Explain, Design, Test, Iterate: Advancing Urban Design Practice through Urban Science

You are cordially invited to attend the lecture by Ku Yee Kee:

Date: 28 Oct 2026
Time: 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Venue: SDE3 Level 4, LT426

Explain, Design, Test, Iterate: Advancing Urban Design Practice through Urban Science

Urban design practice often begins with interpreting context, yet the transition from analysis to design remains largely intuitive, and the outcomes of interventions are not consistently tested over time. This seminar examines the breadth of urban design practice and the professional opportunities its skills offer across consultancies, developers, government bodies, engineering, real estate, heritage, public health and technology. Yet, compared to architects and planners, urban designers lack competency standards, fee guidance or codes of conduct. Professional recognition varies internationally, without widely adopted global framework for the profession.

Urban Design blurs two interdependent genealogies; explaining cities and designing them. Practitioners intervene at precinct scale where people experience the city. Yet often draw on architectural design methods to address conditions that evolve over decades. Drawing on my own doctoral research, I demonstrate how urban science can provide explanatory evidence. Currently, my research conceptualises urban science as a protoscience whose epistemology foundation remains fragmented and argues that clarifying its explanatory claims can enable urban design to develop more explicit and testable methods. I also introduce an explain-design-test-iterate cycle that refines precinct intervention across short, medium and long term horizons, informed by critical realism and its implications for urban design pedagogy.

As a close, this seminar would like to invite practitioners, academics and students to collectively advance these three connected priorities;

– Building a pathway towards independent professional and statutory recognition for urban designers in Singapore and ASEAN.

– Refining protoscientific epistemological framework to advance urban science to inform urban design.

– Develop methods, competency and fee structure for each stage of explaining, designing, testing and iterating.

With more than two decades of experience in practice, teaching and research in Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Australia, YeeKee gained a global perspective of cross-disciplinary and cross-border professional registration and recognition for urban designers. She advocates for stronger professional alliances connecting Singapore and ASEAN countries with Asia Pacific and beyond.

 She founded AUD&R [ARCHITECTURE, URBAN DESIGN & RESEARCH] in Melbourne Australia to connect scholarly inquiry with practical innovation, professional development and the education of future urban designers. She believes the future urban designers should be supported not only by national systems of professional recognition, but also by stronger alliances across countries. 

YeeKee studied architecture (PAM Part 1 & 2) at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, post-grad studies in urban design and RIBA Part 3 professional examination at Bartlett, University College London, and earned her doctorate in Urban Science at The University of Melbourne. Her professional leadership experience includes roles as Planning and Design Manager with developer and Technical Manager in construction, specialising in complex structures like urban redevelopments, skyscrapers and airports.