Alain Chiaradia

Alain is Deputy Head of Department of Urban Planning and Design, Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong, Faculty of Architecture. His interests focus on research, applied research and design thinking investigating urban design impacts on liveability, vibrancy and livelihood, wellbeing, and resilience. In 2014 and 2020, his applied research has been internationally recognised as having “outstanding impacts in terms of their reach and significance”. Currently he is on the advisory scientific committee of Efficacity a French R&D PPP centre dedicated to energy transition that brings together the skills of over 100 researchers from Universities and Industries.

Before joining the University of Hong Kong, he was Senior Lecturer in Urban Design at the Cardiff University’s School of Geography and Planning. At Cardiff University, he led the conceptual development of 3D spatial design network analysis software (3D sDNA). sDNA provided more than 400 built environment variables for the biobankUK leading to award winning health research on the impacts of the built environment.

Alain was previously Executive and Board Director at the global consultancy Space Syntax Ltd. where he directed large scale projects concerning spatial policy analysis, urban design policy formulation and evidence-based spatial design in major cities including Paris, London, Boston, Shanghai. Clients included Greater London Authority and the London Boroughs. With an experience of over 80 consultancy projects, he has advised leading international urban design practices such as ARUP Associates, Atelier Jean Nouvel, Farrell & Partners, Foster + Partners, Gehry Partners, Herzog and de Meuron, Hopkins, Martha Schwarz & Partners, and Make. At Space Syntax, he developed and led innovative services and operational research projects across urban design, slow modes and transport. He was Senior Research Fellow at University College London (2000-09). His work has been widely published in international professional journals. In the UK he has been member of various research project advisory panels at national level. He is a founding director of the international CHORA Urban Institute, and an advisor to national research funding institutions in Europe, North America and Asia.

He is a Council Member of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design (HKIUD), Member of the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and an Academician of the Academy of Urbanism, UK.

Alain is the Programme Director of the Master of Urban Design and the Master of Science in Urban Design and Transport. He has taught award winning design studio at the Architectural Association (AA), MIT, Columbia GSAPP, the Berlage Institute, Domus Academy, University of Greenwich, Kingston University, Grenoble National School of Architecture and other venues.

Grants

• “Strategies for Enhancing Walkability in Hong Kong via Smart Policies”, PICO Stragetic Public Policy Research
• “Pedestrian Volume Sampling in Multi-levels Build Environment in Hong Kong”, Seed Fund for Basic Research for New Staff

Selected Publications

Zhou, Y., Zhang, L., & Chiaradia, A.J.F. (2022). Estimating wider economic impacts of transport infrastructure Investment: Evidence from accessibility disparity in Hong Kong. Transportation research Part A: Policy and Practice, 162, 220-235. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2022.05.014 and https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1fDkv3Rd3ux-hB

Soyinka, O., & Chiaradia, A.J.F. (2022). The landscape of informal economy research: a systematic review of transient trends, pivot, and emerging pattern: Is there a spatial turn? GeoJournal. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-022-10611-w

Zhang, L., & Chiaradia, A.J.F. (2022). Walking in the cities without ground, how 3d complex network volumetrics improve analysis. Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/23998083211070567

Zhou, Y., Zhang, L., & Chiaradia, A.J.F. (2021). An adaptation of reference class forecasting for the assessment of large-scale urban planning vision, a SEM-ANN approach to the case of Hong Kong, Lantau tomorrow. Land Use Policy, 109, 105701. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2021.105701

Zhang, L., Cui, M., Chiaradia, A.J.F. (2021). Evaluating human centered accessibility of open space in high density cities, a case study of Hong Kong (in Chinese). Landscape Architecture, 189(28), 34-39.

Sieh, L., Chiaradia, A., Jones, S., & Waters, F. (2021). The value gradient map. Urban Design, 157, Winter.

Meng, S., Rifat Ara, M., Zhang, S., & Chiaradia, A. (2020). TOD, volumetric TOD, destination, public space and community cohesion, urbanie & urbanus. HKIUD Journal, 4, 33-49.

Chiaradia, A., Jones, S., Sieh, L., & Waters, F. (2020). TOD: A tool for value assessment, a multi-scale value gradient map. Architecture and Technique, (26)9, 90-95.

Cui, M., & Chiaradia, A. (2020). Volumetric urban design. An exploratory typology of multi-level pedestrian network in Hong Kong new town. Architectural and Technique, 26(9), 40-45.

Zhang, L., & Chiaradia, A. (2020). Evaluation of TOD performances using multi-source big-data – Hong Kong as case study. Architecture and Technique, (26)9, 85-89.

Chiaradia, A.J.F., & Waters, F. (2020). The Creative Transformation of Island East and Development of Taikoo Place: Places Impact Report. Hong Kong: Swire Properties. URL: https://www.swireproperties.com/-/media/files/swireproperties/publications/2020-places-impact-report.ashx

Cooper, H.V.C., & Chiaradia, A.J.F. (2020). sDNA: 3-d spatial network analysis for GIS, CAD, Command Line & Python. Software X, 12, 100525.

Zhang, X., Melbourne, S., Sarkar, C., Chiaradia, A. J. F., & Webster, C. (2020). Effects of green space on walking: Does size, shape and density matter? Urban Studies. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098020902739

Cooper, C., Harvey, I., Orford, S., & Chiaradia, A. J. F. (2019). Using multiple hybrid spatial design network analysis to predict longitudinal effect of a major city centre redevelopment on pedestrian flows. Transportation. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-019-10072-0

Zhang, L., Ye, Y., Zeng, W., & Chiaradia, A. J. F. (2019). A systematic measurement of street quality through multi-sourced urban data: A human-oriented analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(10), 1782. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16101782

Chiaradia, A. J. F. (2019). Urban Morphology/Urban Form. In: A. Orum (Ed.), The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Urban and Regional Studies (pp. 1-5). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.

Zhang, L., & Chiaradia, A. J. F. (2019). Three-dimensional Spatial Network Analysis and Its Application in a High Density City Area, Central Hong Kong. Urban Planning International (In Chinese), 34(1), 46-53. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22217/upi.2018.513