Listen to the episode:

You can find the transcript through this link.

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Are you interested in how can we create better, more sustainable cities for the future?

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Summary of the book titled Inventing Future Cities from 2018 by Michael Batty, published by The MIT Press.

This is a great preparation for our next interviewee, Michael Batty as the books present how he thinks about the future of cities.

Since we are investigating the future of cities, I thought it would be interesting to see how interdisciplinary collaboration and technologies can transform urban life. The book presents the opportunity and call for us to create cities that are more efficient, equitable and liveable for all.

As the most important things, I would like to highlight 3 aspects:

1. Cities are complex systems that can be understood and improved using a scientific approach, because we can gain a better understanding of the relationships between different urban systems and make more informed decisions that can help create more efficient and sustainable cities.
2. Collaboration and interdisciplinary approaches are key to creating better cities and innovative solutions to complex urban challenges which also includes engaging with local communities, and empowering citizens to participate in the planning and design of their cities.
3. The future of cities is not predetermined, but by working together and embracing new ideas and technologies, we can create cities that are more sustainable, equitable, and liveable for all.

You can find the book through ⁠this link⁠.

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Book description:

How we can invent—but not predict—the future of cities.

We cannot predict future cities, but we can invent them. Cities are largely unpredictable because they are complex systems that are more like organisms than machines. Neither the laws of economics nor the laws of mechanics apply; cities are the product of countless individual and collective decisions that do not conform to any grand plan. They are the product of our inventions; they evolve. In Inventing Future Cities, Michael Batty explores what we need to understand about cities in order to invent their future.

Batty outlines certain themes—principles—that apply to all cities. He investigates not the invention of artifacts but inventive processes. Today form is becoming ever more divorced from function; information networks now shape the traditional functions of cities as places of exchange and innovation. By the end of this century, most of the world’s population will live in cities, large or small, sometimes contiguous, and always connected; in an urbanized world, it will be increasingly difficult to define a city by its physical boundaries.

Batty discusses the coming great transition from a world with few cities to a world of all cities; argues that future cities will be defined as clusters in a hierarchy; describes the future “high-frequency,” real-time streaming city; considers urban sprawl and urban renewal; and maps the waves of technological change, which grow ever more intense and lead to continuous innovation—an unending process of creative destruction out of which future cities will emerge.

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Connecting episodes you might be interested in:

• ⁠No.037R⁠ – Big data, smart cities and city planning;
• ⁠No.130R⁠ – A new framework for very large-scale urban modelling;
• ⁠No.132 – Interview with Michael Batty ⁠data use in urban areas;

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