Envisioning Cities Yet to Come

Our minds are wired to think about the future, a process known as prospection. Whether consciously or not, our reasoning is shaped by the interplay of memories and future anticipations. As futurist Alvin Toffler said, “We must adapt to a world that is constantly changing, where the past is no longer a reliable guide to the future, and the time span for decision-making shrinks with each passing day.” This challenge rings particularly true for urban planners and researchers whose work carries the weight of long-term consequences. What will our cities become?

The Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) has explored such questions for 15 years. On January 14th, a consortium of its leaders came together for a landmark event to launch the new program (FCL IV) and invite project proposals. The gathering coincides with FCL’s 15th anniversary, underscoring the program’s enduring commitment to shaping urban futures.

The event took place at the Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC), ETH Zurich’s pioneering hub outside Switzerland, and FCL’s home base since 2010. While a Zurich hub was established in 2020 to expand the program’s reach, SEC remains a cornerstone of FCL’s operations and vision.

The theme of this FCL IV launch event and its call for projects —“Transitioning to Future-Positive Cities”—embodies the program’s goal: to envision and shape urban futures driven by optimism and proactive solutions. As the organisers reflected on the contours of this next phase, a striking observation emerged: much of today’s engineering and STEM-driven urban research is inherently reactive. Terms like “regeneration,” “decarbonisation,” “rejuvenation,” “repair,” and “recycling” dominate the discourse, underscoring a focus on mitigating past damage rather than imagining new possibilities. Prefixes like “de-” and “re-” convey a sense of undoing rather than creating.

From a broader, more humanistic perspective, cities are often framed within the ominous narrative of the Anthropocene—an era defined by humanity’s destructive impact on the planet. While this lens highlights urgent challenges, it can also perpetuate a doomsday mentality that stifles visionary thinking and action. The FCL IV program seeks to shift this paradigm by embracing a positive attitude, mindset, and research approach. Instead of viewing cities as wicked problems to fix, the program aims to position them as platforms for innovation, resilience, and human flourishing.

The time has now come to reimagine urban futures. FCL invites proposals for the new program (FCL IV), seeking to challenge the status quo and inspire actionable strategies for building vibrant, inclusive, and sustainable urban futures. By looking into the proverbial glass ball, the hope is to reimagine urbanisation not as a source of despair but as a wellspring of opportunity.

With its 15th anniversary on the horizon, FCL is poised to redefine how we think about cities—not just as they are, but as they could be.

The journey toward future-positive urbanism has begun.