The University of Sydney, The Institut Teknologi Bandung, Thammasat University
UN-Habitat indicates that more than half of the world's urban population live in the towns and cities of Asia Pacific. With the highest number of urban dwellers worldwide and 51% urbanised, Asia and the Pacific are key regions impacted by urban growth, much of which is unmanaged. Rapid urbanisation growth results in some 44 million people added to cities annually (or 120,000 people daily), with the region having 11 out of 20 mega-cities globally. Urbanisation continues to occur rapidly across a range of scales, with the result being that cities and towns of the Asia and Pacific face immense challenges including unplanned growth, proliferation of informal settlements, poor infrastructure, climate change impacts, congestion and environmental degradation.
Within this context, the ASPAC (Asia Pacific) Universities Urban Center combines the urban programs and departments of The University of Sydney (Australia), Thammasat University (Thailand), Institut Teknologi Bandung (Indonesia), and other partners from New Zealand, Vietnam, Egypt and Portugal so as to collaborate and explore solutions to pressing urban challenges. This includes constraints and opportunities to achieve the SDGs especially at the local level. This collaborative alliance aims to share research, academic exchanges, student programs and projects as well as other events with booth visitors in order to achieve a better understanding of the urbanisation phenomena in the Asia-Pacific region. This will include current student, government and community work from the ITB led Global Urban Studio on achieving SDGs at the local level.
The booth will be 18 square metres and equipped with a TV screen, sound system, microphones, tables, chairs, and printed promotional material of the urban programs and research offered by the different universities. The booth will include urban research projects, a gathering space for meet-and-greet, and a seating area for talks and events held by the exhibition organisers.