Professor Rebecca L.H. Chiu is Honorary Professor of the Faculty of Architecture and Department of Urban Planning and Design (http://fac.arch.hku.hk/dupad/RChiu), former Head of Department of Urban Planning and Design (7/2014 – 7/2020), former Director of Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning (3/2013 – 6/2021) and former Director of the Belt and Road Urban Observatory (5/2016 – 6/2021) of the Faculty of Architecture, HKU. Her current research interests are housing and urban sustainability, comparative Asian housing policies, urbanization in China and OBOR cities, compact urbanism, and age-friendly cities. Her current research projects include elderly health and the built environment, housing for the elderly, financialization of housing, housing policy and residential model transfer across political economies. She is appointed Honorary Professor of the Bartlett School of Planning of University College London, and Director of Board of Governance of UOW Hong Kong College; was appointed Visiting Professor of the Faculty of the Built Environment of the University of Ulster and Universiti Malaya. She was Founder Chairman (2001- 2021), and is Senior Advisor, of the Asia Pacific Network for Housing Research. She has been appointed to government committees and boards of housing, planning, land, built heritage, urban renewal and environmental preservation in Hong Kong and elsewhere.
Currently she is advisor to a government-funded (HK$220 million) consultancy study of Ove ARUP HK Ltd. on Artificial Islands in Central Waters aiming to meet Hong Kong’s medium-to-long-term development needs. She is also appointed by the Hong Kong Government as member of the Assessment Committee of the Funding Scheme to Support Transitional Housing Projects by NGOs, Board of Directors of Urban Renewal Fund Limited, and Assessment Panel of Strategic Public Policy Research Funding Scheme/Public Policy Research Funding Scheme under Government’s Policy and Innovation Co-ordination Office, and appointed by the Singapore Government as member of the International Panel of Experts of Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore.
Awards & Achievements
Selected Grants
Research Profile
Comprised of four inter-linked research themes:
Recent Publications
Chiu, R.L.H. (2021). Compact urbanism and older people’s mental wellbeing: reflections from Hong Kong. in M. Scott (Ed.), Interface on Planning for Age-friendly Cities, Planning Theory & Practice (pp.11-18).
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649357.2021.1930423
Liu, Y., Lu, S., Guo, Y., Ho, H.C., Song, Y., Cheng, W., Chui, C.H.K., Chan, O.F., Chiu, R.L.H., Webster, C., & Lum, T.Y.S. (2021). Longitudinal associations between neighbourhood physical environments and depressive symptoms of older adults in Hong Kong: The moderating effects of terrain slope and declining functional abilities. Health & Place, 70, 102585. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102585
Lu, S., Liu, Y., Guo, Y., Ho, H.C., Song, Y., Cheng, W., Chui, C.H.K., Chan, O.F., Chiu, R.L.H., Webster, C., & Lum, T.Y.S. (2021). Neighbourhood physical environment, intrinsic capacity and 4-year late-life functional ability trajectories of low-income Chinese older population: A longitudinal study with the parallel process of latent growth curve modelling. EClinicalMedicine (In press).
Chiu, R. L.H. (2021). Subsidized housing policy transfer: from liberal-interventionist Hong Kong to marketized socialist Shenzhen. Housing, Theory and Society. DOI: 10.1080/14036096.2021.1879252
Tang, J.Y.M., Chui, C.H.K., Lou, V.W.Q., Chiu, R.L.H., Kwok, R., Tse, M., Leung, A.Y. M., Chau, P.-H., & Lum, T.Y.S. (2021). The contribution of sense of community to the association between age-friendly built environment and health in a high-density city: A cross-sectional study of middle-aged and older adults in Hong Kong. Journal of Applied Gerontology. DOI: 10.1177/0733464821991298
Li, J., & Chiu, R. L. H. (2019). State rescaling and large-scale urban development projects in China: The case of Lingang New Town, Shanghai. Urban Studies.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098019881367
Chiu, R. L. H., Liu, Z., & Renaud, B. (Eds.) (2019). International Housing Market Experience and Implications for China. New York, NY: Routledge.
Chiu, R. L. H. (2019). Housing challenges in Hong Kong’s dualistic housing system: Implications for Chinese cities. In R. L. H. Chiu, Z. Liu, & B. Renaud (Eds.), International Housing Market Experience and Implications for China (pp. 201-229). New York, NY: Routledge.
Renaud, B., Chiu, R. L. H., & Liu, Z. (2019). Global and local housing challenges. In R. L. H. Chiu, Z. Liu, & B. Renaud (Eds.), International Housing Market Experience and Implications for China (pp. 3-26). New York, NY: Routledge.
Glaeser, E., Chiu, R. L. H., Liu, Z., & Renaud, B. (2019). A roadmap for housing policy: Lessons of international experience. In R. L. H. Chiu, Z. Liu, & B. Renaud (Eds.), International Housing Market Experience and Implications for China (pp. 355-388). New York, NY: Routledge.
Zhang, T., Chiu, R. L. H., & Ho, H. C. (2019). Suburban neighborhood environments and depression: A case study of Guangzhou, China. Transport and Geography, 15, 100624.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2019.100624
Chui, C. H., Tang, J. Y. M., Kwan, C. M., Chan, O. F., Tse, M., Chiu, R. L. H., Lou, V. W. Q., Chau, P. H., Leung, A. Y. M., & Lum, T. Y. S. (2019). Older adults’ perceptions of age-friendliness in Hong Kong. The Gerontologist, 59(3), 549-558.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gny052
Wei, Z., & Chiu, R. L. H. (2018). Livability of subsidized housing estates in marketized socialist China: An institutional interpretation. Cities, 83, 108-117.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2018.06.013
Chiu, R.L.H., & Webster, C. (2018). One Belt One Road Urban Observatory (OBORobs). Special Issue on Urbanizing, Technology, Architecture and Design, Journal of American Collegiate Schools of Architects, 3(1), 33-35. DOI: 10.1080/24751448.2019.1571795
Li, J., & Chiu, R.L.H. (2018). Urban investment and development corporations, new town development and China’s local state restructuring – The case of Songjiang new town, Shanghai. Urban Geography, 39(5), 687-705. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2017.1382308
Satu, S.A., & Chiu, R.L.H. (2017). Livability in dense residential neighbourhoods of Dhaka. Housing Studies, 34(3), 538-559. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2017.1364711
Wei, Z., Chen, T., Chiu, R.L.H., & Chan, E.H.W. (2017). Policy transferability on public housing at the city level: Singapore to Guangzhou in China. Journal of Urban Planning and Development, 143(3).
Selected Research Projects
A Comprehensive Study On Housing In An Ageing Community
Active Dates: July 2013 – November 2014
Principal Investigator: Rebecca L.H. CHIU
Team: Ernest CHUI, Tris KEE, Terry LUM, Bo-sin TANG, Jacqueline TSE
Funding body: Hong Kong Housing Society
Abstract
The study investigated six key issues:housing trends in overseas ageing communities;
It involves the undertaking of a territory-wide face-to-face questionnaire survey of a sample of 5,000 people of different life stages, 16 focus group meeting and in-depth interviews with key professionals and organizations related to elderly services and elderly housing services.
Objectives
Social Sustainability Of Gated Communities In A High Density City: The Case Of Hong Kong
Active Dates: January 2012 – December 2014
Principal Investigator: Rebecca L.H. CHIU
Funding body: General Research Fund, Hong Kong Research Grant Council
Abstract
This study analyses and compares housing estates in Hong Kong as distinctive forms of gated communities (GCs) for improving their social sustainability and for pioneering transferable frameworks for examining similar planned residential communities in Asia. The analysis initially evaluated social sustainability awareness in the planning processes, then compared and explained the social sustainability performance of different housing estate types with reference to the socio-political, planning and institutional contexts, and government role and objectives. Apart from secondary data, site observation and interviews with estate planners/designers, and questionnaire surveys of residents inside and outside of the gated housing estates were conducted.
Objectives
To recommend ways for improving the social sustainability performance, and to
pioneer the development of transferable frameworks for analysing GCs in high
rise cities.
Transferability Of Subsidized Housing Policy From A Liberal Interventionist To A Marketized Socialist System: The Cases Of Hong Kong And Shenzhen
Active Dates: 1 January 2016 – 31 December 2019
Principal Investigator: Rebecca L.H. CHIU
Source of Funding: General Research Fund, Hong Kong Research Grant Council
The Asian financial crises of 1997 and the global financial crisis of 2008 led to significant revisions of Asia’s subsidized housing policy to combat diminishing affordability due to either the post-crisis economic depression or overheated housing markets resultant from the movement of global funds to the Asian markets since 2009. Drawing lessons from other housing systems has been a necessary step in the policy revision process.
This study aims to analyse and evaluate the transferability of subsidized housing policies in the liberal interventionist system of Hong Kong to the marketized socialist system of Shenzhen to facilitate the development of a theoretical discourse of policy transferability in comparative housing studies.
Objective