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 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.