The exhibition Water-Curse or Blessing!? is a contribution by Aedes East e.V in the framework of the Asia-Pacific Weeks 2011, focusing on this year's main theme Water, Food Production, and Health. Presented will be urban, infrastructural, architectural, and environmental planning measures from East, South and Southeast Asia. Designed to respond to water-related issues and challenges ranging from shortages to rising sea levels and flood threats or triggered by given geographical conditions. The exhibition will be accompanied by an interdisciplinary and intercultural discussion whose participants will include specialists and representatives from the fields of design, governance, technology and culture. Ongoing changes to the global climate mean not just increases in extreme weather conditions, but also a rise in average temperatures worldwide whose outcomes may include the melting of the polar caps and glaciers as well as rising sea levels. At the same time, this situation is aggravated by growing water requirements around the world, in particular by economic players like China and India, but also other rapidly growing economies in East, South, and Southeast Asia. While some regions are continuously threatened by rising floodwaters, others must battle the consequences of water shortages and the resulting drought conditions. Alongside the unpredictable ecological outcomes involved, is in particular human settlements located near large bodies of water which are threatened: of the more than 50% of the world population which lives in cities (and the growth of megacities in Asia means that this number is rising), nearly 90% are located in the vicinity of oceans or rivers. It is urgent that these communities develop sustainable strategies for integrating evolving climate conditions into urban planning measures and architectural projects. The exhibition Water-Curse or Blessing!? focuses on the question of how architects and urban planners in the Asian-Pacific region are coping with such water-related issues. The selected projects offer insights into specific scenarios found in the urban areas of the neighboring lands of China, India, both parts of Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore, all the way to Australia, while also incorporating a larger perspective of the region as a whole, which faces a heterogeneous mix of water-related threats and issues ranging from flooding to shortages, including pollution and other challenges. The featured projects fall under the categories of water management, water processing, rainwater harvesting, desalination, flood protection, and infrastructural improvements, for example enhancement of the quality of life in urban areas through the revitalization of abandoned industrial zones. Such searches for answers are conditioned in complex ways by the goal of social and ecological sustainability.