Urban-Rural Systems (URS) is a transdisciplinary design-research practice focusing on complex and urgent challenges arising from urbanisation. It works on systems-aware and scale-sensitive solutions to those challenges. The practice is based at the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) and is supported by the ETH Zurich and Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF). It works with diverse government authorities, multilateral development banks, universities and communities in South and Southeast Asia.The URS approach combines research, collaboration and creativity. A special emphasis is placed on using the best available data to engage stakeholders and support their work; the practice has developed the open-source software ur-scape to facilitate this process. Expertise in areas such as low-carbon development, food security, ecosystem services, regional resilience, cultural landscape rehabilitation, housing and green infrastructure has been developed. Currently, URS is focused on the Agropolitan Seed Town and Smart Urban Plan for Cultural Economies in Rajasthan, India, while recent projects include: Urban Resilience Assessment for Cirebon and Makassar; Gender Sensitive Urban Planning Bandung; and Metropolitan Spatial Planning in Greater Palembang.

Source: Aga Khan Award for Architecture