Future Cities and Their Downtowns: Setting the Agenda Through Sustainability and Placemaking

This paper sets out the purpose and direction of the Special Issue. It establishes the background to change through the industrial revolutions, and particularly the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is creating unprecedented pressures on cities and their downtowns. It notes that the complex challenges require interdisciplinary collaboration and integration, and this leads to five research questions about the future. The aims of the Special Issue are how to futureproof downtowns against a growing image of redundant buildings and unloved spaces, and re-create useful places with symbolic meaning for citizens. The structure is based on the sustainable city, in which the established environmental, social, and economic perspectives are extended to include political, cultural, and technological viewpoints. All these perspectives can be enacted through placemaking tools, which themselves require classification. Existing conceptual frameworks are explored but there is a lack of coherence in placemaking tools and their association with the sustainability perspectives. A reflection on the research questions demonstrates roles for both sustainability perspectives and placemaking types, and their inter-relationship in contributing towards a framework for the future of downtowns. Future directions are guided by papers and prospective papers from the Special Issue and related to a proposed coherent approach.