Greater Bay | New cross-city alliance promotes urban design collaboration

The Greater Bay Area Urban Designer Alliance (GBAUDA) was inaugurated on Wednesday in a ceremony that was held both online and offline. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, attended the event.
The alliance brings together five architecture and urban planning groups and entities from the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (GBA).
The GBAUDA aims to promote collaboration amongst urban design professionals, practices and organizations in the GBA, including urban designers, architects, landscape designers, town planners and engineers, and establish professional recognition for urban design practitioners in the area.
Macau is represented by the Center for Architecture and Urbanism (CURB), as one of the alliance’s founding members.
Alongside CURB, the other founding members of the alliance are the Hong Kong Institute of Urban Design (HKIUD), the Guangzhou Urban Planning Association, the Urban Planning Society of Shenzhen, and the Zhuhai Planning Exploration and Design Industry Association. Together, they have created a network of institutes that are on a mission to elevate urban design standards and improve the livability of cities in the region, a statement from GBAUDA informed.
During Wednesday’s ceremony, it was also announced that HKIUD would host the first-ever event organized by the GBAUDA, GBA Urban Design Week, which will take place in November.
The president of CURB’s board of directors, architect Nuno Soares, said that the alliance is “a leading and powerful platform to advocate for the pursuit of excellence in urban design, architecture, and urban planning in the GBA.”
He also noted that the GBA “offers an opportunity to celebrate local idiosyncrasies, acknowledging the individual contribution of each city in the construction of a rich and diverse urban network.”
The alliance has new ambitions to create a common territory and joint future that need to be wished for, pursued, designed and ultimately lived by all, he concluded.