The Urban Transitions Lab will be presenting our latest work across a range of themes at the 9th Annual APRU (Association of Pacific Rim Universities) Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Conference 2026 in Shanghai, from May 21 to 24. With the theme “Evolutionary Cities and Landscapes at the Pacific Rim,” the conference brings together six thematic forums to facilitate cross-boundary discussions, including Climate Change and Resilient Design, Historic Heritage Conservation and Adaptive Renewal, Landscape Perception, Health, and Biodiversity, Community Design and Environmental Challenges, Urban Ecology and Infrastructure, and Smart City Technologies and Management.

Dr. Naomi Hanakata will present her work on energy transitions and the concept of relational energy landscapes as an analytical approach to understand landscapes for renewable energy production, not just as material artefacts or sites of territorial transformation, but as dynamic actors that are actively shaping and are being shaped by energy governance, material infrastructures, and everyday life across multiple scales. Focusing on Southeast Asia, the paper addresses the extensively interdependent processes and practices that are shaping regional energy futures. 

Our PhD candidate Tiantong will share her work on “Planting as a Mode of Urbanization: Gardens by the Bay.” This paper frames Gardens by the Bay as a double space: as a lush, global “Other”, and a staged projection of Singapore’s national identity. Rather than focusing on its iconic image, it examines the dense intentions, practices, and networks that planting sets in motion. The paper reconceptualizes planting as a central mode of urbanization. At Gardens by the Bay, planting is not only decorative but a multispecies, space-producing, and geopolitical process through which urban landscapes, national identity, and global positioning are actively constructed.

Our PhD candidate Wenjie will present her work on “Translating Eco-Urbanism Across Borders: Sino-Singapore Learning and Shifting Human-Nature Relations in Planning.” Focusing on China–Singapore collaboration, this study compares three cases—Sino-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, and Singapore-Nanjing Eco High-tech Island—to examine how narratives of eco-urbanism reshapes human–nature relations through planning in China over time, what urban ecological governance knowledge is transferred, how it is translated into planning instruments and spatial forms, and what differentiated learning outcomes result.

Our PhD candidate Hankang will share his research on “Incorporated Informality in a Formalized City: the Politics of Street Commercial Practices in Clementi Town Centre in Singapore.” This study examines how “informal” street commercial practices in Clementi Town Centre persist and evolve within Singapore’s highly regulated urban order, arguing that such practices are best understood as incorporated informality, co-produced through the calibrated strategies, discretionary enforcement, and conditional exception-making of the state and authorities.

PhD student Xuelu will present “Reconceptualising Adaptation: Temporal Processes and Spatial Contingencies in Coastal Areas.” This work advances a time-based understanding of adaptation, framing it as a relational and evolving process shaped by both temporal dynamics and spatial conditions.

We look forward to sharing our work, meeting new colleagues, and engaging in discussions that are closely aligned with the core themes of our Lab.

It was a wonderful and enriching experience to present our work in progress at this year’s American Association of Geographers (AAG) 2026 Annual Meeting in San Francisco, where three members of UTL contributed to discussions on renewable energy transition, coastal adaptation, and agrifood systems. 

Dr Naomi Hanakata presented “Practices of Inclusionary Control in Southeast Asia’s Renewable Energy Transition” in the session “Geographies of Energy Transitions.” Her work examines Singapore’s regional energy entanglements, highlighting how “inclusionary control” reshapes centre-periphery relations, infrastructures, and socio-spatial dependencies across Southeast Asia’s transition.

PhD student Xuelu shared her ongoing research, titled “Reconceptualising Adaptation: Temporal Processes and Spatial Contingencies in Coastal Areas,” in the session “Untapped: Fresh Voices in Water Resources Geography.” In her presentation, she explored how temporal considerations shape our understanding of adaptation, and argued for a reconceptualization of adaptive urban planning as a relational, time-based process. 

PhD student Jiamin shared her work at the session “Applying political ecology to better understand agrifood system today 1” with the title “Feeding Urbanization: Rethinking the City-Hinterland Relations of Singapore through the Lens of Food.” Her presentation examines how state policies and cross-border networks have organized agricultural practices, showing that food dependency is intertwined with the regional governance and spatial restructuring. 

It was a great opportunity to meet so many new colleagues and engage in discussions so closely related to the topics at the centre of the Urban Transitions Lab.

Dr. Naomi Hanakata has been invited to give a talk at Waseda University, hosted by the School of International Liberal Studies, on Friday, 16 January 2026, at 5:00 pm. The talk will be held in person at the Waseda Campus, Building 11 (room to be confirmed).

Her talk, titled “Platform Urbanisation Across Scales: How the Digital Impacts Our Cities,” examines platform urbanisation as a key driver of contemporary urbanisation processes and as a critical lens for understanding the digital-urban age. Digital platforms - acting simultaneously as infrastructures, governance systems, and socio-political environments - reshape spatial, political, and experiential dimensions of urban life across a planetary scale. By linking material infrastructures, algorithmic governance, and everyday practices, platforms constitute a new techno-political arena in which power, participation, and rights – and everyday life - are continuously reconfigured. 

Drawing on ongoing research into e-commerce platforms, she examines the case of Singapore, where platform infrastructures extend as cross-border logistical assemblages while also generating new interstitial, semi-private spaces along the last mile. These developments illuminate how platformisation reorganises not only flows of goods and data but also forms of labour, visibility, and urban encounter. 

This talk highlights the political stakes of platform urbanisation, including democratic accountability, inclusion, new constituencies, and collective agency, and calls for a renewed analytical and normative approaches to digital platform practices capable of addressing the uneven, planetary realities of the digital-urban condition.

Dr. Naomi C. Hanakata has joined the Editorial Board of Urban Transitions — a new open-access journal that brings together an outstanding group of scholars, including Susan Parnell, Rob Raven, Audrey de Nazelle, and Clayton Miller, among many others.

The journal’s ambition closely aligns with that of the Urban Transitions Lab, providing a timely platform for advancing integrated, cross-disciplinary research on the social, political, ecological, and technological transformations shaping cities and their extended territories.

Urban Transitions aims to bridge critical urban theory and practice by fostering dialogue across planning, design, environmental sciences, public health, and governance. As cities and their hinterlands navigate the intersecting challenges of climate change, energy transitions, and deep social inequalities, the journal offers space for research that both deepens scientific understanding and informs policy, planning, and collective action. Open access ensures that these conversations remain accessible to researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers worldwide.

Learn more and explore the journal.

Dr. Naomi C. Hanakata has been appointed as one of the new Co-Editors of disP – The Planning Review, starting in 2025.

Founded in 1965 at ETH Zurich, disP is one of the longest-standing international journals in the field of spatial planning and urban design. With its expanded editorial team, disP aims to strengthen its role as a vibrant platform for cutting-edge research and meaningful academic exchange.

Dr. Hanakata will join a distinguished team of editors, including Dr. Daan Bossuyt (Utrecht University), Dr. Meike Levin-Keitel (University of Vienna), Dr. Gabriela Debrunner (University of Lausanne), Dr. Martina Schretzenmayr (ETH, Managing Editor), and Dr. David Kaufmann (ETH, Editor-in-Chief). Together, the new editors bring diverse expertise and fresh perspectives to shape the journal’s next chapter.

Her appointment reflects the growing recognition of the importance of advancing urban design and planning research that addresses the complexities of adaptation, resilience, and spatial transformation in rapidly changing environments.

Dr. Naomi Hanakata has been invited to give a talk at the Zürich Hönggerberg HIB E Open Space 2, hosted by Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (GTA) gta Digital, on 10th and 11th September, 2025. This symposium examines how urban futures have been imagined, constructed, and debated since the mid-20th century, tracing shifts from postwar planning to the Information Age and today’s AI era. It explores evolving narratives, archives, and technologies shaping how cities are studied, represented, and envisioned.

Her talk, titled “When has the future become urban?” explores how the future has been imagined through cities by examining three perspectives: aspirational futures, antithetical futures, and planetary futures. It highlights the role of urban design in giving material form to these visions—whether through monumental boulevards, modernist master plans, or infrastructural networks—showing how design mediates between symbolic aspirations and lived realities. The talk unsettles the assumption that the future is naturally urban, asking when and why this has become the default horizon for imagining global futures, whose interests are served by such framings, and what alternative imaginaries—rural, ecological, post-urban—might open different pathways toward more just and sustainable futures. 

As the new semester begins, we are excited to share that Dr. Naomi C. Hanakata will be teaching two dynamic modules that push the boundaries of urban design and planning.

1. AR5601 | Urban Design Theory and Praxis [Core module for MArch]

This core module provides a comprehensive and in-depth examination of the theories, methodologies, and praxis of urban design. It introduces key ideas that are instrumental in establishing the foundations of urban design, examining rationales and strategies for creating vital and lively urban spaces, and addressing pressing challenges facing urban design today and in the future. Students will engage with diverse topics, including urban form, density, diversity, identity, public space, community, and sustainability, while developing their own perspectives on contemporary urban design practice.

2. AR5952B | Designing with Energy [Elective module for MArch]

This module critically investigates the renewable energy transition and the role of local energy resources as a key parameter in urban planning practices. With a focus on Singapore’s current energy landscape, the course explores the potential of local energy production and examines real sites to understand the implications of energy on planning and design. Students will develop new planning scenarios and design solutions that engage with the possibilities of a just transition across different scales.

Both modules encourage students to think critically and creatively, equipping them with tools to address complex urban challenges in innovative and sustainable ways.

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

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