Background, experience and what I want to do in the future.
Hi, my name is Jiale Liu, I am an urban design student. I studied Urban Planning and Design at Xi’an Jiaotong Liverpool University in China, and then I came here to continue studying Urban Design. Before my undergraduate studies, I was often curious about my surroundings, always observing and thinking about people’s behaviours, and at the same time I enjoyed drawing maps, building toys such as Lego towns, and playing a game called SimCity, imagining what the city I was designing would look like.
After I started my undergraduate studies and really learnt about the field, I realised that what I was learning was different from what I had imagined, but just as interesting. I love studying urban spaces and want to make city life more comfortable and interesting. Modern cities are getting denser and people live at a fast pace, but I believe that through rational design, cities can have more ‘breathing’ space so that residents and visitors can relax. Studying urban design has given me the opportunity to think about how to make cities more humane, retaining the unique cultural atmosphere while making life easier for everyone. I hope that in the future I can make cities more suitable for people’s needs through my design.
In conducting social surveys for urban design projects, I often encounter low participation rates from residents. Many people feel that their input will not genuinely influence decision-making, leading to reluctance or even disengagement from the process. Additionally, privacy concerns can arise when survey questions touch on personal information, making some residents hesitant to provide honest feedback due to fears of data misuse or unauthorized disclosure. In multicultural and multilingual communities, communication barriers further complicate the survey process, as cultural differences and language challenges can introduce misunderstandings or biases. These overlapping issues hinder the survey’s ability to accurately and comprehensively capture residents’ genuine needs and perspectives.
One particularly memorable experience for me was a preliminary survey for a project during my undergraduate studies. At school, our instructors typically assigned us projects based on real-life issues, and we would observe local residents’ behaviors and conduct interviews. On one occasion, while interviewing an elderly woman, she shared many challenges she faced due to the inconveniences of urban spaces. She then said something that left a deep impression on us: “Telling you about these problems—what difference does it make? Do you think our lives will truly improve just because you interviewed us?” This remark caused me and my classmates to question ourselves, as we knew this was simply an assigned project. No matter how thorough our research and design might be, our final work would never be realized in practice, leaving these residents to wait for government attention to finally address their needs.
To be honest, I still can’t fully come to terms with what that elderly woman said. However, I know that constantly doubting myself while working will make it hard to achieve good results. I just hope that in the future, my designs can genuinely help those who need it.
