b'Urban Intensity and Urban DesignSydney, Beijing and HangzhouMessage from the Dean:The UNSW Master of Urban Development & Design (MUDD) Program has celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2019-2020 with a series of critical projects in Sydney, Beijing and Hangzhou that have explored the inter-relationship of urban intensity and urban design. Our 2018 Paul Reid Lecture delivered by Professor Peter Rowe from Harvard Graduate School of Design, highlighted the nexus between urban intensity and resource consumption, economic opportunity, social integration and environmental performance defining it in spatial terms as a measure of compactness, density, diversity and connectivity (Guan & Rowe Professor2016, p.22). In this context, urban intensity can be seen as an expression of key Helen Lochhead elements of the UN Sustainable Development Goals that frame the research and curriculum agenda of the UNSW Faculty of Built Environmentin particular, the all-important imperatives for Sustainable Cities and Communities, Responsible Consumption and Production and Climate Action.Since 1995, the MUDD Program has attracted graduate students from Australia and overseas to a rigorous post-professional academic program structured to address these global challenges. The intensive year of inter-disciplinary study has been created to inspire and prepare our graduates to take leadership roles in the planning, design and development of complex, fast paced urban environments, wherever they may be. Immersive studio design projects that challenge students to address both local and international urban agendas have been a key component of the program since its foundation. This studio experience creates well-rounded graduates who are able to think strategically as urban designers and appropriately adjust their design solutions to the different political, economic and social contexts of the cities in which they may operate around the world.In the four Sydney projects undertaken this year compactness, density, diversity and connectivity have been embraced as positive dimensions of urban consolidation, the densification of suburban Sydney which has long been contentious in local communities but must be considered essential for the sustainability of Greater Sydney in the 21st century.On the Cooks River at Arncliffe, strategies to increase the density of the suburb and to develop the contested waterfront, were re-conceptualised in a MUDD25 1 Studio which took an integrated, catchment-based approach to determine the P1-20200229-FOLIO INTRO.indd 6 2020/3/8 11:17:58'