Hauntological urbanism: Imagining regenerative futures in the age of AI

After the Circular City: Reimagining Regenerative Urbanism, Workshop, Royal College of Art, London, 26–27 September 2025

This talk examines how regenerative urbanism is imagined through AI. By assessing AI-generated images of regenerative urban futures, it explores the epistemological status of such imagery and proposes an actor-network theory framework for studying this phenomenon. Visions of circular cities often manifest in images of green urban spaces and feature glassy, rounded high-rises surrounded by jungle-like vegetation. With AI-based tools, these images are now reassembled into new visualizations. Considering the socio-structural features of AI images and architecture, and drawing on the concept of hauntology introduced by Jacques Derrida and further developed by Mark Fisher, this conference paper argues that the circular city depicted in AI images is nostalgic, as both architecture and AI images are structurally caught in visions of the past.

More information
https://www.rca.ac.uk/news-and-events/events/after-the-circular-city/