Jeffrey Hou, PhD, is Professor of Landscape Architecture and director of the Urban Commons
Lab at the University of Washington, Seattle. His work focuses on public space, democracy,
community design, and civic engagement. In a career that spans the Pacific, Hou has worked
with indigenous tribes, farmers, and fishers in Taiwan, neighborhood residents in Japan,
villagers in China, and inner-city immigrant youths and elders in North American cities, on
projects ranging from conservation of wildlife habitats to design of urban open space. Hou is
known for his writings on bottom-up placemaking through publications including Insurgent
Public Space: Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities.