Richard Laing, Northumbria University
Richard Laing
Professor of Urban Collaboration
Northumbria University

I am Professor of Urban Collaboration.

I have particular expertise in the areas of collaboration (between parties, groups and individuals) and participation (of stakeholders and the wide community) in research. This has often drawn on my knowledge of emerging digital technologies, where the associated research methods are driven by a desire to identify and make use of innovative ways to communicate with target groups.

This expertise has been developed across over two decades of work funded by EU framework programmes, Interreg and various UK-based research commissions. My research concentrates on the subject of visualisation and its use within public evaluation of open space, built heritage and urban design. My skills in relation to visual environmental valuation have developed through my leading significant externally funded research (grant value £3.5Million), and that research has resulted in over 100 publications. I am a Fellow of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce). I co-chaired BuiltViz across 2007-present.

I am a Chartered Surveyor and a trained chairperson and assessor for the RICS APC. I represented the RICS on the European Construction Technology Platform, and am a member of EPSRC peer review college.

richard.laing@northumbria.ac.uk