Associate Professor Hiroaki Hata’s research and creative work focuses on the design, history, theory and criticism of urban structures and community development. He holds a post-professional degree in urban design from Harvard University and a Master of Architecture degree from Washington University.
With a joint faculty appointment in the Department of Architecture and Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Hata holds numerous teaching roles at the School of Architecture and Planning. He teaches the School's joint studio in urban design and is a core faculty member in the architecture program's Urban Design Graduate Research Group while serving as director of the Urban Design Specialization in the Master of Urban Planning program. He is an affiliated faculty member of the MS in Real Estate Development Program in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning.
Hata is a registered architect in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and a member of the American Institute of Architects and the Institute of Urban Design. He has been an urban design/master planning consultant and designer for numerous projects including:
In "Framing the beholder’s visual experience: an investigation of perspectival thinking for urban design," published in the Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability (September 2021), UB's Ernest Sternberg, professor of urban planning, and Hiro Hata, associate professor of urban design, investigates ideas of perspectival design through the 20th century, describing applications in urban design practice, exploring its limitations, responding to criticisms, and suggesting future theoretical directions.