The Great Asian Streets Symposium

The Great Asian Streets Symposium (GASS) was established in 2001. The initiative to organize such event came form recognition that there is a need for an Asia-based node of excellence on networks of ideas and results of research projects that focus at Asian cities. Historically and today, research activity and literature on Asian cities and public spaces are conducted and published by European and American institutions. By initiating and organizing GASS, Department of Architecture of the National University of Singapore responded to a dire lack of truly Asian perspectives within that field.

The first symposium was held January 18-19, 2001 held at. The high-quality, refereed symposium provided a discussion platform for urban researchers and professionals committed to the study of streets and public spaces in Asia. In July 2002 the 2nd GASS brought together an even higher number of participants with high-quality papers and generated the cutting-edge discussion. The term "Great Asian Streets" itself became a metaphor, a veritable public space, forum for urban studies of Asia - in Asia.

The 3rd GASS took place in December 2004, with an expanded theme - "Street, Urban Space and Representation". This time, more than 100 participants came form all corners of the world to present. They included academics, which presented the variety of historical, social and morphological investigations of Asian streets and associated manifestation of life, and practitioners, who focused on the cutting-edge planning, urban design and architecture for streets and public spaces in Asia.

The 4th GASS was held December 6-8, 2006. The theme was even broader: ''Reclaiming the City''. The focus was on reshaping the built environments, re-appropriation of public spaces of our cities and ways to bring back the vitality of urban life.

The 5th GASS is scheduled December 5-7, 2008. It will be held at the traditional GASS place - Department of Architecture, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore. The call for papers puts forward a provocative string of themes, ''FUTURE | ASIAN | SPACE''. They chart a field which asks discussion about the future of Asian urbanism. The idea is that GASS 5 acts as a catalyst for constructive thinking about Asian cities in the 21st century.