urban planner and mobility expert, based in the Netherlands since 2010. She is a PhD candidate at the Urban Cycling Institute at the University of Amsterdam researching how transportation policies and practices are transferred from one context to another. She lives in Amsterdam with her husband, two daughters, 6 bikes and no car.

Urban planner & designer at the City of Rotterdam

Merel Scheltema is an urban planner & designer Urban planner & designer at the City of Rotterdam. Merel is passionate about improving the environment and quality of public spaces. She believes that by working together people can create vibrant and attractive places and we can work on water sensitive design and climate adaptation at the same time!

Co-founders of TANAH

TANAH (Soil/ Earth in Malay) is a duo consisting of Michelle Lai and Huiying Ng, exploring symbiotic relationships and forms of everyday participation through nature and food-themed interventions, research and dialogue. Their intersecting practice opens up gaps between thinking and action, reflection and theory around food, land, cultures, and imagination.

Strategic account manager for the Municipality of Tilburg

Michiel van Hoof is Strategic account manager for the Municipality of Tilburg

Urban Design Expert and host of The Life-Sized City

Mikael Colville-Andersen is a Danish-Canadian urban design expert and founder and partner at Copenhagenize Design Co. the go-to consultancy for bicycle urbanism, planning, traffic and communications. He is a sought-after keynote speaker on the subjects of urbanism, liveable cities and bicycle urbanism and the host of the global tv series about urbanism, The Life-Sized City. Get in touch through Instagram: copenhagenizer, Twitter: copenhagenize, or Facebook: facebook.com/colvilleandersen

Urban Designer-Architect

Mishkat Ahmed-Raja

Co-founder and Director of Participate in Design (P!D)

Mizah Rahman (1986-2020) was a designer and community organiser who strongly advocated for a participatory and community-centric approach in the design and planning of cities. She was the co-founder and Director of Participate in Design (P!D), a non-profit design organisation that empowers communities by designing their neighbourhoods with them — not just for them.

Project manager for the Toyohashi Ekimaeodori-2 redevelopment project

Born and raised in the city of Toyohashi, Naoya Ogawa studied landscape planning at the University of Tokyo. He has been working on the Toyohashi Ekimaeodori-2 redevelopment project since 2016 and has been with the Toyohashi Machinaka Conference secretariat since 2018, managing both projects to improve the public spaces in his hometown.

Shopping street manager and advisor

Nel de Jager, educated as an urban sociologist, works with a passion for the city. Since 1987 she has been shopping street manager of the Haarlemmerbuurt in Amsterdam, and since 2005 operates as an independent adviser on shopping streets and management. She regularly gives lectures at schools, and advises organizations with solicited and unsolicited comments.

Founder and director of The Busking Project

Nick Broad is a busking advocate based in the UK who has filmed street performers in 40 cities in 30 countries on 5 continents. He runs buskr.com, a busking-based tech start up, has been quoted on busking in the House of Lords, and has commissioned research on busking policy…but he is not a busker.

Head of the Spatial Development Department at the Municipality of Papendrecht

Email: nam.opde.Laak@papendrecht.nl Phone: +31787706344

Programme executive at Think City

Nicole Thum received her bachelor’s in accounting and finance from Curtin University of Western Australia, and worked for four years in accounting in Penang, Malaysia. In 2014, she joined Think City as a programme executive to analyse and understand the needs of communities and turn them into city-making plans. In the past four years, she has overseen the upgrade of Kampung Benggali Pocket Park and Public Swimming Pool, the first water-sensitive urban garden in Butterworth, Jeti Lama Rain Garden and Butterworth Fringe Festival. Nicole firmly believes that cities should be planned together with its people to create a better sense of belonging and pride which leads to a more sustainable future.

Independent Architecture & Planning Professional

Norman Mintz is one of the pioneers of the Main Street movement. With over 40 years of experience, he specializes in providing Urban Design, Organization and Management solutions while encouraging community participation in all aspects of the downtown revitalisation process. He wrote the book Cities Back From The Edge: New Life For Downtown, teaches at Columbia University and Pratt Institute, and serves as a Senior Associate for Project for Public Spaces (PPS).

Chief Urban Designer City of Amsterdam

Experienced Architect/Urban Designer with a demonstrated history of working in the public policy industry. Skilled in Urban Planning, Mixed-use, Sustainable Design, Public Space, and Urban Strong arts. Design professional with a MSc focused in architecture & urban planning from Delft University of Technology.

Projectleider Lombardijen en Vreewijk bij Havensteder

Paul works at housing corporation Havensteder on two Rotterdam neighbourhoods: Lombardijen and Vreewijk. He is developing these areas by creating their own specific and identifiable stories. Not alone, but together with the inhabitants and the municipality of Rotterdam. With these stories they want to get new parties interested to invest in these neighbourhoods. Email: paul.elleswijk@havensteder.nl Phone: +31647101870.

Co-founder of Urban Discovery

Paul Schuttenbelt is co-founder of Urban Discovery, a social enterprise that has developed an app-based methodology for community-led cultural mapping in historic neighbourhoods in Asia. Paul is based in Bangkok.

Director of the faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at PUCRS

Paulo Horn Regal is an architect and urbanist, and professor at the PUCRS in Porto Alegre (Brazil) since 1977, and is currently Director of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism. He is a member of the Council of International Federation for Housing and Planning and leads of the Research Group on Graphical Expression and Creativity – CNPq-Brazil.

Former Councillor of the Municipality of Doetinchem

Peter Drenth will work in the coming years for an even more beautiful and better Gelderland. A Gelderland that we want to pass on to our children. We do this with respect for the inhabitants, history, nature, culture and monuments. And with an eye for the diversity and identity of the various beautiful regions that Gelderland has. Together we are Gelderland! He formerly was the Councillor of the Municipality of Doetinchem

Founder and president at Placemaking Plus

Peter Groenendaal was born, raised and educated in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and has also lived in Canada, USA, and the Caribbean. He is currently an active conduit for placemaking in communities around the world, beating the pavement in search of zealous nuts. He is the founder of Placemaking Plus, co-founder of Urban Space Agency, and proud member of the Placemaking Leadership Council and UN-Habitat’s Future of Places. www.placemakingplus.com.

Senior communications consultant for the Municipality of Breda

Driven communication advisor; knows the way quickly. Strategist and doer. Relieves the driver, management and colleagues. Proactive, analyzes and comes up with proposals. Likes to continue building on the communication function and community-oriented communication. Provides visibility and creates opportunities. Getting things done. Online and offline. Achieves results. Likes to spar. Feels at home with many stakeholders and media. Switches between different levels with ease. Sense of administrative and political relations; is sensitive. Focused on the environment, Networker. Used to working for ambitious administrators at a progressive municipality. Sets the bar high, takes responsibility. Flexible setting (none from 9 to 5). Team player, likes to work together. Writes and edits easily.

Director Netherlands, Locatus

Peter Nieland has worked his entire career in the real estate data; over thirty years ago he started at the Dutch Kadaster (Land Registry). In 2007 he joined Locatus as commercial director, and in 2011 he became managing director of Locatus Netherlands. Peter is a man of geographic information systems (GIS) and maps. He regularly talks with retailers and real estate companies, and thus has a good knowledge of what is going on in the retail market. www.locatus.com.

Director Housing at Frame Vastgoed

Frame Vastgoed is an inner city investor, developer and service organization with a big heart for the Rotterdam region. We are active in the Spanish Polder, Rotterdam-Noord, Katendrecht, IJsselmonde, Hoogvliet, up to Brielle. Our ambition is to strengthen Rotterdam with a wide variety of functions and facilities such as; Rental homes, Hotels, Shops, Supermarkets, Offices and (Automotive) companies. We do this by transforming vacant office buildings, restoring (national) monuments for special functions and realizing new residential and shopping areas within a full-service living environment. We develop for our own portfolio and attach great value to a high customer focus for our tenants, which is why we provide services such as maintenance and cleaning from our own management.

Project Manager at Epic Communities

Philip Tan believes that cities can be made better for people through participation in planning and design. As Project Manager with Epic Communities with a background in urban planning and marketing, Philip is part of a team of passionate individuals aiming to discover, co-create and implement innovative solutions with the communities he works with.

Communication consultant for the Municipality of Amsterdam

Pien van der Ploeg is communication consultant at the Amsterdam Bureau for Communication for the municipality of Amsterdam.

Lecturer at the National University of Singapore

Originally from Indonesia, now a Singaporean, Prof. Johannes Widodo is a lecturer at the National University of Singapore where he teaches urban history of Southeast Asian cities, modern Asian architecture, and heritage conservation & management.

Project manager at Municipality of Rotterdam

René Dutrieux worked as a project manager at the planning department of the municipality of Rotterdam. Later he became the square manager of the Vereniging Verenigd Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam.

Lecturer Urban Planning at Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences

Paulo Horn Regal and Renee Nycolaas of the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the university PUCRS in Porto Alegre, Brazil, for initiating and translating the Portuguese version of the book and thus encouraging the publication of the second version of The City at Eye Level.

Solutions Architect at TVS Supply Chain Solutions

Richard Dobson, an architect by training, worked for over ten years for the eThekwini Municipality in Durban as a project leader, first of the Warwick Junction Urban Renewal Project and then for the inner city renewal programme. He left the Municipality in 2006 to establish the NPO Asiye eTafuleni that focuses on offering design and facilitation services to those working in the informal economy. His professional technical, design and project work has been recognized through various national and international awards and citations.

Founder of Natural Walking Cities and Livable Cities

Richard Lambert is the founder of Natural Walking Cities and Livable Cities and Asia Coordinator at Cities Forum. He has over 10 years’ experience advising and developing pedestrian and urban green space improvement projects and policies for governments, companies and NGOs globally.

Councillor of City Management for the Municipality of Dordrecht

Rinette Reynvaan is councillor of City Management for the Municipality of Dordrecht

Owner at VWI, VON WEILER INVESTMENTS

Robin von Weiler is an independent Rotterdam real estate investor within family connection. He uses his enthusiasm, network, knowledge and experience of the city with its history, architecture and atmosphere to motivate and inspire others, and thus to let changes take place. The revival of the shopping street Meent and its side streets is a good example of this approach.

Senior Advisor, Leader and Regional Network Leader (MENA region) at PlacemakingX

Rony Al Jalkh is a Placemaking activist and practitioner from Lebanon and a Senior Fellow at Project for Public Spaces.

Development manager social physical approach at Synchroon

Rosalie de Boer is currently a development manager social physical approach at Synchroon. Previously active as development manager at BPD.

Co-founder of Bureau KM

Rosemarie Maas is together with Kyra Kuitert founder of Bureau KM.

Co-Leader and Head Editor at Sotonoba

Rui Izumiyama is a tactical urbanist and placemaker at Sotonoba. Sotonoba has its own Web Magazine of Outdoor and Public Space, where Rui acts as an Co-Leader and Head Editor. Next to his work at Sotonoba he is an Assistant Professor at the Dept. of Architecture, Nihon University. Rui is the Regional Network Leader for Japan in the global placemaking network called PlacemakingX. He is specialised in City Management, Area Based Management, Place Management, Public life Public Space, Tactical Urbanism and Placemaking.

Programme manager at the Municipality of The Hague.

Ruud Ridderhof is Programme manager of public space at the Department of City management for the Municipality of The Hague.

Initiator of PlacemakingUS

Ryan Smolar is the initiator of PlacemakingUS, theUnited States’ regional placemaking network. He also runs a culinary and arts-focused business improvement district and a food system alliance in Southern California. While travelling to Placemaking Week ASEAN, Ryan visited Singapore and Food Playground where he learned to cook Hainanese chicken, laksa, and kuih dadar.

Founding partner of FRONTYARD Co. Ltd.

Ryuzo Hasegawa was born in Tokyo, and graduated at Tohoku University of Art & Design. He has worked for many cities as a town planner, and recently entered the field of place management, as founding Partner of FRONTYARD Co. Ltd.. Ryuzo has also been a guest student at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts Schools of Architecture.

Founder of One Kampong Gelam Association

Saeid Labaffi is the founder of One Kampong Gelam Association, which was set up in July 2014 to support businesses economically and to introduce cultural and historical values of Kampong Gelam to the visitors. He is currently the chairman of One Kampong Gelam Association and has been working closely with URA to implement initiatives such as the car-free zone and street bazaars to bring greater vibrancy and footfall to the area. He is also the winner of the Place Management Coordinating Forum’s annual Place Champion Award in 2017.

Artist & Member of the merchant association in 7th Avenue Green Street

Sakura Hachisuka works at a non-profit for town development through art in Asahikawa, Japan. As a member of the merchant association in 7th Avenue Green Street, Sakura aims to create communities where all generations can connect for the future of Asahikawa.

Co-Founder Chief Innovation Officer at Agora-Envisioning

Samar Héchaimé's focus is on enabling leaders to achieve strategic transformation and on shaping thriving futures, economically and beyond, through multidisciplinary human-centric disruption. She has been working on various projects which have included the reimagining of the healthcare model of the Henry Fords Hospitals for the Saudi Market, creating an engagement strategy for the Ministry of Planning and Economics in Saudi Arabia, redesigning the offering a unit at on of the Big Four and helping the Human Resource Development Fund in the Saudi Ministry of Labour to redefine service delivery for the changing labour force. Vision: Challenge established models by putting people a the centre of successful strategies and profitable systems.

Urban psychologist & associate at STIPO

Strategic advisor for the Social domain for the for the Municipality of Zaanstad

Saskia de Man is strategic advisor for the Social domain for the for the Municipality of Zaanstad.

Plinth manager of the Zuidas

Saskia Rill is a project manager setting up public private partnership Amsterdam Zuidoost at the Municipality of Amsterdam.

Senior Curator at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)

Serene Tng is a Senior Curator at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). She writes about placemaking and other urban issues in Singapore as editor of Skyline, URA’s corporate magazine. She also produces other urban publications such as Designing our City, Wander More and 30 Years Of Conservation In Singapore Since 1989.

Member of the neighborhood initiative Zuiddijk en Zaan

Simone Ronchetti is member of the neighborhood initiative Zuiddijk en Zaan.

Founder of Spedagi Movement

Singgih S. Kartono was born and raised in Kandangan Village, Temanggung, Central Java. After studying Product Design at the Bandung Institute of Technology, he decided to return to his hometown. Singgih believes that the future is in the village, not in the city. Pioneering craft-based design and production activities in the village, Singgih’s designs include the Magno Wooden Radio and Spedagi Bamboo Bike, two local products that received prestigious international design awards. In 2014 Singgih initiated ICVR#1, which became the foundation of the Spedagi Movement, which later gave birth to Pasar Papringan.

Redacteur bij Sofia Opfer Tekst & Uitleg

Sofia Opfer is a creative and intelligent writing talent with great knowledge of (landscape) architecture, housing and nature. She has experience writing for publications, websites, office documentation, newsletters, press releases, tenders and procurement. She previously worked at Bureau B plus B - Urbanism and Landscape in Amsterdam.

Program officer for the Global Public Space Programme

Sohel Rana has been working for the Global Public Space Programme since 2013, coordinating public space projects in the Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean Region. Currently, he is coordinating public space projects in Bangladesh, India, Mongolia and Nepal.

Advisor, trainer and facilitator

Sophie Kiesouw is an advisor and facilitator of social innovation. Driven by a strong belief in bottom-up and collaborative approaches, working with local communities is what she loves most. She graduated in sociology, with a thesis on belonging in public space working together with the Brazilian ‘Instituto Elos’. Afterwards, she co-founded Starters4Communities, a social enterprise working with bottom-up initiatives in The Netherlands. Moreover in 2017, she organized Community Lab in Beirut, to train young architects in participatory methods. Contact: sophiekiesouw@gmail.com

Associate Professor of Urban Design at TU Delft

Stefan van der Spek studied architecture at TU Delft followed by a PhD thesis called ‘Connectors the Way beyond Transferring’. In 2007 he initiated an international expert network on the application of tracking technologies called ‘Urbanism on Track’. www.bk.tudelft.nl/uot. Since 2012 he is Associate Professor for the Chair of Urban Design lecturing in the MSc and BSc on ‘Activity Patterns in Public Space’. Today his focus is on the implementation of 3D modelling and new technologies such as Virtual- and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) as design tools in the (urban) design process.

Architect at Coopolis

Stefanie Raab is an architect and has a long-term experience in conception and moderation of participative neighbourhood development processes. She invented the concept of the ‘Zwischennutzungsagentur’ an realized it together with Maria Richarz from 2005 - 2011. Since 2010 the aspect of cooperation became more relevant, so the office was renamed as coopolis, which today is active in a wide range of public and private cooperative neighbourhood development projects. www.coopolis.de

Executive director of Urban Discovery

Stephanie Cheung is executive director of Urban Discovery. Combining her business background with an interest in urban culture and development she enjoys working in a multi-disciplinary context, fostering connections to improve urban liveability in partnership with local governments, private companies, creatives, NGOs, and grassroots communities. She has managed community development and cultural mapping projects in Hong Kong, Philippines (Manila), Indonesia (Bali), Thailand (Bangkok) and Malaysia (Penang) and collaborated with like-minded partners to grow the non-profit iDiscover Asia as a tool for mapping and promoting heritage districts across SE Asia.

Founder and owner of Living in Cities

Stephanie Geertman is founder and owner of Living in Cities and senior researcher at the department of Interdisciplinary Sciences, Faculty of Social and Behavioral Science, Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Stephanie worked and lived in Hanoi, Vietnam from 2000-2016, specialising in self-organisation, everyday urban politics, sustainable urban development, and Vietnamese and Asian urbanism.

Co-founder of Project for Public Spaces and Principal of Place Solutions Group, LLC

Stephen Davies is the co-founder of Project for Public Spaces and Principal of Place Solutions Group, LLC. An advocate for public spaces, placemaking and public markets, his work takes him around the world as a consultant, facilitator, educator, researcher and speaker.

Founder of Vision Union Co., Ltd.

Szu-Ju Wu has a Master of Natural Resources and Environmental Management from the National Taipei University. He is founder of Vision Union Co., Ltd., is deeply involved in the issues of environment and community participation, and takes action as a way for social learning and practice.

Commerce development and coordination at HafenCity

Tanja Nagelsmeier is responsible for trade and commerce development and coordination at HafenCity Hamburg GmbH since May 2011. She coordinates all ground floor activities including strategies for usages, business development and networking. Formerly Tanja Karg advised real estate developers and investors as a member of the Shopping Center Development Team at Jones Lang LaSalle and as a Retail Consultant at GMA, Gesellschaft für Markt- und Absatzforschung, Ludwigsburg. www.hafencity.com

Research officer at Asiye eTafuleni

Tasmi Quazi has worked in research and advocacy around sustainable architecture, urban planning and design, and informality for ten years. She is currently a doctoral candidate of Development Studies with a background in architecture and design, particularly participatory approaches. She has been merging aspects of design training with the field of development research and implementation at the Durban-based NPO Asiye eTafuleni, that focuses on the promotion and development of good practices in inclusive planning and design.

Programme Manager at Lien Centre for Social Innovation

Tasnim Hadi has broad experience working in the social sector, focusing on social innovation and the intersection between social impact and business. She enjoys exploring how design thinking can be used to bring about systems change. At the time of writing, Tasnim was working on Partnerships and Resilience at Think City. Tasnim holds an MBA and Lean Six Sigma Green Belt from the University of Oxford.

Lecturer at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Thaddeus Muller has a PhD from the University of Amsterdam and wrote his dissertation on 'The Warm City’, examining the interactions between strangers in public space. He owns a research office since 2007 called "De Warme Stad". His work focuses on social conflict, cooperation and transformation in an urban context. In 2009 he joined the Criminology section of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, where he does research on youth, public space, fear and entertainment in the city, ethnic cooperation and neighbourhood conflicts.

Co-founder of Creative District Foundation

Thanan Lilaonitkul is co-founder of Creative District Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to supporting people with valuable projects for cities.

Director of JaiBaan Studio

Thanawin (Net) Wijitporn graduated from the Faculty of Architecture, Chiangmai University in 2005. In 2009, he co-founded Kon.Jai.Baan group with his partners, which changed its name to JaiBaan Studio in 2015. Net is now the Director of JaiBaan Studio’s Urban Design Unit. This unit has the important role of providing design and planning consultancy to stakeholders to create a better city.

Partner at Stadkwadraat

Theo Stauttener is partner at Stadkwadraat. Stadkwadraat has been a leading consultancy focused on location development since 1 January 2011. More than 25 specialists work for numerous organizations on land and real estate development.

Founder of CleanPicnic

Thijs Verheugen is founder of CleanPicnic. The most cheerful garbage bag in the word! A CleanPicnic blanket and garbage bag all-in-one makes cleaning up fun and easy. We make cheerful picnic blankets with customade designs that are easy to fold in closed garbage bags for municipalities and companies.To give away for free to picnickers so they can keep parks and recreation area's clean themselves. Email: thijs@cleanpicnic.nl Phone: +31629057171

Co-Founder of Love Your Parks Mumbai

Tina Nandi is a Sociology graduate turned freelance photographer and filmmaker. After six years of living in Mumbai with her architect husband and their four-year-old son, she now calls herself an urbanist and truly believes in the power of the placemaking approach for more inclusive cities. Tina is also an environmentalist and tries every day to inculcate a zero-waste lifestyle in her home.

Urban researcher and advisor with a focus on sustainable energy, building physics, mobility and climate change

Project manager real estate and area development

Project manager real estate and area development with expertise in urban development, inner city, housing, shops and infrastructure. I enjoy working on complex issues and projects with high time pressure and political sensitivities and always aiming to achieve good results for the city together. As project manager for the core shopping area for the municipality of Tilburg, I worked with a great project team on a major redevelopment of the city center with various sub-projects in the field of retail, public space and living. Since 2003 I have worked at various municipalities in Brabant. Before that I worked at real estate companies, brokerage and engineering firms in the Netherlands and abroad. My basic training is the university study Civil Engineering with a specialization in Planning and Traffic & Transport, expanded with the brokerage training and various project management courses.

Urbanist at the City of Amsterdam

Ton Schaap is an urbanist at the City of Amsterdam. He worked on projects such as the Eastern Docklands, the IJ-banks and he designed the plan for the Houthavens in Amsterdam. With Jaap van den Bout, he designed the plan for Overhoeks in Amsterdam North, and with Frits van Dongen and Felix Claus the plan for the Haveneiland, part of IJburg. He is also lector ‘Design in Urbanism’ at the Academy of Architecture in Amsterdam.

Founder of WYNE Strategy & Innovation

Tony Wijntuin is the founder of WYNE Strategy & Innovation, a consultancy firm which specializes in the commercial development of high traffic locations. Putting the customer first, WYNE Strategy & Innovation focuses on how to add value through development and implementation of retail, food & beverages and other customer services. www.wyne.nl.

Manager of the Livable Cities Program at HealthBridge Foundation

Tran Thi Kieu Thanh Ha is Manager of the Livable Cities Program with HealthBridge Foundation of Canada in Vietnam. Taking overall responsibility for the programme planning and implementation since its launch in 2006, she has provided leadership to her team supporting Vietnamese cities in promoting physical activity environments, healthy food environments, park development, land-use planning and health, and active transportation.

Director of Boundary Unlimited

Tsai-Her Cheng is an author, architect and urban planner in both Taiwan and Netherlands. She is the director of Boundary Unlimited, an intercultural urban research and planning agency.

Architect at Chief City Architect Office, City of Bratislava

Architect-urbanist interested in placemaking, creating communities and process of development by bottom-up approach and cities created around places. link for professional portfolio: https://issuu.com/viktorkasala/docs/portfolio

Owner of Urban Unlimited

Wies Sanders is urban planner and since 2000 partner in Urban Unlimited, consultancy in urban development within the network society. Spatial development is never addressed by her from land development, but always from relationships between people, space, time and mobility. In addition, Wies is managing director of the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam and publishes irregularly in various media and on the web. www.urbanunlimited.nl.

Area manager at WijkontwikkeLAAR

Willem van Laar is a developer specialising in neighbourhoods and districts. His passion and expertise is about working together with residents and professionals on a new opportunity or development. In recent years local economy, social neighbourhood teams and self-management of public space has been main topics in his field of work. Willem has a technical and business background, has extensive experience as a district manager. The last three years he worked as an independent adviser and district developer. www.wijkontwikkelaar.nl.

Owner of ANNA Vastgoed & Cultuur

Willemijn de Boer is owner of ANNA Vastgoed & Cultuur (ANNA Real Estate & Culture), a company that manages vacant real estate. ANNA reactivates locations and buildings for short periods of time with functions that complement the different needs of the surrounding neighbourhood. www.annavastgoedencultuur.nl.

Manager Community Planning at City of Toronto

Willie Macrae is an urban planner in the Community Planning Division at the City of Toronto. He is responsible for new development applications and planning studies in the King-Parliament area of downtown Toronto, which includes the historic Distillery District. Prior to working in Toronto, Willie was a land use planner in Whistler, British Columbia.

Research fellow and lecturer at the Delft University of Technology

Wouter Jan Verheul is research fellow and lecturer at the Delft University of Technology.

Co-founder and partner of Omgevingspsycholoog

Wouter Tooren is a lecturer and researcher in Environmental Psychology. He is a managing partner at Eyckveld, a firm specialized in the appliance of Environmental Psychology into architecture, urbanism and industrial design.

Deputy Director of HortPark at National Parks Board (NParks)

Yan Ling Lok is the Deputy Director of HortPark at National Parks Board (NParks) Singapore, in charge of horticulture excellence and standards as well as estate management. Prior to her current appointment, she worked in the skyrise greenery department in NParks which actively creates awareness of skyrise greening among the various stakeholders through outreach activities and administers a scheme that incentivises building owners to integrate greenery on their facades.

Senior Place Manager at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA)

Yanling Lin is a Senior Place Manager at the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA). She works with communities in Singapore River, Kampong Glam, Tanjong Pagar and Raffles Place to enhance these precincts through placemaking. She was also actively involved in the Streets for People programme, supporting ground-up efforts in creating car-free zones to turn them into temporary public spaces.

Professor Emeritus at Nagoya University

Yasutoshi Sasaki is Professor Emeritus at Nagoya University. After graduating from the Nagoya University Graduate School, researching wooden materials and wooden environment design, he served as a visiting researcher at the University of Munich and the Vienna University of Technology from 1993 to 1994. As keys to the creation of a sustainable society in harmony with the environment, he studies 1) the mechanical durability of wooden structures, 2) the mechanical behaviour of wooden structures, 3) the material distribution of forest resources and supply–demand simulations, and 4) urban environmental designs based on wood.

Partner of Sotonoba

Yohei Ikai is born in 1987, and is currently Partner of Sotonoba and an architect based in Tokyo. Yohei is specilised in design architecture and public space. Yohei acquired the master’s degree in environmental studies (architecture) at the Graduate School, the University of Tokyo.

Founder of About Your City

Yoichi Koizumi is an architect and workshop designer. He graduated Yokohama National University BArch in 2010. After the Great East Japan earthquake, he participated in starting up the urban revitalizing action called ISHINOMAKI 2.0. Between 2011-2020, he worked for architectural design office Ondesign. In 2020, he started his own urban design office, About Your City.

Co-Chairperson of Sotonoba

Yuya Ishida is born in 1988, and is currently Co-Chairperson of Sotonoba and an architect based in Tokyo. Yuya is also a designer and consultant for street furniture, architecture and public space. Yuya obtained a Master of Engineering in Architecture at the Graduate School, the University of Tokyo.

STIPO Athens & associate

Vivian is an urban planner and geographer, inspired by and appreciating the value of culture and creativity in our daily life. By mixing aspects and tools of placemaking, participatory planning and socio-cultural management, my heart finds its place in the field of creative placemaking, where arts and creativity are the means to engage and activate communities, and bring out the sense of place in co-creation. As assiciate Vivian is active as Project Leader for The City at Eye Level for Kids and Board Member for Placemaking Europe.