4. Discussion and Concluding Remarks
This research highlights that the value of constructing the vision for a future city is twofold, one at the process
level and one at the outcome level. At the process level the research presents the visioning exercise - and the
resulting vision- as a participatory dialogue about the future city that will contribute to the planet and people being
well. The engineering of the vision is a cooperative process that should allow multiple voices to be heard to identify
needs, align different interests and foster engagement and leadership from one person or groups of individuals at the
public sector organization level and at the community, civil society level.
At the outcome level, our research identifies that for a future city vision to be transformative, it should not be
defined in terms of projects, budgets or foresighted trends or indicators but as a conceptual characterization of a city
where its people can live and be well. This conceptualization should be done in terms of high level urban principles
that underpin the functioning and design of all city systems at all scales. These urban principles are not objectives
for siloed sectors, or singular concerns, but cross-cutting fundamental principles for making the city closer to an
ideal in which people’s aspirations are met and societal well-being is reached. Therefore, the definition of the high
level principles must not be constrained by existing conditions, science, technology or likely trends, but needs to
have an aspirational or desirable quality assuming the construction of new knowledge. The 5-cities model presented
on this paper exemplifies this outcome-based vision which aims to be comprehensive and clear so that, in general
terms, it can be a starting point for thinking and having the dialogue about the ideal future city vision of any city in
the world.
Moreover, in the dynamic context of the visioning process the vision should be regarded as the starting point of
the transformation. The vision defines that preferable future towards which the city should move and allows the
identification of the pathways to go from the present to the preferable future.
Such a process will require continuous innovation in a context of rapid change and high uncertainty. Given these
great challenges, transformative urban planning for the cities of the future needs to bring practices from other areas
which have successfully developed models and tools for transformation, innovation and management of complex