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.