How would you design the city of the future?

Well this is timely, given my doodling of late (see below). I’d design a city, first, by rereading Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino. Then perhaps, Perdido Street Station, and then by looking at the art of M C Escher. Then I’d recall that for inhabitants of every clinically clean shining future city, there will always be people who long for not only unstructured spaces, but wild regions, small nooks, cosy places, and deconstructed areas where questions, wonder, and time can drift. I’d allow space for ruin, growth, and play. Places for the ancient alongside the new. Places for rust, and decay, as well as all that is bright and clean.

I would design a city of succour, rest, and craft. A city as a safe haven. I will remember that for every city of cold chrome and glass towers, there are future cities of warm gardens, trees, and caverns. I will remember to honour the underground and the overhead cities of the past in my city of the future.

I’d build according to the environment and build for the comfort, health, and convenience of everyone, not just a few. There would be space for sweeping stairs and ramps, and elevators. There would be colour, and light, as well as shade and dark. I’d dream of flying cities, steam punk travelling cities, safe yet bespoke industrial cities, and cities full of astronomers, artists, and sailors.