We are truly honoured to receive the Research Excellence Award from the Royal Town Planning Institute.

This paper provides compelling evidence that ambiguity in state-owned land property rights significantly increases transaction costs in China’s transit-oriented development (TOD) projects. While the constitution defines the state as the de jure (legal) owner of urban land, multiple tiers of local government share de facto (practical) control, creating institutional uncertainty that complicates land use right transfers for TOD implementation.

We are delighted to share our recent publication “From push to partnership: evolving public engagement strategies in pandemic-induced street experiments” on the Journal of Urban Design. This study examines the diverse public engagement tactics applied in government-led street experiments emerged during the Covid-19 global pandemic. Differentiating the tactics, we classified the public engagement approaches into three main structures - Push-Pull, Lean Push-Pull-Network, and Rich Push-Pull-Network. The finding emphasises the importance of rich engagement structure in fostering longer lasting street experiments.

We recently published “Beyond temporary measures: How experiential learning in street experiments shapes urban mobility transitions” on Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. This study examines the role of local government implementers’ learning in sustaining tactical urbanism practices, specifically through the lens of street experiments implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.