Reginald Yin-Wang Kwok was born in Hong Kong in 1937. He is an elder cousin of Ronald Cho Yiu Poon, who was also an alumnus of the Architectural Association’s Department of Development and Tropical Studies (DTA) programme (1967-68). Kwok completed his secondary education at Pui Ching Middle School, Hong Kong in 1955. That same year, he moved to the United Kingdom to pursue architectural studies at the Polytechnic Regent Street School of Architecture, now the University of Westminster in London, and received his diploma in 1963. During the early 1960s, Kwok gained professional experience as an Assistant Architect at Chamberlin, Powell and Bon (1960–61), and as an Architect at Denys Lasdun and Partners (1963-64 and 1965-66), interspersed with a brief return to Hong Kong in 1965, where he worked with Palmer and Turner. In 1966–67, Kwok was awarded a one-year scholarship from the London County Council to undertake postgraduate studies in the DTA at the Architectural Association. His wife, Annette Holmes, was also enrolled in the programme during that year. He later recalled Dr. Otto H. Königsberger as a particularly influential figure during his time there. Following his postgraduate training in London, Kwok moved to the United States to further his education at the School of Architecture and Planning, Columbia University. He earned Master of Science degrees in Architecture and Urban Planning in 1969 and completed his PhD in 1973. During this period, Kwok began his academic career, serving as Associate Professor of Urban Planning and Director of the Planning Program for Developing Nations, at Columbia. In 1980, he returned to Hong Kong to become the founding Director of the Centre of Urban Studies and Urban Planning at the University of Hong Kong. In 1989, he relocated to the United States to join the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, where he held joint appointments as Professor of Urban and Regional Planning and Professor in Asian Studies (Centre for Chinese Studies). In addition to his academic contributions, he served on the editorial board of the UK-based journal Built Environment, and acted as a consultant to Hong Kong Housing Authority, Hong Kong Town Planning Board, Shenzhen Planning Committee, the World Bank, among others.
Sources
- Architectural Association Student Register 1945-1972, AA Archives.
- Ronald Poon, The Dream in Reality, Ronald Poon 1968-1998 (China Architectural & Building Press, 1999), 233.
- “House of 1955”, Pui Ching Alumni Association, archived October 23, 2024, at https://www.puiching.org/old_website_backup/club-level-img/house-1955.
- Interview with Reginald Yin Wang Kwok by Zoe Song-Yi Kwok, 2024-25. OR
- Zoe Song-Yi Kwok, email correspondence, 2024-25.
- “Professor R Y Kwok on Urban Studies and Urban Planning”, Interflow – Newspaper of the University of Hong Kong, October 1980, Issue 28, 1-3.
- “Reginald Y. KWOK, Ph.D.”, the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, accessed October 7, 2025, https://manoa.hawaii.edu/asianstudies/directory/reginald-y-kwok.php.
