The Guangdong-HK-Macao Greater Bay Area: Illusion, Dream or Reality?

Abstract

The GBA (Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area) covers eleven cities in the Pearl River Delta, including Hong Kong, Macao and nine other cities in Guangdong province such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Already an economic powerhouse and the largest single urban area in the world, the GBA is planned by China to be further integrated and developed in the next decade, to eventually become a world-class city cluster, an advanced manufacturing center, as well as a global innovation hub with the highest GDP among all bay areas worldwide. In this talk, Prof. Zhu Tao will introduce the emerging infrastructural and urbanistic formation of the GBA, and discuss the project’s implications for the economic and geopolitical relationship between Hong Kong and China. On a more micro level, Prof. Zhu will also present his own engagement with the urban study, planning and design of Hong Kong, Dongguan and Shenzhen, to illustrate how an architect can act both locally and regionally, making positive contribution to the drastic urbanization process of the GBA.