The Urbanisation Challenge in Asia: The Pasts, Presents and Futures of Densification, Contraction and Sprawl

As the world continues to urbanise, the dominant trend is for cities to sprawl. In the process, established urban geographies are transforming and new spaces are being created. While some spaces de-densify, others are experiencing rapid densification horizontally, vertically or volumetrically, causing the economic, social, environmental and political composition of urban space to increasingly be in flux. This raises fundamental questions about the changing experiences of urban life in the present, and how these experiences might be shaping new urban futures. In many respects, these questions are more pronounced in Asia, where cities are emerging and growing at a pace and scale never before seen. How do we understand these changing urban dynamics? What are the key drivers? How might we contextualise their consequences? And, in spaces of often rapid change, what is needed to ensure more liveable, inclusive and sustainable urban forms?

Themes to be discussed include, but not limited to the following:
• Gentrification and the changing rural-urban divide
• Vertical and volumetric urbanisms
• Intersections of labour, technology, and urban spatial change
• Changing patterns of urban densification
• Psycho-social consequences of (de-)densification
• Urban ecologies and multi-species flourishing
• Urban policies, plans, and knowledge transfers