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Institute for Sustainable Urbanisation & UDP International & AIA Hong Kong

Team

Dr. Sujata S. Govada is an award-winning qualified urban designer, certified town planner and a registered architect in India, with over 35 years of diverse international experience on design and planning projects. She is the Founding Director of the Institute of Sustainable Urbanisation and the CEO and Managing Director of UDP International, a boutique global practice. She has extensive experience working on a diverse range of award-winning planning and design projects in Hong Kong, China, Philippines, US and India. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Architecture, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Past President of the American Institute of Architects Hong Kong Chapter as well as a Global Trustee of the Urban Land Institute, Founding Vice President of the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design.
ISU is a think tank that helps develop innovative solutions for more liveable, walkable, smart, resilient, sustainable communities and cities worldwide. Since 2014 ISU has also undertaken smart city research and developed the Smart and Sustainable City Framework having worked on research for Hong Kong sections in various smart city publications by Springer. ISU organised events such as the Smart City Smart Region (2017) and Liveable Cities Event (2018) and Walkable Cities Event (2019) to provide a platform to discuss critical urban issues to empower people and help create happy cities and communities following the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Institute also collaborates with other organisations and works with various stakeholders to develop innovative and creative, yet practical and viable solutions to shape better cities. ISU works on meaningful projects and local initiatives with NGOs such as the Smart Cultural Precinct, hosting a series of local community engagement events such as city walks, tours and workshops to raise awareness and influence change for the better.
UDP International is a boutique award-winning global planning and design practice based in Hong Kong since 1994, with offices in Hyderabad and San Francisco working on projects in Hong Kong, China, Philippines, US and India. Our mission is to integrate socially responsive and environmentally sustainable design rooted in community and place-making, ensuring urban vibrancy and long-term economic value to help shape better cities.
AIA Hong Kong established in 1997, is a chapter of the American Institute of Architects an international organization with over 80,000 members globally. AIA Hong Kong serves the professional interests of AIA member architects practicing in Asia Pacific. The objectives of this chapter are to uphold quality design, sustainability, education and professional practice among its members, and promote the importance of architecture in society.

Exhibition

Smart Cultural Precinct (SCP), Central

  • 19 Dec 2019 - 15 Mar 2020

  • 10:00 - 22:00

  • THE MILLS

The Institute for Sustainable Urbanisation (ISU), UDP International and AIA Hong Kong showcase the Smart Cultural Precinct (SCP) in Central which includes several places that have historic and cultural significance from over a century ago. SCP, with the Cultural Triangle at its core, is formed by the three adaptive re-use building(s) in Central, namely the Police Married Quarters (PMQ), the Central Police Station (Tai Kwun) and the Central Market (CM) including the area. The importance of these key building(s) is well recognized with the adaptive reuse of PMQ, successfully completed in 2014, and Tai Kwun opened recently in 2018, with the revitalization of CM currently underway. The Cultural Triangle concept was first developed by UDP International while working on the initial adaptive reuse of PMQ. It worked together with AIA Hong Kong and more recently with ISU to promote SCP to take it from vision to reality.  SCP will not only help link the three building(s) and the area in between both physically and digitally but also help create a pedestrian-friendly, walkable cultural precinct. SCP will further enhance the city image and identity by showcasing the rich local culture and heritage of Central and help improve the quality of life of the residents and visitors of Hong Kong as well.

ISU in association with Youth Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and the support of the Central and Western District Council has successfully organised a series of public engagement events from January to August 2019 with the local community involving the elderly and the youngsters. These included the Kick-off Event, CityWalks, Building Tours, CityWorkshops, a Community and Place-Making Event as well as Public Forum and Walkability Event to help raise awareness about SCP and the importance of cultural heritage in Central.

A physical model of the Central area (done in collaboration with THEi) showcasing the SCP area is exhibited along with display panels with video links that explain the concept and the community engagement efforts in a visual way to stimulate discussions from viewers. During the exhibition period, one walk tour and one workshop will be held to engage the wider Hong Kong community.

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