Cities in imaginaries are an interesting things that deserve reflection. It seems difficult to think about the future without a city in the background, partly because of (dubious) trends in the growth of urban population, partly due to the weight of urban landascape in the imagination of future world. From hyper capitalism to green revolution, the city is still considered the unique horizon of the development of Humanity.
However, most of the time, cities are just part of the setting of the novel or movie and hence fall into some easy archetypes (It is the future, so let’s say that it is a vertical city, with a Tyrel Corp’ look-a-like majestic headquarters surfacing in the edge of the cityscape. And put some robots in it and a few transparent buildings. Oh yeah, and do not forget about flying cars also!). Even as it, they should still be analyzed and looked into: what makes us think that the future lies into vertical cities? Why would flying cars be a real answer to our current mobility issues?
A (probably more interesting approach is to look at small interactions and usages. To work, the city of the future must provide work, shelter, food and security for its inhabitants (robots, humans, animals or cyborgs by the way). They may also have to be sustainable, and maybe (maybe only) smart. From moving cities in Mortal Engines (the book, not the movie adaptation that missed quite a few things) to adaptive (Neon Genesis Evangelion) and the « playable » ones (videogames), it is interesting to try to understand out imagination helps to test probable and preferable cities. Let’s see this in the next articles.