On behalf of Dr. Naomi Hanakata, our PhD student Reetu presented a poster at the Women in Renewable Energy (WiRE) 2025 conference in Singapore.

The poster explores the interdependencies between energy and urban planning—an area that remains underexamined despite its critical importance for sustainable urban development and the regeneration of sacrifice zones. Specifically, it highlights how urban planning can play a more active role in facilitating localized energy transitions.

This project consolidates data on renewable energy (RE) potentials and draws upon Singapore’s current planning framework to propose strategies for integrating available RE capacities into the spatial planning process. Leveraging Singapore’s unique position as a resource-scarce but highly planned territory, the project outlines potential pathways for urban planning to contribute meaningfully to local energy resilience.

Dr. Naomi Hanakata will be presenting at the Sustainable Built Environment Conference (SBE25), which will be held from June 25–27, 2025. This year’s theme, “Shaping Tomorrow: Systems Thinking in the Built Environment,” highlights the need for holistic solutions to reduce emissions and resource consumption in the built environment.

Her talk will focus on renewable energy resources and potentials in Singapore, exploring how urban form, technology, and policy can support a just and effective energy transition. 

SBE25 brings together experts to discuss key themes, including:

• Integrated energy and resource use

• Digital tools for circularity

• Regenerative economic models

• Environmental, social, and economic synergies

Our presentation titled “Towards Coastal Resilience in Singapore: A Time-Based Adaptive Planning Approach for West Coast” will be featured at the 41st IAHR World Congress, taking place from 22–27 June 2025 at the Singapore EXPO.

Part of the conference theme “Climate Change Adaptation,” this presentation explores a time-based adaptive planning framework to address climate-related uncertainties in Singapore’s coastal areas. Focusing on the West Coast, the study integrates long-term scenario planning, stakeholder engagement, and flexible design strategies to enhance urban resilience in the face of sea-level rise and extreme weather events.

Held alongside SIWW Spotlight 2025, IAHR2025 offers a key platform for advancing interdisciplinary dialogue and sharing transformative solutions for climate-adaptive water and urban systems globally.

Our PhD student Hankang will be presenting at the 20th Singapore Graduate Forum on Southeast Asian Studies, focusing on “Urban Informality in a Formalized City: Ethnographic Insights into ‘A-Formal’ Commercial Practices in Singapore.” 

His paper examines “a-formal” commercial practices in Singapore—self-organized yet partially regulated activities that blur the line between informality and formalization. Based on ethnographic fieldwork at Clementi Centre Market, it analyzes three forms of "a-formal" commercial practices to explore how informal elements persist, adapt, or are obscured within a tightly regulated urban system. By introducing “a-formal” as an analytical lens, the study challenges the formal/informal binary and highlights how urban informality survives in authoritarian planning contexts as adaptive, negotiated practice—shedding light on overlooked resilience beyond Global South frameworks.

As part of an ongoing effort to explore equitable pathways to urban sustainability, a distinguished panel titled Just Transitions—Challenges and Opportunities of Necessary Change will take place on 20 June 2025 at the Swiss Institute for Advanced Studies / Collegium Helveticum in Zurich.

This panel brings together leading scholars and practitioners engaged in transition-focused research and practice. The discussion will critically examine the complexities of just urban transitions—highlighting both structural obstacles and emerging opportunities. In addition to reflecting existing and upcoming collaborations, the panel aims to generate new dialogues and partnerships that advance the field of just transitions.

Confirmed Panelists:

• Mun Summ Wong (WOHA / National University of Singapore)

• Sascha Roesler (Università della Svizzera italiana)

• Anthony Patt (ETH Zurich)

• Naomi C. Hanakata (National University of Singapore / ETH Zurich)

• Moderator: Lindsay Howe (Technical University of Munich)

The event promises to be a key moment for advancing interdisciplinary understanding of transition strategies that are not only sustainable but also socially just.

The global urgency to mitigate climate change demands a fundamental transformation from fossil fuel–based energy systems to low-carbon alternatives. This shift is not only a technological challenge, but also a socio-economic and ethical one, with far-reaching consequences for labor markets, community resilience, and global equity. Transforming entrenched systems and overcoming lock-ins—spanning stakeholders, processes, infrastructure for energy sourcing and distribution, and even the management of resources at their origin—constitutes a paradigm shift. This transformation requires coordinated action, new policy frameworks, technological innovation, and cultural adaptation on a planetary scale.

This panel discussion explores, what implications transitions to sustainable systems entail and how they can be designed to uphold principles of justice. Concise interdisciplinary contributions will examine critical components of sustainability transitions, and the role of design, governance, and public engagement in shaping equitable pathways.

Find out more: https://collegium.ethz.ch/events/fellow-year-2024-2025/just-transitions

Our PhD student Tiantong will be presenting her research at the upcoming Southeast Asian Urbanisms Seminar (SEAUS) 2.0, taking place from 11 to 13 June 2025, with optional local tours on 14 June 2025. The seminar, themed “Cultures in Transition: Urbanism and Landscapes in Southeast Asia,” will bring together emerging and established scholars, as well as practitioners, to explore the dynamic cultural and environmental transformations occurring across the region.

Tiantong’s presentation, titled “Planting the Nation: Urban Nature and Multispecies Politics in Gardens by the Bay,” investigates how planting operates not merely as beautification but as a powerful tool of urbanization and nation-building in Singapore. Her paper traces the country’s evolution from the “Garden City” to the “City in a Garden,” spotlighting the shift from utilitarian greening to the curated botanical spectacle of Gardens by the Bay. Through detailed analysis of the Supertrees and climate-controlled domes, she argues that these living infrastructures symbolize Singapore’s global ambitions. By examining the logistical, symbolic, and ecological dimensions of the planting process, Tiantong explores how plants are mobilized across borders, serving as both infrastructure and narrative in the nation’s development. Her work contributes to broader debates on multispecies urbanism, reframing planting not as passive greenery but as an active agent shaping the urban environment and its global entanglements.

Dr. Naomi Hanakata has been invited to give a talk at the Architekturpositionen Lecture Series, hosted by the Department of Architecture, Technische Universität Braunschweig (TU Braunschweig), on May 27, 2025, at 18:30.

Her talk, titled “Planetary Reverberations: Sustainability Transitions and Territorial Reconfigurations in Southeast Asia,” explores how renewable energy production is reconfiguring territorial relations in Southeast Asia. Using Singapore as a vantage point, it examines how diverse urban sites are increasingly entangled through flows of labour and materials, and more specifically, electricity, capital, infrastructure, and expertise. These interdependencies challenge binaries like urban/rural, producer/consumer, and Global North/South, highlighting how sustainability transitions reshape both concentrated and extended forms of urbanisation and their interdependencies. Grounded in spatial planning and critical urban studies, the talk reflects on the uneven geographies of decarbonisation and the political and spatial implications of transitioning in the context of planetary urbanisation.

We’re excited to announce the official launch of the Urban Transitions Lab at the National University of Singapore, along with our new website and digital platforms!

The Urban Transitions Lab is a research and design hub that explores how different urban regions change and how we can guide that change toward more adaptive, inclusive, and sustainable futures. We investigate how people, places, and resources interact across scales and sectors in times of uncertainty. Bridging theory and practice, our work blends critical inquiry with design experimentation to co-create knowledge, prototypes, and strategies for urban transitions. Whether you're a researcher, student, practitioner, or simply curious about the future of cities, we invite you to connect with us.

Visit our website to explore our work and follow us for updates, events, and opportunities to collaborate.

Visit us at: www.urbantransitionslab.com

Follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.