Caterina Villani
Dr Caterina Villani is PolyU Distinguished Postdoctoral fellow at School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Villani’s research explores the planning and logic of public space production and its informal use by vulnerable groups in Asian global cities, with a particular focus on Hong Kong. Her PhD research was fully funded by the HKPFS Fellowship (Research Grants Council of Hong Kong). Covering the areas of social sustainability, policy research, spatial planning and sharing practices, Villani aims to combine multi-disciplinary approaches to envision alternative processes and urban forms.
During her doctoral years, Villani was a visiting researcher at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, before she was a visiting student at the CAUP Tongji University in Shanghai and Mc Gill University in Montreal. Villani published her research in high-quality academic journals and presented it at international conferences. She is a reviewer for several urban design journals, and she was appointed Early Career Advisor on Public Space for City Space Architecture (UN-Habitat partner). She received three research awards, the most recent is the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design Awards 2021 for her co-authored book Walkable Cities in High Density China: Livable, Healthy and Sustainable. Abstract
