Everyone who lives in an urban environment is (consciously or not) affected by its planning and design. Cities have now been recognized as nuclei for innovation, expertise, and opulence; they can be considered as “concentrations of social interactions in space” (Garfield, 2019). As cities grow larger in population and size, they exhibit three key characteristics—complexity, diversity,and intelligence—that offer a glimpse of both the potential of cities and the problems that they face today.

Many urban issues, ranging from wealth inequity to environmental sustainability, are usu- ally tackled independently of each other (Bettencourt and West, 2010) despite their obvious interdependencies. This practice continues the convention of disciplines following a centralized order, which was largely the norm up to the 19th and 20th centuries (Batty and Marshall, 2012). Urban planning in the 20th century was characterized by a rigorous top-down approach, despite notable critics, including Christopher Alexander, who railed against the simplistic urban models of “tree-like” hierarchies and Jane Jacobs, who called for more diversity and citizen-centric design that reflected the realities of urban life. Facing today’s climate emergency, it seems clear that such outdated planning and design strategies are ineffective in satisfactorily addressing many of today’s problems.