Prof. Dr. Naomi C. Hanakata

Nao­mi C. Hana­ka­ta is an Assistant Pro­fes­sor at the Depart­ment of Archi­tec­tu­re, Natio­nal Uni­ver­si­ty of Sin­ga­po­re, and ser­ves as Depu­ty Direc­tor of the Urban Plan­ning Pro­gram­me at the Col­lege of Design and Engi­nee­ring. She leads the Urban Tran­si­ti­ons Lab, heads the Digi­tal Asia Col­la­bo­ra­to­ry and is an Asso­cia­te at the Asia Rese­arch Insti­tu­te. She is also a foun­ding part­ner of a rese­arch and plan­ning prac­ti­ce com­mit­ted to holi­stic and sus­tainable urban deve­lo­p­ment. She pur­sued stu­dies at ETH Zurich, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Tokyo, and the Lon­don School of Eco­no­mics. She has prac­ti­ced in Zurich, Tokyo, New York and Sin­ga­po­re as plan­ner and con­sul­tant and has taught at Rice Uni­ver­si­ty, Yale NUS, and ETH Zurich befo­re joi­ning the Natio­nal Uni­ver­si­ty of Sin­ga­po­re. Her rese­arch sits at the inter­sec­tion of spa­ti­al plan­ning and cri­ti­cal urban stu­dies, with a geo­gra­phic empha­sis on Asia. She inves­ti­ga­tes the forces and con­se­quen­ces of urban tran­si­ti­ons in a pla­ne­ta­ry context—particularly socio-tech­ni­cal transformations—and their influence on the phy­si­cal fabric of cities.

Nao­mi Hana­ka­ta ear­ned her doc­to­ral degree from ETH Zurich. She published her dis­ser­ta­ti­on under the title “Tokyo: An Urban Por­trait” (Jovis, Ber­lin 2020). It was part of the rese­arch pro­ject “Pat­terns and Pathways of Urba­ni­sa­ti­on in Com­pa­ra­ti­ve Per­spec­ti­ve” at the Future Cities Labo­ra­to­ry Sin­ga­po­re and the Chair of Socio­lo­gy at the Depart­ment of Archi­tec­tu­re, ETH Zurich, published in the book “Voca­bu­la­ries of Urba­ni­sa­ti­on”.

Her recent work explo­res the expan­ding role of digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies and plat­for­mi­sa­ti­onin urban gover­nan­ce, plan­ning, and lived expe­ri­ence, high­light­ing the spa­ti­al­ly uneven impacts of digi­tal trans­for­ma­ti­on. She also exami­nes the socio-spa­ti­al dimen­si­ons of the ener­gy tran­si­ti­on, focu­sing on the impli­ca­ti­ons of rene­wa­ble ener­gy pro­duc­tion and decar­bo­ni­sa­ti­on. Cen­tral to her rese­arch are ques­ti­ons of resour­ce dis­tri­bu­ti­on, access and con­trol, adapt­a­ti­on, and sys­te­mic uncertainty—aimed at gene­ra­ting insights to sup­port sus­tainable tran­si­ti­ons and fos­ter equi­ta­ble urban development.

Nao­mi Hana­ka­ta: web­page NUS

Tokyo: An Urban Portrait

Voca­bu­la­ries of an Urba­ni­s­ing World