With a clear voice and compelling vision, Batty provides a roadmap for urban invention and reinvention in the unpredictable twenty-first century, with an eye for the interplay between technology and urban form. A significant contribution to the field of urban planning and urbanism more broadly.
Edward Glaeser, Fred and Eleanor Glimp Professor of Economics, Harvard University; author of Triumph of the City
This is an inspiring book filled with thought-provoking ideas, from the intriguing tension between predictability and unpredictability of future cities to complexity theory and smart cities. Its tremendous scope will greatly enrich our understanding and thinking about past, present, and future cities.
Mei-Po Kwan, Professor of Geography and Geographic Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign; coeditor of Space-Time Integration in Geography and GIScience: Research Frontiers in the U.S. and China
With Inventing Future Cities, Mike Batty provides a fresh look at the future of an urbanizing world. Weaving together history and spatial theory with scenario analysis, Batty examines what future patterns and distributions of cities may look like in an era of disruptive technologies and global connectivity. This volume is a must-read for anyone interested in our urban future.
Karen C. Seto, Frederick C. Hixon Professor of Geography and Urbanization Science, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Against the rising optimism in the growth of urban science and the predictive power of big data in service to urban improvement, Michael Batty draws on his decades of research to caution that, in his view, there may be limits to our knowledge of cities as complex systems. Those who seek to make progress in understanding how cities work—as scientists, scholars, or policy makers—will benefit from considering the challenges raised by this book.
Luís M. A. Bettencourt, Pritzker Director of the Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation, University of Chicago
Michael Batty reconstitutes urban space into an unrecognizable zone full of new discoveries. This book is an invitation to travel novel vectors.
Saskia Sassen, Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University; author of The Global City
Mike Batty's new book is a tour de force meta-narrative of both the trends and components of urbanism at the start of the 21st century and one that should be read by all those with an interest in cities. Situating the debate within a past, present, and future context, he offers some perceptive and provocative contributions on where cities might be heading. This is not some academic pseudo-navel gazing exercise, but rather a considered debate that revolves around planning, design, technology, the impact of new infrastructure and new patterns of living and working, and above all the digital dynamics that are affecting every aspect of our present and future.
Urban Analytics and City Science
