Prof. CHU, Cecilia L. (朱慰先)

Introduction

Cecilia L. Chu is an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Trained as an urban historian with a background in design and conservation, Chu’s research and teaching focus on the social and cultural processes that shape the forms and meanings of built environments and their impacts on local communities. Informing her work is an interest in the design and representation of spaces (as buildings, landscapes, and infrastructures) and the production of their social meanings and values. She is especially interested in the intersection of professional and popular knowledge of architecture and landscapes and how these articulations have contributed to city-making and the shaping of individual and collective aspirations of citizens.

Chu is the author of the award-winning book, Building Colonial Hong Kong: Speculative Development and Segregation in the City, which received the 2023 Best Book in Non-North American Urban History Award from the Urban History Association. Her other publications include The Speculative City: Emergent Forms and Norms of the Built Environment (2022), and Hong Kong Built Heritage (forthcoming 2024). Her current research projects include an investigation of the socio-technical histories of infrastructure in Hong Kong, as well as a comparative study of heritage and conservation practices in Asia that have given rise to new interpretations of colonial histories.

Chu is a co-founder and past president of the Hong Kong Chapter of DOCOMOMO (International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites, and Neighbourhoods of the Modern Movement), and an advisory board member of IASTE (International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments). She also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Urban History, Journal for the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong, Built Environment, Surveying and Built Environment, and the ArchAsia series of the Hong Kong University Press.

Chu welcomes inquiries from prospective PhD applicants. A short proposal including a set of research questions will help initiate a conversation.

Research Interests

History and Theory of Architecture and Planning
Comparative Urban Studies
Critical Heritage Studies
Conservation and Regeneration
Cultural Landscapes
Histories and Futures of Environmental Design

Selected Publications

Books

Hong Kong’s Built Heritage
Chu, C.L. Hong Kong’s Built Heritage. Hong Kong Matters Series, Hong Kong University Press (forthcoming 2024).

Building Colonial Hong Kong: Speculative Development and Segregation in the City. Planning, History and Environment Series
Chu, C.L. Building Colonial Hong Kong: Speculative Development and Segregation in the City. Planning, History and Environment Series, Routledge, 2022.

The Speculative City: Emergent Forms and Norms of the Built Environment
Chu, C.L. and He, S., eds., The Speculative City: Emergent Forms and Norms of the Built Environment. University of Toronto Press, 2022.

Journal Articles and Book Chapters

“Concrete”
Woodworth, M.D. and Chu, C.L. eds. “Concrete.” Roadsides 11 (2024): 1-94.

The Afterlives of Modern Housing
Chu, C.L. “The Afterlives of Modern Housing.” In Routledge Companion to Contemporary Architectural History, edited by Duanfang Lu, 127-143, Routledge, 2023.

Beyond the Sunday Spectacle: Foreign Domestic Workers and Emergent Civic Urbanisms in Hong Kong
Chu, C.L. and Catalan, M.E. “Beyond the Sunday Spectacle: Foreign Domestic Workers and Emergent Civic Urbanisms in Hong Kong.” In Cities After Development: Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul and Singapore, edited by I.S. Cho, B. Kriznik and J., 245-266. Amsterdam University Press, 2022.

Living Heritage Vs. Dead Relics? Place Meanings and Boundary-Making in the Politics of Heritage in Postcolonial Hong Kong
L. Barber and C.L. Chu “Living Heritage Vs. Dead Relics? Place Meanings and Boundary-Making in the Politics of Heritage in Postcolonial Hong Kong.” In Place Meaning and Attachment: Authenticity, Heritage, and Preservation, edited by D. Kopec and A. Bliss, 182-193. Routledge, 2020.

Tianyuan Dushi: Garden City, Urban Planning, and Visions of Modernization in Early 20^th Century China
Chu, C.L. and Z. Liang. “Tianyuan Dushi: Garden City, Urban Planning, and Visions of Modernization in Early 20^th Century China.” Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 31, 1 (2019): 39-54.

Envisioning Future Pasts: Heritage and Emergent Activism in Postcolonial Macau and Hong Kong
Chu, C.L. “Envisioning Future Pasts: Heritage and Emergent Activism in Postcolonial Macau and Hong Kong.” In Urban Asias: Essays on Futurity Past and Present, edited by T. Bunnell and D.P.S. Goh, 64-76. Jovis Verlag, 2018.

Placing ‘Asia’ against the ‘West’: Occidentalism and the Production of Architectural Images in Shanghai and Hong Kong
Chu, C.L. “‘Placing ‘Asia’ against the ‘West’: Occidentalism and the Production of Architectural Images in Shanghai and Hong Kong.” Architectural Theory Review 22, 3 (2018): 309-337.

Constructing a New Domestic Discourse: The Modern Home in Architectural Journals and Mass Market Texts in Early 20^th Century China
Chu, C.L. “Constructing a New Domestic Discourse: The Modern Home in Architectural Journals and Mass Market Texts in Early 20^th Century China.” Journal of Architecture 22, 6 (2017): 1066-1091.

Narrating the Mall City
Chu, C.L. “Narrating the Mall City.” In Mall City: Hong Kong’s Dreamworlds of Consumption, edited by S. Al, 83-90. Hong Kong University Press, 2016.

Spectacular Macau: Visioning Futures for A World Heritage City
Chu, C.L. “Spectacular Macau: Visioning Futures for A World Heritage City.” Geoforum 65 (2015): 440-450.

Shanzheng (善政) and Gongde (公德): Moral Regulation and Narratives of ‘Good Government’ in Colonial Hong Kong
Chu, C. “Shanzheng (善政) and Gongde (公德): Moral Regulation and Narratives of ‘Good Government’ in Colonial Hong Kong.” Journal of Historical Geography 42 (2013): 180-192.

Combating Nuisance: Sanitation, Regulation, and the Politics of Property in Colonial Hong Kong
Chu, C. “Combating Nuisance: Sanitation, Regulation, and the Politics of Property in Colonial Hong Kong.” In Imperial Contagions: Medicine and the Cultures of Planning in Asia, edited by R. Peckham and D. Pomfret, 17-36. Hong Kong University Press, 2013.

Between Typologies and Representation: The Tong Lau and the Discourse of the ‘Chinese House
Chu, C. “Between Typologies and Representation: The Tong Lau and the Discourse of the ‘Chinese House.’” In Colonial Frames, Nationalist Histories, edited by M. Rajagopalan and M. Desai, 253-83. Ashgate, 2012.

People Power as Exception: Three Controversies Over Privatization in Posthandover Hong Kong
Chu, C. “People Power as Exception: Three Controversies Over Privatization in Posthandover Hong Kong.” Urban Studies 47, 8 (2010): 1773-1792.

Research Projects

Infrastructure Landscapes and Everyday Urbanism

Principal Investigator, Improvement on Competitiveness in Hiring New Faculties Funding Scheme, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2023-25

Village Commoning: Developing a Community-led Model in Countryside Revitalization

Co-Investigator, Countryside Conservation Funding Scheme, HKSAR Government, 2021-23

Heritage Conservation and the Creation of New Urban Values

Co-Investigator, General Research Fund, Hong Kong Research Grants Council, 2019-21

Pacific Rim Resilient Cities by Design
Co-Investigator, Design Trust Feature Grant, Design Trust, 2018-21

Infrastructure Imagination: Hong Kong City Futures 1972-1988
Principal Investigator, Knowledge Exchange Impact Project Fund, University of Hong Kong, 2017-18

Shaping a New Moral Topography: The Roles of Landscape Design in the Planning of Chinese Cities
Principal Investigator, General Research Fund, Hong Kong Research Grants Council, 2017-19

Speculative Urbanism: Modernist Planning and Housing Practices in Colonial Hong Kong
Principal Investigator, Early Career Scheme, Hong Kong Research Grants Council, 2015-17

The City: Histories of Urbanism and the Built Environment
Principal Investigator, Common Core Teaching Development Grant, University of Hong Kong, 2014-15

Mapping Hong Kong Architecture
Co-Investigator, Lord Wilson Heritage Trust Grant, 2013-14

Constructing Enclaves: The Garden City and Race-based Reservations in Colonial Hong Kong
Principal Investigator, George R. Collins Fellowship, Society of Architectural Historians, 2013

Honorary Appointments

Advisory Council Member, DOCOMOMO International (International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites & Neighborhoods of the Modern Movement)

Founding Member and Past President, DOCOMOMO Hong Kong.

Advisory Council Member, International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments (IASTE).

Track-Chair, Research Methods Track, Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA)

Editorial Board Member, Journal of Urban History

Editorial Board Member, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong

Editorial Board Member, Built Environment

Editorial Board Member, Surveying and Built Environment

Editorial Board Member, ArchAsia Series, Hong Kong University Press.

Professional Member, Hong Kong Institute of Architectural Conservationist (HKICON).