Jeroen van Ameijde: Quality of life in high-density urban environments: Data-driven analysis of Hong Kong’s public housing environments and social interaction

Supervisor: Professor Ying Jin

Research overview:

As the planetary impact of urbanisation has become an urgent concern, high-density public housing can contribute to the construction of compact, efficient and inclusive cities. Hong Kong, with its long history of constructing high-density housing estates for vulnerable residents, offers valuable insights into the achievements and challenges around creating supportive living environments. However, there is a lack of assessment methods to evaluate its past and present planning practices against current environmental and social sustainability scholarship and the evolving expectations of urban communities.

This study presents a new data-driven approach to conceptualise and assess Hong Kong’s public housing estate shared spaces and facilities, to provide new insights into how spatially compressed, highly connected and overcrowded in-between spaces impact the quality of social relations, movements and daily practices of residents. The project employs newly developed methods for visibility and connectivity analysis, and employs field observations of co-presence and social activities to understand the spatial and temporal distribution of interactions across a network of spaces. It aims to produce new insights into how to improve the quality and social effectiveness of open spaces in high-density urban housing.

Biography:

Jeroen van Ameijde is an assistant professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, teaching and conducting research in architecture, urban design and urban analytics. He has extensive experience as a practicing architect and urban designer, working on large-scale mixed-use and master planning projects. His research explores data-driven methods for urban research and design testing, focusing on urban morphology, social processes and liveability. His recent research work focuses on Hong Kong’s public housing, and environment-behaviour studies in its public spaces.