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TEACHING TEAM

Brent D. Ryan

Associate Professor of Urban Design and Public Policy
Head of City Design and Development Group Department of Urban Studies and PlanningMassachusetts Institute of Technology

Brent D. Ryan is Head of the City Design and Development Group and Associate Professor of Urban Design and Public Policy in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. His research focuses on the aesthetics and policies of contemporary urban design, particularly with respect to pressing issues like deindustrialization and climate change. Professor Ryan’s first book Design After Decline: How America rebuilds shrinking cities , was one of Planetizen ’s ten best urban planning books of 2012, and his second book The Largest Art: A measured manifesto for plural urbanism , was published by MIT Press in 2017.

Professor Ryan has published research in the Journal of Urbanism, Journal of Urban Design, Journal of Planning History, Urban Design International, Urban Morphology , and the Journal of the American Planning Association , which awarded his article “Reading Through A Plan” its best article of 2011. Professor Ryan has contributed chapters to The Companion to Urban Design, The City After Abandonment, The Oxford Handbook of Urban Planning , and others.

Professor Ryan conducts urban design research and practice around the world, including China, Ukraine, Russia, Japan, and the United States. Current research includes a study of sustainability in Siberian cities, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and a study of new town design conducted in collaboration with MIT China Future City Lab. Professor Ryan has consulted for the World Bank, Google, and the Armenian Tumo Foundation relating to cities, urban design, economic and demographic shifts.

Prior to joining MIT, Professor Ryan taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he was also Co-Director of the City Design Center. Professor Ryan holds a B.S. in biology from Yale University, a M. Arch. from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in urban design and planning from MIT.

Sing Yueng (Sunnie) Lau
Director of Smart City Research and Industry Collaboration
MIT Hong Kong Innovation Node

Sunnie believes that human-centric design promotes inclusive communities with innovative sustainable design strategies and urban designers & architects play important roles within the built environment. As an international associate member of AIA, UK Chartered Member and Hong Kong Registered Architect, she has been a regular design critic and instructor at architecture and urban design programmes at various schools. Taking up the roles of both practitioner and educator, she has been promoting architecture by designing, exhibiting, writing as outreach, and engaging communities. The endeavors included publicizing ongoing research topic on Kowloon East Inclusive Innovation & Growth, urban research-oriented design seminar on “Urban Mobility and Smart Infrastructure”, “Urban Resilience by Design – Adaptive Landscapes for PRD” , and facilitating dialogue between professionals, academia and young members at various cross disciplinary platforms and institutions. She was Co-Curator & Exhibitor of the Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale Of UrbanismArchitecture (Hong Kong) 2017, 2019, Venice Biennale (HK) 2020-2021.

Sunnie graduated with a B.A in Architecture from University of California, Berkeley; and later on, obtained her Master of Architecture, and Certificate in Urban Design from M.I.T. Her international experiences began with renowned architectural practices prior to postgraduate study at the M.I.T.; she worked with Morphosis Architects L.A., MVRDV Rotterdam, on international competitions, cultural projects and large-scale urban developments. Her academic research focuses on smart city – Inclusive innovation for communities, urban design and technology, urban mobility and smart infrastructure, architectural and urban typologies with an interest in creative and innovative sustainable design strategies (SDGs).

Andrew Stokols
PhD Candidate Department of Urban Studies and Planning
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Andrew is an urban planner/designer and researcher. He is currently a Phd student at MIT in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in the City Design and Development group. His work explores the relationships between national economic development policy and urban megaprojects amidst the rise of platform urbanism and climate change.

He graduated with a masters in urban planning at Harvard Graduate School of Design. His thesis explored the potential of urban network analysis to improve walkability and community in China's super block neighborhoods. Andrew has also been involved in research projects investigating various facets of global urbanization, particularly in China and Asia. As part of Neil Brenner's urban theory lab at Harvard GSD, Andrew investigated the confluence of the global logistics industry and China's "One Belt One Road" program in furthering urbanization in central Asia and western China.

Andrew has worked across Asia and the U.S. on a wide range of projects involving sustainable development and cities. After graduating from U.C Berkeley, he worked for a nonprofit in Beijing managing heritage preservation and rural development projects and was a 2012-13 Fulbright Research Fellow based in Xi’an,China where he investigated the forced relocation of millions of farmers into apartment housing throughout rural China.