I am really looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible. UIA is the world body representing the 124 countries within our 116 member sections. This represents a lot of architects globally; something like 1.4 million of us. We estimate that there are also about half a million students as well, at this moment.

As I have been visiting our member sections over the last three years, it has been great to meet many of you and to be able to discuss and understand how you practice in your countries, to look at the wonderful architectural creations in your cities, enjoy your natural places and to try to understand your cultures, all different and all really fascinating to me, as they are so often imbedded in your daily life. Those of you in Tokyo please introduce yourself to me again, I want to see you.

The 2011 UIA World Congress is here in Tokyo, at the Tokyo International Forum designed by Rafael Viňoly, the result of a UIA approved Competition. This complex is really interesting not only spatially, also beautifully detailed and extremely well constructed, as the Japanese do so well. This will inspire you to further your efforts to design and build better for everyone.

This XXIV UIA Congress, organised with such care by our Japanese friends for all of us, will allow you to participate, argue and debate the most important issues of our time, to look forward to the future and imagine how and where we will be living in 2050, hopefully with reduced carbon emissions, in a more sustainable way, integrating and learning from our heritage buildings and places, enjoying our culture and being able to breathe clean air, have clean water, shelter and work for everyone on the planet.

Here in Tokyo we will be looking into the future with Design 2050: Beyond Disasters, through Solidarity, towards Sustainability. It is a bonus for us all that we are at the beginning of the 21st Century. There will be many opportunities large and small that will be offered to us in the next 40 years and then to make the 50 years after this a real place for people. It is our destiny. We must build a better, more sustainable and human world for all people.

Tokyo, this wonderful city, with everything done in a particularly Japanese creative way will delight you. Enjoy the little gardens that you find unexpectedly next to you; the tiny restaurants with morsels of the most delightful taste, exquisitely presented; temples, plants, water, raked sand and precisely placed rocks; materials used in beautiful ways with expert and delicate details; and wonderful architecture from all ages to the present in 2011.

Explore Tokyo, afterwards go to Kyoto and other wonderful parts of Japan. Experience the traditional ways of life, the local food, traditional accommodation, the local people. Sit quietly in a garden, and visit the shrines. You will be surprised and delighted.

Let us all also show our solidarity to the Japanese people and to our friends the Japanese architects after the latest disasters that struck the country on 11th March 2011; join the discussion groups for the thematic sessions, listen to the keynote speakers and the special guests, see the exhibitions, meet your friends and new people, communicate face to face, and enjoy Tokyo. Yes, Tokyo!

I would like to offer you a heartfelt welcome to The 24th World Congress of Architecture, UIA2011 TOKYO. The city of Tokyo also welcomes you all, as the host city for the 24th UIA Assembly.

Since our selection in Istanbul in 2005 as the host for the 2011 World Congress, six years have flown by and we have spent the intervening time engaged in diligent preparations for UIA2011 TOKYO, working to ensure that the Congress is one of great value for the UIA, architects in Japan and around the world, and the citizens of Tokyo.

We were filled with a desire to design a global vision for 2050 and beyond, considering and examining the ideal environments, cities and architecture of tomorrow. This was the genesis of our idea to choose “DESIGN 2050” as the main theme for UIA2011 TOKYO.

The myriad challenges we face in the 21st century encompass environment, energy, economy, population, food supplies and education, to name but a few, and these are challenges that the world of architecture alone cannot hope to resolve. Therefore, under the banner of “DESIGN 2050,” at UIA2011 TOKYO we seek to call upon a wide range of people, transcending national borders and removing other barriers of a religious, ethnic, gender, generational or industrial nature, and draw a vision for the world of 2050 and beyond that combines the wisdom and technology of all these diverse groups.

On March 11, 2011, eastern Japan was struck by a large earthquake, which was followed by an enormous and destructive tsunami. The impact of this disaster caused the accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station. The disaster had a significant influence on our preparations for the Congress, and we decided to add a sub-theme to the main theme of “DESIGN 2050.” Accordingly, the sub-theme of the Congress is “Beyond Disasters, through Solidarity, towards Sustainability.”

Under these circumstances, it is our hope that UIA2011 TOKYO will be a meaningful and timely Congress, in which we can consider global environments, cities and architecture of the future, and also send out a message about Japan’s reconstruction efforts, providing an opportunity for architects to discuss what we can do to help overcome the various disasters and difficulties faced around the world.

The venues for the Congress are all situated in central Tokyo. We hope that in your spare time between meetings and events you will have a chance to sample the delights of Japan’s capital city and also perhaps take time to visit some of our regional cities, with their rich natural environments, engaging in interaction with the welcoming people of Japan.