Urban Synthesis

Visionary architects are redefining urbanism by merging infrastructure with public spaces.

- Alvin Lim

With the world’s population inching towards eight billion, city size – and not necessarily density – is becoming a pressing problem for urban architects and city planners.

Cities such as Los Angeles and Brisbane suffer from urban sprawl, a phenomenon characterised by low-density housing, single-use developments and haphazard planning. As such, it is inefficient at housing a growing population and incurs other externalities, including the increased use of automobiles to get around. Areas with high population densities, on the other hand, are often unsafe and stressful to live in.

This conundrum has pushed city planners and designers to start looking for a balanced solution and the answer seems to lie in mixed-use buildings.