Cities all over the world are being hit hard by climate change and far-reaching urbanisation. Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities Asia (WaL) sees water as a catalyst for sustainable development. Together with multidisciplinary design research teams, WaL is currently designing climate-adaptive concepts for three cities: Semarang (Indonesia), Chennai (India) and Khulna (Bangladesh). The transformative approach and projects, that are being developed in collaboration with the local government, financiers and the vulnerable communities the programme focuses on, should eventually be scalable throughout Asia and the rest of the world.