The Cities of Tomorrow Were Designed Yesterday
We often speak of the cities of tomorrow as if they were still to be imagined, as if we stood at the edge of a great urban reinvention. But the truth is, much of what we aspire to create has already been designed—sometimes decades, even centuries ago. What we call avant-garde today is often just a rediscovery of ideas that were ahead of their time, left waiting for the right moment to be realized.
The urgency we feel isn’t a product of newfound vision—it’s a response to accumulated inaction. And that’s the real paradox. We like to believe we’re shaping the future, but in many cases, we’re simply catching up with a past that had already anticipated our present challenges. The pioneers are rare; the rest hesitate. And hesitation, as we know, is the enemy of progress.
A Future That Echoes the Past
Take the example of Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities (1898). At the turn of the 20th century, Howard envisioned self-sustaining cities with green belts, mixed-use spaces, and a strong emphasis on community living — principles that align almost perfectly with today’s discussions on 15-minute cities and urban sustainability. Yet, for over a century, mainstream urban development largely ignored these principles in favor of car-centric sprawl. Only now, under the weight of environmental urgency and quality-of-life concerns, are we re-examining these ideas as if they were revolutionary.
Or look at Le Corbusier’s vision of modular, prefabricated living spaces — an idea that has gained newfound relevance in today’s push for sustainable, adaptable urban housing. His 1950s Unité d’Habitation was not just an apartment block; it was a vertical village with integrated communal spaces, designed to foster interaction and efficiency. Today, with the modular housing revolution, we’re circling back to this logic, realizing that density, when well-designed, does not have to mean soulless uniformity.
Lost Spaces, Found Purpose
Proust wrote In Search of Lost Time, but today, as architects of community life, we find ourselves in search of lost spaces—urban voids, forgotten rooftops, disused industrial zones. These are the spaces that hold the potential to redefine how we live, work, and connect.
Cities like Copenhagen and Barcelona have already begun reclaiming urban space. Copenhagen’s Superkilen transformed a neglected stretch of land into a vibrant, multicultural urban park, integrating design elements from 60 different national traditions to reflect its diverse community. Barcelona’s Superblocks — restructured neighborhoods where pedestrian life takes priority over cars — are another example of how long-standing urban ideas (walkable, human-centric cities) are only now being embraced at scale.
Meanwhile, Paris is converting its abandoned railways into green corridors, reviving spaces that once represented industrial expansion into vital arteries of urban life. Across Europe, shipping containers are becoming modular housing units, market spaces, and even cultural hubs, proving that resourcefulness is often more impactful than new construction.
Beyond Symbolic Moments
We cannot afford to wait for a symbolic moment — a grand occasion, a new funding cycle, or worse, another crisis — to finally act. The foundations of tomorrow's cities depend on our collective willingness to shape them today. And that requires a shift in mindset:
From passive urban consumption to active urban creation
From nostalgia for past designs to a strategic reinvention of them
From isolated architectural brilliance to collaborative, sustainable ecosystems
The table is set, but there are still empty chairs. Let’s not wait until Christmas to gather. Let’s reclaim, rethink, and rebuild now.
Because the cities of tomorrow aren’t waiting. And neither should we.
Philippe Samyn and Partners · Ricerche, Venafro (Italy)
To conclude here, I invite you to read Peter Hall's Cities of Tomorrow that is one of the finest contemporary works on the history of urban planning. The aim is simple: to provide a comprehensive overview of the Cities of the Imagination that have influenced people's dreams and planners' decisions since the end of the last century — from 1880 to 1987. It's not an entirely new undertaking, but never before has it been carried out so systematically.
Jeremy Thomas, Founding Partner at CO-HO
#urbanplanning #modularconstruction #ecobuild #sustainableliving #passivehomes #affordablehousing
