Future cities: Conceptualizing the future based on a critical examination of existing notions of cities

Abstract Assigning labels to cities that evoke desirable features has become increasingly popular in recent years with city administrators promoting various notions of the desired city. This article examines the various labels used to classify cities and identifies the key characteristics that each label tends to highlight. It is contended that as proponents of variously labelled cities pursue certain aspects of sustainability, their focus may be too narrow to cover the broad spectrum of sustainability. A literature review of various notions of desirable cities promoted under various labels suggests that cities of the future would need to be dynamic and intelligent in every aspect of social, economic and environmental sustainability. Therefore, it is important that all aspects of sustainability are considered in envisioning the desired future in which to conceptualize the cities of the future. It can be assumed from the past trends of urbanization that future cities will continue to uphold and build upon common goals and values of existing cities such as promoting pleasant urban form, community engagement, economic opportunities, and technological advancement and cultural diversity. This paper reports on a systematic critical review of literature of twelve popular notions/labels of desirable cities as apparent from a scan of citation indices of peer reviewed articles. It identifies the level of consideration of various aspects of sustainability in the central focus of proponents of each notion. It then maps out the concern for sustainability along ten dimensions of sustainability. The findings of the study demonstrate that not all notions/labels of desired cities consider sufficient breadth of the sustainability spectrum. Similarly, in cumulative terms, the various notions of desirable cities amount to different levels of consideration for various aspects of sustainability. The paper concludes by pointing out the need to ensure that the overall focus of scholars dealing with the built environment at any given time provides a balanced regard to all aspects of sustainability.