UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Association of Pacific Rim University Sustainable Cities and Landscapes (APRU SCL), a network of leading universities linking the Americas, Asia and Australia on issues surrounding sustainability, recently recognized the Penn State Stuckeman School in the College of Arts and Architecture with a certificate of appreciation at the organization’s annual conference in Manila, Philippines, in August.
Chingwen Cheng, Stuckeman School director and professor of landscape architecture, accepted the certificate on behalf of the school.
“Growing up in Taiwan, the Asia Pacific region is my home, and I would like to give back to the region to help build more resilient and sustainable communities,” Cheng said. “This aspiration aligns with the Stuckeman School’s mission to shape the world with positive impacts by design, so I am thrilled to share the knowledge and values of our school and the lessons we have learned from work being done in this country with practitioners on the other side of the world.”
“I am also excited to hear more global perspectives relating to these crucial issues so I can share them with our community at Penn State,” she added.
The 2024 APRU SCL conference was held jointly with the International Conference on Human Settlements Planning and Development (ICHSPD) at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).
At the APRU SCL event, Cheng hosted the Vulnerable, Resilient, and Climate Justice Communities working group with local host Almira De Mesa, an assistant professor at UPLB. The group combined with the Indigenous Knowledge working group led by Joan Talubo, an assistant professor at UPLB.
“Working together, we successfully conducted a workshop to explore the concepts of decolonizing planning and design and justice planning and design, and how those two concepts converge and diverge,” said Cheng, who hosted the workshop and moderated the event. “We had wonderful and profound discussions.”
At the ICHSPD event, Cheng gave a presentation titled “Co-Design Nature-Based Solutions for Resilient Community and Climate Justice” to an audience consisting of local (Philippine) practitioners who work with the community on various projects.
“After the lecture, I opened the floor for discussion on how to meaningfully engage with community in the planning and design processes, and how to measure the social impacts for the project to achieve justice goals,” she said.
Cheng’s involvement in the APRU SCL, which is hosted by the University of Oregon, began in 2017 as a member of the organization’s research hub while she was a faculty member at The Design School at Arizona State University. In 2019, she began leading a working group called “Vulnerable Communities” that has since integrated her research interests and is now the "Vulnerable, Resilient, and Climate Justice Communities.”
The APRU SCL working groups are the drivers behind the proceedings of its annual conferences and one such publication that was a compilation of all the working groups at the 2022 conference, titled “The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Cities and Landscapes in the Pacific Rim.” It features two chapters authored by Cheng and another two that she co-authored.
Embracing the public influence and impact and bridging academia and the public realm, the APRU and several United Nations organizations initiated the Asia-Pacific Mayors Academy in 2019. Since 2020, Cheng has led the learning module on the topic of “How to build urban resilience,” which explores theories and practices to enhance social, institutional and community resilience, and how to integrate nature-based solutions for low-carbon and regenerative urban development.
“It is a privilege working with mayors and governors in the Asia Pacific region to see how academic research and creativity in design innovations could be the agent of change to transform a city toward a sustainable and resilient future,” said Cheng.
Cheng has served on the APRU SCL Steering Committee since 2021 and in 2024, she was invited to join the APRU SCL Executive Committee as the organization was restructured due to increased membership numbers.