Rapid urbanisation has been one of the urgent issues across the globe in the past few decades. According to the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, today, 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. As a consequence, more and more cities are now becoming part of larger metropolitan areas.

The modern meaning of metropolis appeared in early 20th century describing the change of measure and scale of the urban settlements in the wake of the industrialization in the western world. It described the urban expansion that had been occurring at different times in different locations around the world over the past two centuries. Otto Wagner and Ludwig Hilberseimer were amongst the first scholars who raised the issue of the Großstadt, that is the “big” city.

The phenomenon of the contemporary metropolis is, however, quite different from the modern industrial “big city”. Unlike the prediction of early modern metropolis being the “vertical city” driven by progress, technology, and science, what we experience now is rather a more complex “horizontal metropolis”. There are many underlying reasons to this phenomenon that are also complex and intertwined. However, within our project framework, we focus on the three issues of data, scale, and quality of living.