It is my great pleasure to announce the Greater Bay Area Urban Designer Alliance was officially inaugurated on 17th June 2020, the same date HKIUD was established 10 years ago. The inauguration ceremony was officiated and witnessed by the Honourable Mrs. Carrie Lam, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region at the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club in the presence of official representatives from Macau, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai joining online.
The Alliance is a professional platform established by 5 founding institutes: HKIUD, CURB Center for Architecture and Urbanism – Macau, Guangzhou Urban Planning Association, Urban Planning Society of Shenzhen and Zhuhai Planning Exploration and Design Industry Association. The purpose of setting up the Greater Bay Area Urban Designer Alliance is to promote collaboration among urban design professionals, practices and organisations in the Greater Bay Area including urban designers, architects, landscape designers, town planners and engineers, and subsequently establish the professional recognition for urban design practitioners in the Greater Bay Area.

Thanks to our past presidents, council members, friends and supporters for all their vision and dedication in order for us to reach this wonderful milestone. Through our collective efforts, our membership number has been doubled in the last 10 years since our inauguration and it’s in a promising rising trend. In 2019 we reported a 30% increase in our individual membership, and our number of Corporate Affiliates also increased from 12 to 22. This is very encouraging, showing that the trend of mainstreaming Urban Design is gaining momentum in Hong Kong and the region. This is also in line with the global trend of the major international cities.

The first international event of the Alliance is the GBA Urban Design Week to be held in the latter quarter of 2020. This event comprises the first urban design related international conference on the Greater Bay Area, the first Greater Bay Area urban design awards, a roving exhibition, 10th HKIUD Anniversary Publication and various study tours and other activities. All these collaborative events are a show of our determination to utilise our collective strengths to share our common commitment to promoting the effective use of urban design and to raise the urban design standards across the GBA region.
We are glad to have the CreateHK as the lead sponsor of the first HKIUD GBA Urban Design Week. I would like to sincerely welcome you to join these upcoming amazing events put together by our Conference, Awards and Publication Organising Committees Chairmen and members.