Future Cities : Architecture and the Imagination

Author: Dobraszczyk, Paul

Theory of art

Published on 1 February 2025 by REAKTION BOOKS in the United Kingdom.

Paperback | 272 pages, 70 illustrations
156 x 209 x 18 | 514g

Exploring a breathtaking range of imagined cities – submerged, floating, flying, vertical, underground, ruined and salvaged – this book teases out the links between speculation and reality, arguing that there is no clear separation between the two. In the Netherlands, floating cities are already being built; Dubai’s recent skyscrapers resemble those of science-fiction cities of the past; while makeshift settlements built by the urban poor in the developing world are already like the dystopian cities of cyberpunk. Bringing together architecture, fiction, film and art, Future Cities re-connects the imaginary city with the real – proposing a future for humanity that is already grounded in the present and in the creative practices of many kinds.