Future Cities: Architecture and the Imagination book launch

Join us for the launch of Future Cities: Architecture and the Imagination (Reaktion, 2019) by Paul Dobraszczyk.

Architects, artists, filmmakers and fiction writers have long been inspired to imagine cities of the future, but their speculative visions tend to be seen very differently from scientific predictions: flights of fancy on the one hand versus practical reasoning on the other. Challenging this opposition, 'Future Cities' teases out the links between speculation and practice, exploring a breathtaking range of imagined cities - submerged, floating, flying, vertical, underground, ruined and salvaged. In the Netherlands, prototype 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, the book re-connects the imaginary city with the real - proposing a future for humanity that is already grounded in the present and in creative practices of many kinds.

The launch will feature a panel including the book's author Paul Dobraszczyk, editor Vivian Constantinopoulos (Reaktion Books), and writer and academic Douglas Murphy (Royal College of Art), chaired by Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou (UCL) and followed by a reception.

No booking required.

Access information:

There is step free access to the room on the sixth floor via lifts, and accessible toilets are located within the building. For more detailed accessibility information please visit The Bartlett School of Architecture website or contact the School directly by sending an email or calling 020 3108 7337.

Further information:

• Facebook event
• Directions to the building
  

Image: Still from Megalomania (2011) by Jonathan Gales