2023 Summer Issue of Urban Land - 39

faces challenges such as rapid
population growth, aging populations,
climate change, and urban
migration, " Lawler says. " Through
the competition, we hope to inspire
the next generation of leaders to
create more livable and sustainable
communities in the region. "
A partnership between ULI and
the Hines company, the now-global
Hines competition is one of the
Institute's core education initiatives.
Its aim, according to ULI, is " to
raise interest among young people
in creating better communities,
improving development patterns,
and increasing awareness of the
need for multidisciplinary solutions
to development and design challenges. "
The competition sits at the
nexus of ULI's mission-to shape
the future of the built environment
for transformative impact in communities
worldwide-and its status
as the oldest and largest network
of cross-disciplinary real estate and
land use experts in the world.
Shaping the Future
At the 2023 ULI Asia Pacific
Summit in Singapore, global
CEO Ron Pressman applauded
the teams that competed in the
inaugural Asia Pacific contest.
" These young people all did such
impressive work to devise plans
for sustainable, inclusive, thriving
communities where people can
live, work, and play, " Pressman
said. " They truly are the future of
our industry, and they will shape
the future of our world. We at ULI
are honored to play a role in helping
them learn new skills, gain new
experiences, and-we hope-be
inspired to do great things. "
Nineteen teams representing
universities in Australia, China,
Hong Kong, India, Japan, the Philippines,
Singapore, South Korea, and
Vietnam competed this year. When
they received the 44-page competition
brief on March 4-outlining
the purpose, process, and parameters
of the competition, including
a detailed description of the site
and key objectives to address-they
had only three weeks to devise a
comprehensive design and development
proposal.
The goal: a plan to " transform
the [Jurong Lake District] into a
thriving, mixed-use, transit-oriented
neighborhood. " Teams were tasked
with addressing issues of equity,
housing affordability, sustainability,
resilience, access to neighborhood
services, and connectivity to surrounding
communities.
Improving Urban Health
Team Omusubi-comprising three
graduate students pursuing master
of architecture degrees and one
undergraduate set to complete her
bachelor of liberal studies degree
later this year with a minor in urban
planning-divvied up responsibilities
based on their areas of study.
Kento Yoshino's main roles were
concept development and urban
design. Taichi Kawasaki focused on
landscape design. Haoyang Xu took
the lead on architectural design.
And Misato Fujii spearheaded
urban and financial planning.
Yoshino, who lived in Singapore
as a high school student, saw their
development plan as complementing
efforts already underway
there to address environmental
and health challenges. " Singapore
is putting [in] some efforts to
improve environment problems
of urban health, " Yoshino says. " If
somehow we could share [knowledge
with the public], why we
need to change, and how we could
change, then we thought that we
could actually speed up the process
of improving urban health. "
Sharing knowledge and information
with the public was a key
principle for the Jurong Urban
Health Campus proposal. " We
tried to make sure there was some
kind of educational takeaway from
each aspect of the designs, " Fujii
says, " like the roadside, the waterfront,
the buildings, and our [urban
health] center. "
In order to anchor that concept,
the team envisioned the adaptive
use of the site's existing Science
Centre. " This building could [go]
from the hub of scientific curiosity
to a hub of urban health improvement, "
Yoshino says, " not only
among the region, but among the
entire country. "
The team members agreed that
their biggest challenge was balancing
the intense three-week timeline
with other schoolwork and life
events. Kawasaki was job hunting.
Fujii had an internship. And Xu,
who is from China, worked with the
rest of the team remotely due to
COVID-related travel restrictions.
But Yoshino attributes the
team's victory in part to the way
that these challenges sharpened
their focus. " It was only four of us,
and each member [had] a lot of
things to do, " he says.
Crossing Disciplines
Working across disciplines was an
enlightening experience, especially
for Fujii, the only undergraduate on
the team. " This was my first experience
being a part of a competition
and putting my research and
education in urban planning to use,
and also working with graduate
students, who I learned so much
from, " she says. " I didn't know so
much about architecture or waterfront
design or creating a master
plan, which my other teammates
really helped me understand, and
I think putting our ideas together
and creating this concept was so
much fun. "
JACK MORRISEY is ULI director of executive communications
and is based in Chicago.
SUMMER 2023
URBAN LAND
39
AWARD WINNERS
2023 Summer Issue of Urban Land

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