Today‎,‎ a ‎'‎new alliance‎'‎ is being forged between designers and commercial property developers who are championing progressive design‎,‎ in projects as diverse as apartment blocks‎,‎ houses‎,‎ hotels and offices‎.‎ While some architects are taking a proactive role in property development‎,‎ other firms are hammering out a new position for themselves as designer‎-‎-developers‎.‎ Simultaneously‎,‎ property developers are starting to recognise the added value that an architect can bring to a project in terms of planning‎,‎ design quality and creativity‎.‎ This issue takes a truly international look at the projects architects and developers are achieving together‎.‎ It explores the opportunities that are driving the architect‎-‎-developer alliance in Hong Kong‎,‎ London‎,‎ Tokyo and Melbourne‎,‎ as well as the marketing potential of design excellence in New York‎.‎ ‎'‎Property development has to be market driven and certainly not product driven‎.‎ The architect can creatively add great value to the developersa commercial objectives by design ‎-‎- in doing so he can achieve his architectural agenda at the same time‎.‎‎"‎ Ken Yeang‎.‎ ‎"‎Thank goodness the old guard is dying of obsolescence‎.‎ Our cities will revel for the evolution‎.‎‎"‎ Gregg Pasquarelli‎,‎ SHoP/Sharples Holden Pasquarelli