Wish you all a prosperous and healthy year of the Rat!

In 2020, we will be expanding our network to the Greater Bay Area. We are now taking the lead to cultivate a culture of academic and professional exchanges in urban design knowledge and practical experience, in collaboration with Urban Design Organisations from Guangzhou, Macau, Shenzhen and Zhuhai to establish the Greater Bay Area Urban Designer Alliance. This is a professional platform for promotion of collaboration among urban design professionals, practices and organizations of a background of urban design, architecture, landscape design, town planning and engineering in the Greater Bay Area.

You might perhaps be interested in the upcoming "Urban Design Weeks" Programme. It will be featuring several major events in the third quarter of 2020, and will include a signing ceremony of the 5 founding Institutes of Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Macau, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, an International Conference, Greater Bay Areas Urban Design Awards, Publication, the subsequent Awards Exhibition and study tours. This is the first urban design related international conference on the Greater Bay Area and the first Greater Bay Area urban design awards.

In addition to the Greater Bay Area Initiative, HKIUD will continue to bring together various professional bodies committed to improving the quality of urban design in Hong Kong, and to foster greater awareness of the challenges involved in building a smart, resilient and liveable urban environment. The production of an URBAN DESIGN PROTOCOLS / COMPENDIUM is an important part of this process, and comes at a crucial time when Government is implementing large-scale harbourfront development, urban renewal initiatives and an ambitious housing programme. The Compendium is intended to be a wide-ranging and practical document, drawing on creative thinking and current best practice in Hong Kong and other cities that have some relevance to the local situation. Later in June 2020, we will have a forum on URBAN DESIGN PROTOCOLS / COMPENDIUM in the BCI Equinox event. We welcome you to share your views on the subject in this coming event. Finally, it's my pleasure to inform you that in 2019 we have a 30% increase in our individual membership, and our corporate members also increased from 12 to 22. This is very encouraging, showing that the trend of mainstreaming Urban Design is gaining momentum in Hong Kong.