About Think City

Our

Story

From our inception in 2009 to manage urban rejuvenation in George Town, Penang, to our presence in cities across Malaysia today, Think City has achieved over a decade of experience and knowledge in the urban landscape.

Each milestone has strengthened our mission in making cities better places for people to live in, observing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals as our guide. Our mission is to make cities more liveable, environmentally and socially resilient, and sustainable.

Today, Think City is a consultancy and project delivery partner, working in four key areas:

Placemaking

Resilience (Environmental and Social)

Analytics

Conservation

Our flagship programmes range from fostering the SDGs in cities and building SDG City Zones, to bolstering social resilience and wellbeing, addressing the urgent call to action on climate change, producing urban data analytics for more informed citymaking, and to culture-based urban regeneration, which includes the conservation and protection of heritage.

Our knowledge arm, Think City Institute runs courses on all areas of urban interventions and houses our digital library of urban resources.

Think City is also a venture builder. In partnership with entrepreneurs, we leverage knowledge, resources, ideas and innovation to build enterprises that can enrich and improve cities.

"Working with international and local organisations and institutions, our work today spans across Malaysia and beyond where we focus on achieving the sustainable development goals."

Our

History

Think City was first established in 2009 by Khazanah Nasional Berhad – the investment arm of the Malaysian government.

When George Town, Penang was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008, there was an urgent need to conserve and protect the city’s unique heritage. Think City was created to launch the George Town Grants Programme, designed to spearhead urban regeneration, with the goal of promoting community engagement, and to preserve and celebrate heritage through financial and technical support.

Over the next subsequent years, Think City disbursed 240 grants worth MYR16 million (approximately US$4 million) in special projects related to improving the public realm, conservation, capacity building and content development.

Today, George Town boasts a vastly different urban environment. The demonstrative nature of the grant projects, the knowledge and skills developed, and the confidence shown by the market stimulated by co-investments, have successfully sparked urban regeneration efforts on the island and surrounding mainland areas.

In 2014, Think City expanded into Butterworth, Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur to actively continue urban rejuvenation projects, more actively shaping and supporting other aspects of citymaking, collaborating closely with both the public and private sectors, as well as the community.

Through close collaboration and sustained innovation, we continued to develop citymaking know-how while experimenting with different approaches to strengthen our methodologies.

Having seen and learnt from the impact of early-stage regeneration, we successfully built local, regional and international partnerships alongside growing community participation to catalyse the citymaking movement in Malaysia.

Today, while Think City’s principles rest on high-level thinking in relation to cities in general, our approach and spirit remains foremost with the community, adapting as necessary as implementation challenges arise and new information emerges. Our entrepreneurial DNA underpins the next phase of our work, as does an urgent focus on the Sustainable Development Goals, given the crises affecting cities around the world today.

Our

Founder

Khazanah Nasional Berhad is the sovereign wealth fund of the Government of Malaysia, entrusted with growing the nation’s long-term wealth via distinct commercial and strategic objectives.

Khazanah’s commercial objective is to grow financial assets and diversify revenue sources for the nation, while its strategic objective is to hold strategic assets that bring long-term economic benefits.

Khazanah is guided by its investment philosophy which emphasises attaining appropriate risk-adjusted financial returns, generating sustainable returns, and integrating ethical and responsible investing considerations.

Some Of Our Partners

Government
Department of Heritage, Malaysia (JWN)
Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (FAMA)
George Town Conservation & Development
Corporation (GTCDC)
George Town World Heritage Inc.
Iskandar Investment Berhad (IIB)
Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA)
Johor Bahru City Council (MBJB)
Johor State Government
Khazanah Nasional Berhad
Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL)
North Kuching City Hall (DBKU)
South Kuching City Council (MBKS)
Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Malaysia
Ministry of Finance, Malaysia
Penang Island City Council (MBPP)
Penang State Government
Plan Malaysia
Seberang Perai City Council (MBSP)
Supporting Partners
Chief Minister of Penang Incorporated (CMI)
Citi Foundation
Ministry of Finance, Malaysia
PNB Merdeka Ventures
Yayasan Hasanah
Yayasan Sime Darby
International Organisations
Aga Khan Trust for Culture
AusHeritage
Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA)
The British Council
CityNet
Embassy of France in Kuala Lumpur
Fundaçion Metropoli
The Getty Conservation Institute
International Network of Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism (INTBAU)
The Japan Foundation
PlacemakingX
The Prince’s Foundation
Project for Public Spaces (PPS)
UNESCO
UN-Habitat
World Bank Malaysia
Community & Civil Society Organisations
Badan Warisan Malaysia
Centre for Archaeological Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia
Johor Area Rehabilitation Organisation (JARO)
Klang Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCCI)
NextDor Property Communications
Penang Institute
Penang Heritage Trust
Persatuan Warisan Makam Dato’ Koyah
Perunding Pinang
Taylor’s University