ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the role of cities/communities as interactive laboratories of innovation. It discusses a theoretical and conceptual framework for creative cities. The chapter presents the conditions and reasons for the collapse of innovative cities by illustrating the current conditions of these cities in the twenty-first century. It also presents a conceptual foundation for the reconstruction of innovative cities by looking at the three phases of creation, destruction and reconstruction. Disruptive innovation in cities may occur after natural disasters like the fires in Chicago in the nineteenth century or after human-made wars and armed conflicts as the cases of Beirut in the 1970s and the on-going conflicts in Yemen, Baghdad, Libya and Syria. The chapter discusses the process for rebuilding an innovative city and presents a model of the Islamic city which is inspired by Mecca City.
