Greetings from NUS Cities – and welcome to the inaugural issue of our quarterly newsletter!

By 2030, over 60% of the world’s population is expected to live in cities. The potential for unsustainable urban development amidst a global climate crisis is great, but cities also have the potential to create the conditions for the flourishing of human societies. Which of these two paths our cities will take will be crucial for the remainder of this century and beyond, and it is our hope that NUS Cities, and our newsletter, will become an important platform for interdisciplinary ideas and research contributing towards the path of better outcomes for cities around the world.

Enjoy our diverse offering in this first issue! We have Reviews of some of our past events. The NUS Cities Symposium (31 Aug to 1 Sep) was an opportunity for academics and practitioners to exchange ideas on cities. Drawing from expertise not just from NUS, panellists and speakers included faculty from other Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs) such as SMU and NTU, and government agencies including HDB, PUB and more. This issue will look back at some of the highlights and key takeaways from the symposium.

Our NUS Cities Lecture Series investigates ideas, policies and projects developed by urban experts, which aspire to create sustainable, resilient, and liveable cities. Professor Michael Batty (UCL) and Professor Luis Bettencourt (University of Chicago), two of our distinguished advisors, co-lectured about the developing science of cities embracing the new advances in computation, data and mathematical analysis. We share some of the insights gleaned from their lectures in this issue.

Education is important in ensuring that the next generation of urban systems thinkers, ready to meet the complex urban issues of the future. At NUS Cities, we have developed undergraduate courses that introduce students to holistic approaches to understanding the city. We have articles dedicated to the topic of Pedagogy. Chloe Ng, who has completed our Liveable Cities, Cities for All and Cities in Nature courses, explains how her experience in our courses has shaped her passion in wanting to pursue a sustainable future for cities. Our flagship Liveable Cities module has just passed its fifth run last semester – many wonderful projects from our students have aimed to reshape Singapore’s urban landscape for the better. We interview the winning team of last semester’s Liveable Cities Best Project as they reflect on their journey of exploration in crafting their proposal, and how this has enriched their view of the city in the process.

In our Research articles, we look at academic work that provides illuminating perspectives on what conditions enable cities to support human well-being. Dr Michael McGreevy extols the virtues of neighbourhood planning and design that creates the opportunity for flexible use and a wide variety of services and amenities based on his research into Singapore’s changing approach to its HDB neighbourhoods. Dr Andrew Schauf exemplifies the interdisciplinary approach of NUS Cities, applying insights from evolutionary biology to determine whether high-density cities are a boon or a bane for humanity.

At NUS Cities, we pride ourselves also in acknowledging the wisdom of both academics and practitioners in shedding light on how cities work and what needs to be done to help them function better. In our Insights sections, we learn from experts who have been deeply involved in practice that seeks to ensure a sustainable and liveable future for our cities. Professor Emi Kiyota from the Centre for Population Health at NUS is the founder of Ibasho, a pioneering approach to empowering the elderly to have fulfilling lives by building organic communities that they are an integral part of. We are honoured to have her as part of this inaugural issue to share about her insights into the relationship between the built environment and ageing populations, which has become one of the pressing challenges of our time. We also interview Professor Alexander Zehnder (President, triple Z Ltd.) is the founder of the 2000-Watt Society, which was developed as a way to measure sustainable energy outcomes for cities. We interview him on how he envisions his concept could be applied to Asia. Gopinath Menon, member of the Public Transport Council of the Ministry of Transport, shares an Opinion piece about the challenges of cities attaining the status of ‘car-lite’ and potential ways of addressing them.

We hope you will find this issue to be insightful about cities and optimistic about their future. This is only the beginning!