Rethinking Hong Kong Streets

Maxi is a transport planner with PJA based in the UK. He specialises in strategic transport planning and sustainable mobility including Active Travel.

He has a track record of delivering over 10 of strategic plans of active travel network across regions, counties and towns in the UK of both urban and rural characteristics. He leads the technical development on methodologies and approaches on active travel network development with spatial analysis and formulation of evidence base. He is also experienced in scheme design reviews and development for route and area-wide active travel schemes.

Prior joining PJA and his MSc Transport Planning with University of Leeds Institute of Transport Studies, he was the project manager leading and co-authoring a district-based planning and transport study for the Tsuen Wan District Council, during his time with the Chinese University of Hong Kong Institute of Future Cities.

Believing transport is intrinsically linked to people’s access to opportunity, Maxi is passionate about developing transport strategies for local authorities that delivers for the people and the future. He is therefore a keen advocate and is part of “Street Reset”, the first collective group promoting human-oriented transport planning and street design in Hong Kong

Alain Chiaradia is Vice president of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design, Associate Professor and Deputy Head at the University of Hong Kong’s Department of Urban Planning and Design. He specializes in network-based morphometrics and design thinking to explore the health, social, economic, and environmental impacts of urban design and transport. Chiaradia is the founding lead co-author of the 3D Spatial Design Network Analysis software (3D sDNA), used globally by urban professionals and researchers. His applied research on the impacts of the built environment has been internationally recognized as having “outstanding impacts in terms of their reach and significance.” Chiaradia is also the Programme Director of the Master of Science in Urban Design and Transport at HKU.

My Sustainability Goals for 2024:

Supports sustainability objectives of creating all weather more liveable, pedestrian-friendly cities and reducing emissions from transportation.
Sustainable urban planning and transport policies that balance economic development with environmental considerations.
Support for exemplary data-driven insights on how urban design affects liveability, health, and wellbeing.

Eli Konvitz is an expert in sustainability and urban development with experience on five continents. He consults on urban innovation and development, is Vice-Chair of the Urban Land Institute in Hong Kong, and adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Hong Kong.

He has led masterplans for new cities, urban regeneration, transit oriented development, reclamation and waterfront development, industrial, tourism and leisure projects. He is experienced in masterplanning and urban design, large-scale urbanisation and regional strategies, and climate change strategy and policy. In 2006 he led the ground-breaking creation of the evidence base for climate change in the London Plan, and in 2008 he pioneered creation of a mechanism to fund and drive low-carbon retrofit of existing buildings.

Eli was previously Director of Atkins’ Planning and Urban Design practice in South East Asia and Net Zero leader for Asia; Asia Practice Lead for Consulting, Strategy and Advisory; and Chair of Atkins’ Urban Planning Global Network. Prior to joining Atkins, he was at Arup in London and co-founder of startup localCarbon.

A graduate of The Johns Hopkins University and has an MSc in Town Planning from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, he is Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts, a member of the Pacific Basin Economic Council, sits on the Advisory Board of AMRACE in Malaysia and on the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design’s Public Affairs and International and Mainland Affairs Committees.

President and Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design, a UK Chartered and Hong Kong Registered Landscape Architect, Fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Landscape Architects, Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Building Engineers, an accredited Construction adjudicator and CEDR Accredited Mediator. A long standing Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Architecture, University of Hong Kong, he sits on various HKSAR Government Advisory Committees, Mediation Panels and International Arbitration Courts in both Hong Kong and China. He received award from the China International Urbanization Development Strategy Research Committee in 2012 for his contribution to China’s urbanisation transformation and the 2019 Reed & Mallik Medal from the Institution of Civil Engineers for his paper “An Outline to Futureproofing Cities with Ten Immediate Steps”. A long-term advocate of sustainable, forward thinking development approaches, his consultancy practice – Barry Wilson Project Initiatives has been tackling urbanisation issues in Hong Kong and China for nearly 30 years. His book – Futureproof City : Ten Immediate Paths to Urban Resilience was published by Routledge in 2021.

My Sustainability Goals for 2024:

1. Hong Kong Government to appoint an “Urban Champion”, acting like a mayor across silos, to generate a new vision for renewal of the urban realm that prioritises citizen’s health, safety, and equity; promotes innovation, quality and renewal and rejects traditional fastest, biggest, cheapest development scenarios.

2. Adopt new quality and impact based metrics to assess societal development and success – phasing out the use of one-dimensional, consumption-lead economic growth measured by GDP.