Just back from speaking at the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design (HKIUD) international conference. An excellent event, picked up in their local media, not least because good urban design will play an ever-increasing part in Hong Kong’s attractiveness to businesses and tourists, and also its liveability to workers and managers. It is not just the prestige that matters, but the everyday liveability, which it seems generally agreed, needs to be improved.

I was speaking on engagement across the public and private sectors, which seemed well received, not least because there are many local challenges of engagement to address. It would be good to go out there again and work with them, and the HKIUD are to be congratulated for the progress they are making in taking this dimension forward over the last two years. Hopefully they will be able to progress from a ‘professional’ body to become a wider influence on place and culture.

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