Visioning Tropical Cities of the Future: Case Studies Using the Literary Method of Urban Design
This essay applies the Literary Method of Urban Design to forecast the futures of three tropical urban spaces through scenario art inspired by novels set in these cities. Bangkok, Thailand, is envisioned through Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Wind-Up Girl as a city grappling with rising seas, precarious go...
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| Language: | English |
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James Cook University
2025-04-01
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| Series: | eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.jcu.edu.au/index.php/etropic/article/view/4095 |
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| author | Alan Marshall |
| author_facet | Alan Marshall |
| author_sort | Alan Marshall |
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This essay applies the Literary Method of Urban Design to forecast the futures of three tropical urban spaces through scenario art inspired by novels set in these cities. Bangkok, Thailand, is envisioned through Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Wind-Up Girl as a city grappling with rising seas, precarious governance, and environmental degradation. Aracataca, Colombia, inspired by Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, is envisioned as a fleetingly successful theme park—before succumbing to economic decline and environmental catastrophe. Bhopal, India, re-visioned via Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People, is portrayed as a slowly healing landscape where humans and animals coexist amid ongoing recovery from the gigantic industrial disaster. These case studies illustrate the Literary Method’s power to synthesize literature and urbanism to yield insights into future social, ecological, and cultural challenges. While tailored to specific urban contexts in this article, the approach may hold broader applicability, enabling cities and citizens across the tropics and beyond to reimagine their futures through the unique creative and critical perspectives that their own local and regional literature may provide.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-513d778d47fc4312985d8b7364cca6ae |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1448-2940 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-04-01 |
| publisher | James Cook University |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics |
| spelling | doaj-art-513d778d47fc4312985d8b7364cca6ae2025-08-20T03:18:30ZengJames Cook UniversityeTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics1448-29402025-04-0124210.25120/etropic.24.2.2025.4095Visioning Tropical Cities of the Future: Case Studies Using the Literary Method of Urban DesignAlan Marshall0Mahidol University, Thailand This essay applies the Literary Method of Urban Design to forecast the futures of three tropical urban spaces through scenario art inspired by novels set in these cities. Bangkok, Thailand, is envisioned through Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Wind-Up Girl as a city grappling with rising seas, precarious governance, and environmental degradation. Aracataca, Colombia, inspired by Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, is envisioned as a fleetingly successful theme park—before succumbing to economic decline and environmental catastrophe. Bhopal, India, re-visioned via Indra Sinha’s Animal’s People, is portrayed as a slowly healing landscape where humans and animals coexist amid ongoing recovery from the gigantic industrial disaster. These case studies illustrate the Literary Method’s power to synthesize literature and urbanism to yield insights into future social, ecological, and cultural challenges. While tailored to specific urban contexts in this article, the approach may hold broader applicability, enabling cities and citizens across the tropics and beyond to reimagine their futures through the unique creative and critical perspectives that their own local and regional literature may provide. https://journals.jcu.edu.au/index.php/etropic/article/view/4095scenario artspeculative urban literaturetropical climate changetropical citiesurban futures designtropical futurity |
| spellingShingle | Alan Marshall Visioning Tropical Cities of the Future: Case Studies Using the Literary Method of Urban Design eTropic: electronic journal of studies in the tropics scenario art speculative urban literature tropical climate change tropical cities urban futures design tropical futurity |
| title | Visioning Tropical Cities of the Future: Case Studies Using the Literary Method of Urban Design |
| title_full | Visioning Tropical Cities of the Future: Case Studies Using the Literary Method of Urban Design |
| title_fullStr | Visioning Tropical Cities of the Future: Case Studies Using the Literary Method of Urban Design |
| title_full_unstemmed | Visioning Tropical Cities of the Future: Case Studies Using the Literary Method of Urban Design |
| title_short | Visioning Tropical Cities of the Future: Case Studies Using the Literary Method of Urban Design |
| title_sort | visioning tropical cities of the future case studies using the literary method of urban design |
| topic | scenario art speculative urban literature tropical climate change tropical cities urban futures design tropical futurity |
| url | https://journals.jcu.edu.au/index.php/etropic/article/view/4095 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT alanmarshall visioningtropicalcitiesofthefuturecasestudiesusingtheliterarymethodofurbandesign |