Perry Pei-Ju Yang

Perry Pei-Ju Yang

Professor of City & Regional Planning and Architecture
Director, Eco Urban Lab

Perry Pei-Ju Yang

Professor of City & Regional Planning and Architecture
Director, Eco Urban Lab

Architecture-East Building, 204-F

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Eco Urban Lab webpage
Eco Systems Design Studio website

Specialization Area: Urban Design

Perry Yang is a Professor and Director of Eco Urban Lab of the School of City and Regional Planning and the School of Architecture at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Perry’s work focuses on incorporating data analytics into urban design to improve ecological and energy performance of cities. He has published more than fifty articles and book chapters in this area from 2009, including the book Urban Systems Design: Creating Sustainable Smart Cities in the Internet of Things Era that he co-edited and co-authored six chapters in 2020 by Elsevier. He co-edited a 2019 theme issue Urban Systems Design: From Science for Design to Design in Science in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, a prestigious journal in planning to explore new urban design research agenda and applications of emerging technologies, data analytics and urban automation to placemaking in the context of smart city movement. Beyond writing, Yang has been awarded more than ten prizes in international competitions continuously from 2005 in Asian cities, including the 2009 World Games Park at Kaohsiung, Taiwan, a project opened in July 2009 and featured by CNN as an “eco-friendly” venue.

His urban design work was introduced in the January 2010 issue Ecological Urbanism at World Architecture (WA), a leading architecture journal by Tsinghua University. His recent design projects were shortlisted in the 2022 Asian Games Village in Hangzhou in 2017, the Musi River Revitalization at Hyderabad in 2018, and water town designs in China’s Yangtze River Delta region in 2020-2021 during the pandemic.  From 2017 to 2023, he has been involved in smart city projects in Japan, including one of Tokyo’s 2020 Olympic sites at Urawa Misono, in collaboration with the University of Tokyo, Keio University and Global Carbon Project (GCP).

Yang is a Visiting Professor at the Department of Urban Engineering of the University of Tokyo from 2022 to 2023, and a Visiting Scientist at CARES of the Cambridge University in Singapore in 2023. He served as the endowed Bayer Chair Professor of UNEP Institute at Tongji University from 2014 to 2018. Perry is also a faculty fellow of the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems at Georgia Tech from 2018. He has served as a board member of the International Urban Planning and Environment Association (UPE) from 2007. He is a scientific committee member of International Conference on Applied Energy (ICAE) from 2015. Prior to joining the Georgia Tech faculty, he was a Fulbright Scholar and SPURS Fellow at MIT from 1999 to 2000, and an Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the National University of Singapore from 2001 to 2008.

  1. International Urban Design Studio
    • Applied Planning Studio: Urban Design – Spring, CP6053, MCRP Program
    • Design and Research Studio – Spring, ARCH6072, MArch Program
  2. Urban Ecological Design – Spring, CP6836-C/ARCH6447-PY/ARCH4447-PY,  MCRP, MArch, MS Architecture, MSUD Programs
  3. Smart City Workshop – Fall, CP8873 C/ AE8803-SCW, MCRP, MArch, MS Architecture, MSUD Programs
  4. CP8823 PY/ARCH8823 PY – Fall, Site Planning and Urban Simulation - MCRP, MArch, MSUD Programs
  • Advisor to the Mayor, the City of Taipei, from December 2019 to Present.
  • Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) Faculty Fellow, Georgia Institute of Technology, from 2018 to Present.
  • Visiting Professor, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Fall 2011 and again from January 2014 to Present.
  • Visiting Scholar, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, from June 2019 to Present.
  • Bayer Chair Professor, UN Environment- Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development, from 2014 to 2018 (as Covestro Chair Professor from 2016 since Bay Material Science was renamed Covestro)
  • The Fulbright Scholarship, 1999-2000, MIT

Awards in International Design Competitions since joining Georgia Tech faculty

  • 2021, 3rd Prize, Water Town International Urban Design Competition of Jiaxing Xiushui, as the Chief Designer, in collaboration with Alan Balfour. (The 3rd prize out of 81 submissions. Other finalists include China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, Atkins, Turenscape). https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6763512259609153536/
  • 2020, Finalist, Future Shanshui City; Dwellings in Lishui Mountains International Urban Design Competition, as the Chief Designer, in collaboration with CAI Yongjie. (As one of the 10 finalists out of 86 submissions. Other finalists include China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, DE-SO Asia, UN Studio Netherlands, Canada GA City Planning and Landscape Architecture…etc. The jurors included Nishizawa Ryue of 2010 Pritzker Prize winner, Alan Plattus of Yale University and other renowned urban scholars in China.) www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmKqnCsB_Tc
  • 2018 Finalist, International Design Competition of Musi River Revitalization, organized by Musi Riverfront Redevelopment Corporation, the Government of Telangana, Hyderabad, India. (Yang was invited among ten international design teams including ARUP, Surbana Jurong Singapore and Turenscape China.)
  • 2017 The 1st prize, the Contemporary Art Center Urban Design Competition, Guangzhou Nansha, China, 2017, as the Chief Designer, in collaboration with South China Technology University Architecture Design Institute. (60 entries during the first round and 6 finalists during the second round, including Tsinghua University of China, Woods Bagot of Australia, HPP of Germany, Hassell of Australia and DP Architects of Singapore).
  • 2017 Finalist, the International Competition of 2022 Asian Games Village Design, Hangzhou, as the Chief Designer. (Eleven international design teams were invited including ARUP, Atkins, Tsinghua University and firms from China, Germany, Netherlands, Austria and the U.S. Yang’s design was ranked the 3rd Place).  
  • 2015 The 2nd Place, Kaohsiung Inner Harbor Revitalization Urban Design, Kaohsiung City Government, Taiwan (Other entries include AECOM and MVRDV).
  • 2012 The 1st place in planning competition: Taipei’s “Manhattan” project: Waterfront revitalization strategy along Taipei Danshui River, organized by Bureau of Urban Development, Taipei Municipal Government. 
  • 2011 The 1st prize, the Campus Planning Competition of Beijing Information Technology University, as the Chief Designer, in collaboration with BUE (Beijing Urban Engineering Design Institute). (Final entries include ten prestigious design institutes of the region such as Tsinghua University, Tongji University and South China University of Technology.)
  • 2011 Finalist, urban design competition at the City West of Zhuhai, China’s Special Economic Development Zone, as the Chief Designer, in collaboration with Guangdong Urban and Rural Planning Institute.
  • 2010 The 1st Prize, International Design Competition of Shunde Green Heart Design, Guangdong China, 2010, as the Chief Designer. (As one of the two awarded winners out of 36 entries. The other winner sharing the 1st prize was Turenscape.)
  • 2010 The 2nd Prize (out of 63 entries), international design competition of Hangzhou Bay New District, Ningbo City China, as the Chief Designer, in collaboration with Tongji University.

 

Books and edited book

  1. Yamagata, Y., Yang, Perry P. J. eds., (2020), Urban Systems Design: Creating Sustainable Smart Cities in the Internet of Things Era, Elsevier. https://www.elsevier.com/books/urban-systems-design/yamagata/978-0-12-816055-8
  2. Wang, Yi, Huang, Linling, Yang, Perry P. J., 2019, Ecological Urban Design: Strategic Thinking of Chongming Ecological Island (in Chinese), Tongji University Press.
  3. Yang, Perry P. J. 2010. Ecological Urbanism: Scale, Flow and Design, China Architecture and Building Press. (China Architecture and Building Press is a prestigious publisher of China’s Ministry of Construction in the area of architecture, city planning and construction in Chinese language.)

 

Book chapters

  1. Yang, Perry P. J., 2020, Urban Energy Systems Design: A Research Outline, in Energy Efficiency, ed., Henry Kelly, World Scientific Publications, in print.
  2. Yang, Perry P J, Wu, Yihan, Peng, Z, Li, Lisha, Tobey, Michael, Yamagata, Yoshiki, 2018, Performance-based model for vertical urbanism, in Vertical Urbanism: Designing Compact Cities in China, Lin Z & Gamez J eds. Routledge.
  3. Yang, Perry P J, Quan, Steven J. 2016. Urban form and energy resilient strategies: A cast study of the Manhattan grid, in Urban Resilience – A Transformative Approach, Yoshiki Yamagata and Hiroshi Maruyama eds., Springer. 
  4. Quan, Steven. Qi Li, Godfried, Augenbroe, Brown, Jason, Yang Perry P. J. 2015. Urban Data and Building Energy Modeling: A GIS-based Urban Building Energy Modeling System Using the Urban-EPC Engine, in Planning Support Systems and Smart Cities. Stan Geertman, Joseph Ferreira, Jr. Robert Goodspeed, John Stillwell eds., Springer. (as the corresponding author)
  5. Yang, Perry P. J. 2014. Energy resilient urban planning, in Geodesign by Integrating design and geospatial sciences, Lee D and Dias E, Scholten H eds., Springer.
  6. Yang, Perry P. J. 2013. Landscape ecology and its urbanism” in Landscape Urbanism and its Discontents: Dissimulating the Sustainable City. Andres Duany and Emily Talen eds., Island Press.
  7. Yang, Perry P. J. 2013. Hydrological effects of urban form and landscape change, in Planning stormwater resilient urban open spaces, vol. 3, F.D. Moccia and M.F. Palestino eds. Clean, Napoli.
  8. Quan, Steven. J., Minter, John, Yang, Perry P. J. 2013. A GIS-based performance metrics for designing a low energy urban agriculture system, in Planning Support Systems for Sustainable Urban Development. Stan Geertman, Fred Toppen, John Stillwell eds., Springer. (as the corresponding author)
  9. Yang, Perry P. J., Lew Seng How. 2009. An Asian model of TOD – the planning integration and institutional tools in Singapore, in Transit-Oriented Development: Making It Happen, edited by Carey Curtis, John Renne, Luca Bertolini, Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
  10. Yang, Perry P. J. 2008. Tracking Sustainable Urban Forms and Material Flows in Singapore, in World Cities and Urban Form: Fragmented, Polycentric, Sustainable? edited by Mike Jenks, Daniel Kozak and Pattaranan Takkanon, Routledge. 
  11. Yang, Perry P. J. 2005. From central business district to new downtown: designing future downtown urban form in Singapore, in Future Forms and Design for Sustainable Cities, edited by Jenks, Mike. London: Architectural press.

 

Refereed Journal Articles 

  1. Yang, Perry P. J., Chang, Soowon, Saha, Nirvik, Chen, Helen W., 2020, Data-driven Planning Support System for a Campus Design, in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, 2020.
  2. Quan, Steven. J., Economoua, Athanassions, Graslb, Thomas, Yang, Perry P. J., 2020, An exploration of the relationship between density and building energy, Urban Design International, 25:92–112 (as the corresponding author)
  3. Yang, Perry P. J., Yamagata, Y., 2019, Editorial, Urban Systems Design: From Science for Design to Design in Science, in Environment and Planning B: Urban Analytics and City Science, Vol. 46(8) 1381–1386. DOI: 10.1177/2399808319877770    
  4. Chang, Soowon, Saha, Nirvik, Castro- Lacouture, Daniel, Yang, Perry P. J., 2019, Multivariate relationships between campus design parameters and energy performance using reinforcement learning and parametric modeling, in Applied Energy 249, 253-264. (as the corresponding author) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.04.109
  5. Tobey M. B., Binder R. B., Chang S., Yoshida T., Yamagata Y., Yang, Perry P.J., 2019, Urban Systems Design: A Conceptual Framework for Planning Smart Communities, Smart Cities 2 (4), 522-537 https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities2040032
  6. Yamagata, Y., Murakami D., Wu, Y., Yang, Perry P. J., Yoshida, T., Binder R. B., 2019, Big-data analysis for carbon emission reduction from cars: Towards walkable green smart community, Energy Procedia 158, 4292-4297
  7. Yang, Perry P. J., 2019, review of “Changing Chinese Cities: The Potentials of Field Urbanism. By Renee Y. Chow, University of Hawaii Press, 2015”. 185 pp, in China Review International: Vol. 24, No. 2, 2017 (A review article, printed in 2019, University of Hawaii Press)
  8. Yang, Perry P. J., Chi, Cheryl S. F., Wu, Yihan., Quan, Steven. J, 2018, A Geodesign method of human-energy-water interactive systems for urban infrastructure design: 10KM2 near zero district project in Shanghai, in Engineering 4, 182-189. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eng.2018.03.014
  9. Yang, Perry P. J., Quan, Steven. J., Castro- Lacouture, Daniel, Stuart, Ben, 2018, A Geodesign method for managing a closed-loop urban system through algae cultivation, in Applied Energy 231, 1372-1382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.12.129
  10. Pandit, Arka, Minn, Elizabeth A., Li, Feng, Brown, Hillary, Jeong, Hyunju, James, Jean -Ann C., Newell, Joshua P, Weissburg, Marc, Chang, Michael E, Xu, Ming, Yang, Perry, Wang, Rusong, Thomas, Valerie M., Yu, Xuewei, Lu, Zhongming, Crittenden, John C. 2017, Infrastructure ecology: an evolving paradigm for sustainable urban development, in Journal of Cleaner Production: 163, S19-S27.
  11. Peng Zhikai, Jia Lingkun, Li Lisha, Quan, Steven. J., Yang, Perry P. J., 2017, How the roofing morphology and housing form affect energy performance of Shanghai’s workers’ village in urban regeneration. Energy Procedia, 142, 3075-3082. 
  12. Quan, Steven J, Igou, Thomas K, Chang, Soowon, Dutt, Florina, Castro-Lacouture, Daniel, Yang, Perry P J, 2017, Decentralized algal energy system design at various urban densities and scales, Energy Procedia, 143, 767-773.
  13. Yang, Perry P. J., Wiedenback, Annette, Tobey, Michael, Wu, Yihan., Quan, Steven. J., Chauhan, Yugendra, Wu, Jiang. 2017, Material Based Urban Modeling: An Approach to Integrate Smart Materials in a Near-Zero Community Design. Energy Procedia, Vol 105, 3765 – 3771.
  14. Quan, Steven. J., Dutt, Florina, Woodworth, Erik, Yamagata, Yoshiki. & Yang, Perry P. J. 2017, Local Climate Zone Mapping for Energy Resilience: A Fine-grain and 3D Approach. Energy Procedia (as the corresponding author), Vol 105, 3777-3783.
  15. Tobey, Michael., Quan, Steven. J. & Yang, Perry P. J. 2017, Multi-Disciplinary Design Optimization of Mixed-Use Structure and Energy Performance. Energy Procedia (as the corresponding author), Vol 105, 3791-3797.
  16. Li, Zhengwei, Quan, Steven J., Yang, Perry P. J., 2016, Energy performance simulation for planning a low carbon neighborhood urban district: A case study of Macau, in Habitat International, 04; 53: 206-214. (as the corresponding author)
  17. Zhou, Yinan, Tao, Xinyu, Yang, Perry. P. J. 2016, A simulation-based research on passive district, accepted by Energy Procedia, Vol 104, 257-262. (as the corresponding author) 
  18. Yang, Perry P. J., Yan, Jinyue, 2016, Modeling Urban Design with Energy Performance, in Energy Procedia 88 (2016) 3 – 8.
  19. Quan, Steven J., Wu, Jiang, Shi, Zhongming, Yang, Tianren, Wang, Yi, Yang, Perry P. J., 2016, Urban Form and Building Energy Performance in Shanghai Neighborhoods, in Energy Procedia. Vol 88, 126-132. (as the corresponding author)
  20. Yang, Perry P. J. 2015. Energy Resilient Urban Form: A Design Perspective, in Energy Procedia 75: 2922-2927.
  21. Quan, Steven. J., Economoua, Athanassions , Grasl, Thomas., Yang, Perry P. J. 2014. Computing energy performance of building density, shape and typology in urban context, in Energy Procedia 61, 1602 – 1605 (as the corresponding author).
  22. Yang, Perry P. J. 2014. Eco Area Ratio: Energy performance assessment and reduction approach for urban redevelopment in high-density environment, in Urban Planning Forum, Vol.03, 91-100, Tongji University. (in Chinese)
  23. Yang, Perry P. J. 2012. Complexity Question in Urban Systems Design, in Journal of Architectural Engineering Technology, editorial, Vol. 1, Issue 2, 1-2.
  24. Yang, Perry P. J. 2011. From ecocity Taipei to the third ecology proposition and its design approaches, in Journal of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University. Number 18, Dec. 2011, Research article, 1-18. (in Chinese)
  25. Yang, Perry P. J. 2010. Ecological Urbanism: Five Dimensions in Design, in Special Issue “Ecological Urbanism”, WA (World Architecture), Tsinghua University, 01, 22-27. (in Chinese)
  26. Yang, Perry P. J. 2010. Landscape as Flows: An Ecological Design Approach to Large-scale Urban Landscape, in Special Issue “Ecological Urbanism”, WA (World Architecture), Tsinghua University, 01, 80-84. (in Chinese)
  27. Yang, Perry P. J. 2009. Questioning urban sustainability: social sufficiency, ecological efficiency and ecosystems compatibility. Journal of Urbanism, Vol. 2, Issue 3, 187-189.
  28. Yang, Perry P. J., Putra, Simon. Y., Chaerani, Meutia. 2007. Computing the Sense of Time in Urban Physical Environment, Urban Design International. 12, 115-129.
  29. Yang, Perry P. J., Putra, Simon Y., Li Wenjing. 2007. Viewsphere: GIS-based 3D visibility analysis for urban design evaluation. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, Vol.34, 971-992. 
  30. Yang, Perry P. J., 2007, review of “Enduring Innocence: Global Architecture and its Political Masquerades, Author: Keller Easterling, MIT Press, 2005”, Journal of Architectural Education, 02. 54-55.  (Review Article)
  31. Yang, Perry P. J., 2006, review of “Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing and Environmental Knowledge, Author: Malcolm McCullough, MIT Press, 2004”, Environment & Planning B: Planning and Design, Vol 33, 793-795. (Review Article)
  32. Yang, Perry P. J., Ong, Boon Lay. 2004. Applying ecosystem concepts to the planning of industrial areas: a case study of Singapore's Jurong Island. Journal of Cleaner Production, 12, 1011-1023.