This handbook provides the most comprehensive examination of Asian cities—developed and developing, large and small—and their urban development.
Investigating the urban challenges and opportunities of cities from every nation in Asia, the handbook engages not only the global cities like Shanghai, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, and Mumbai but also less studied cities like Dili, Malé, Bandar Seri Begawan, Kabul, and Pyongyang. The handbook discusses Asian cities in alignment to the United Nations’ New Urban Agenda and Sustainable Development Goals in order to contribute to global policy debates. In doing so, it critically reflects on the development trajectories of Asian cities and imagines an urban future, in Asia and the world, in the post-sustainable, post-global, and post-pandemic era.
Presenting 43 chapters of original, insightful research, this book will be of interest to scholars, practitioners, students, and general readers in the fields of urban development, urban policy and planning, urban studies, and Asian studies.
Part I: Introduction
1. Urban Asia in perspective
Richard Hu
2. Smart cities in Asia: Ambiguity, innovation, and evolution
Hoon Han
3. Asian cities in and beyond COVID-19
Kh Md Nahiduzzaman and Md Moynul Ahsan
4. Vulnerable resilience in COVID-19: Invisibility and adaptability of the ‘informal’ cities of Southeast Asia
Amanda Achmadi and Sidh Sintusingha
5. Making liveable cities: Experiences from Asia and the Pacific
Bambang Susantono, Ramola Naik Singru, and Lara Arjan
Part II: East Asian cities
6. East Asian cities: Deindustrialisation, greening, and the new geography of urbanisation
Shahid Yusuf
7. Hong Kong: One city, three spatial forms, and two possible fates?
Mee Kam Ng et al.
8. Pyongyang: An urban metamorphosis under the power of marketisation
Pavel P. Em
9. Seoul: Pursuing and sharing a global city
Yu-Min Joo
10. Shanghai: New directions in Chinese metropolitan planning
Richard Hu
11. Taipei: Towards a liveable and sustainable city
Chia-Huang Wang
12. Tokyo: Reinventing the modern Asian metropolis through adaptive strategies
Carola Hein
13. Ulaanbaatar: When international plans and local preferences over urban densification collide
Aldarsaikhan Tuvshinbat, Raven Anderson, and Michael Hooper
14. Xi’an: From an ancient world city to a 21st-century global logistics centre
Xiangming Chen and Ziming Li
Part III: South Asian cities
15. South Asian cities: Informalisation of ecological and social change
Johannes Dragsbaek Schmidt
16. Colombo: From colonial outpost to indigenous kleptocratic city
Nihal Perera
17. Delhi: Rethinking Indian urbanism through the capital’s multi-nuclei development
Pilar Maria Guerrieri
18. Dhaka: Growth management challenges for a rapidly urbanising megacity
Shilpi Roy
19. Kabul: The 21st century urbanism we did not expect
Pietro Calogero
20. Karachi: Changing institutional landscapes, challenges, and reforms
Noman Ahmed
21. Kathmandu Valley: Unrealised proposals, decades of urban chaos and planning for a better future
Rajjan Chitrakar
22. Malé: Decentralising the world’s densest island capital—plans, determination, and challenges
Mariyam Zulfa
23. Mumbai: ‘Mess is more’—value and shortcomings of the city’s ad hoc development process
Matias Echanove and Rahul Srivastava
24. Thimphu: Tranquil, peace, and happy city of the Himalayas
Leishipem Khamrang
Part IV: Southeast Asian cities
25. Southeast Asian cities: The imbalances of urban development
Rita Padawangi
26. Bandar Seri Begawan: Why is Brunei’s capital chasing foreign dollars?
Victor K. S. Ong
27. Bangkok: Creative disorder and the military imagination
Ross King
28. Dili: Hurdles in constructing the urban from the ground
Joana de Mesquita Lima and João Pedro Costa
29. Ho Chi Minh City: Can it avoid the path dependence with Thu Duc City?
Du Huynh
30. Jakarta: Seeking the sustainable megacity region
Christopher Silver
31. Kuala Lumpur: Post-Vision 2020 and post-pandemic futures
Keng-Khoon Ng and Tim Bunnell
32. Manila: Aspiring to be an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable city amidst climate and disaster risks
Emma Porio and Justin See
33. Phnom Penh: Towards a post-dependency metropolisation?
Gabriel Fauveaud and Dolorès Bertrais
34. Singapore: Planning for healthy ageing
Belinda Yuen
35. Vientiane: Challenges in the policies and practices for sustainable urban development in a ‘least developed’ city
Thanousorn Vongpraseuth
36. Yangon: Displacement urbanism, housing provisionality, and feminist spatial practices—an infrastructure of care at the urban margin
Giovanna Astolfo
Part V: Central Asian cities
37. Central Asian cities: Challenges in balancing global, national, and local development needs
Madina Junussova, Saniya Soltybayeva, and Rameesha Khan
38. Almaty: Modernisation through spatial reordering—urban networks, transport sector reforms, and Eurasianism
Henryk Alff and Wladimir Sgibnev
39. Ashgabat: The architecture as a showcase of a personal regime
SlavomÃr Horák
40. Bishkek: Searching for Asianness in a post-Soviet city
Emil Nasritdinov
41. Dushanbe: Urban transformation, changing spaces, and identities in Tajikistan
Tahmina Inoyatova
42. Tashkent: Aspiring for entrepreneurship and innovation hub
Farrukh Irnazarov and Madina Junussova
Part VI: Conclusion
43. The Asian city in a new urban age
Richard Hu
Biography
Richard Hu is an urban planner, designer, and critic. His work and interests—both intellectual and professional—integrate built environment, economy, and technology to tackle contemporary urban transformations and challenges, with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region. He is the author of Smart Design: Disruption, Crisis, and the Reshaping of Urban Spaces (2021).
