Exploration and Imagination of City Futures in Science-Fiction.

Abstract

Whilst urban planning is regularly based on the scientific state of the art, Science-Fiction (Sci-Fi) creators are free to implement more improbable aspects which may look mad from today s view. This paper focuses on the question what urban planning can learn from urban future created in Sci-Fi works. The articleis based on empirical data from a research project named Sci-Fi Cities urban futures in art, literature and video". The study was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of researchers at Brandenburg University of Technology, Germany, including experts from media science, urban planning, architecture and visual arts. The aim of the study is to analyze how future cities work in Sci-Fi and if respective what urban policy formulation can learn out of it. The timeframe set starts from the 1970ies and focuses on Sci-Fi works dealing with a future being still prospective from today s view. The geografical emphasis is put on the Western culture (Europe, US, Japan) since the study aims in providing deductions for the German context. Sci-Fi works from different media as movies, literature, comics, computer games are taken into account.The project was assigned by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development in Germany (October 2014 until March 2015).