Peter Cookson Smith is an architect, planner and urban designer. He has been resident in Hong Kong since 1977 when he founded Urbis Limited - one of the first specialist planning, urban design and landscape consultancies in S.E. Asia. Since then the firm has carried out more than 3000 projects in Hong Kong, China and the Asia-Pacific area, and has won more than 100 local and international awards, including the Urban Land Institute's Global Award for Excellence and the American Waterfront Centre's Top Honour Award in 2008. He has, over the past 35 years, directed a large number of studies in Hong Kong, and throughout China and other parts of Asia, including new town planning, urban regeneration, waterfront and central area studies, and since 1984 has directed more than 40 planning studies in various cities within the PRC. Dr. Cookson Smith was a professor in the Department of Architecture, University of Hong Kong between 2000 and 2004, and a visiting scholar at the Centre for Asian Studies, HKU. He currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Department of Planning and Urban Design. He is vice-president of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design established in 2010, and is currently president of the Hong Kong Institute of Planners. He writes regularly on the subject of urban design and is the author of The Urban Design of Impermanence on Hong Kong, and The Urban Design of Concession on the Treaty Port Cities in China and the forthcoming Urban Design of Intervention on Asian cities. He sits on Hong Kong Government's Harbourfront Commission, the Land Advisory Policy Committee, and the Hong Kong Trade Development Council Infrastructure Committee.