ABSTRACT
Frankenstein urbanism is a story about urban experiments. Its narrative is threefold and delves into the eco-city, the smart city and the autonomous city intended as a place where existing smart technologies are evolving into artificial intelligences that are taking the city’s management out of the hands of humans. This chapter introduces the foundational themes of the book. First, it draws upon Aristotle’s philosophy and uses it as a starting point to discuss the urban equation, explaining the meaning of being urban and exploring the nature of cities. Second, the chapter illustrates the concept of urban sustainability. It presents the main social and environmental challenges of the Anthropocene, such as unsustainable urban metabolisms, destruction of spaces and lack of wellbeing, as by-products of urbanization. Third, the chapter reviews the multiple facets of experimental urbanism, critically assessing humanity’s long-standing dream of building ideal cities. The chapter ends with an explanation of the methodology and structure of the book, with a warning about futures cities in an age of artificial intelligence, and with an invitation to carefully study and monitor contemporary urban experiments before they get out of control.
