Engaging Unprecedented Urbanism: Epistemic Urban Design and Generative Inheritance from Six Global Contexts

Urban transformations outpace established urban design paradigm shifts. This acceleration widens the gap between inherited theory and contemporary urban realities This article addresses this condition by introducing epistemic urban design as a conceptual orientation and generative inheritance as its procedural extension within urban conditions described as unprecedented urbanism. Drawing on a critical interpretive synthesis of the literature spanning historical, theoretical, and technological developments, the study examines how urban design knowledge is produced, stabilized, and reinterpreted as urban complexity intensifies. The analysis unfolds in three phases. First, it traces how established paradigms historically structured design practices and how current conditions expose their operational limits. Second, it articulates how epistemic urban design treats design knowledge as an evolving resource, specifying analytical dimensions for interpreting diverse urban conditions. Third, it proposes how generative inheritance operationalizes epistemic urban design by linking inherited design knowledge to context-specific empirical situations. The article contributes to urban design research by supporting epistemic urban design with the procedural logic of generative inheritance. This shift enables theoretical insights to systematically inform design operations under conditions of unprecedented urbanism.