Future cites: learning from antiquity

In the conflicted realm of urban strategy one navigates between various ‘smart’ solutions and alternate policy levers. This is not unexpected. Cities are geographically, institutionally and historically unique so simplistic ‘smart city’ (‘SC’) notions are nonsense. Besides, political priorities change. Istanbul herself provides a vivid example of regime-induced urban evolution. From 330 AD, when Constantine formally founded the city bearing his name , to the present military, administrative, religious and trading pressures influenced her mix of planned or organic growth. In its long history the city transitioned through Geek, Roman, Byzantine, Venetian, Ottoman and Republican phases. At each, the city’s geography and culture were distinct. Abroad, Byzantium image varied with altering perspectives. In the nineteenth century, the Ottoman capital evoked exotic orientalism, if not magic, in the minds of European Romantics. Here, I consider the earlier époque in antiquity looking for insights from regional history to illuminate the notion of ‘smart city’. I investigate parallels between ‘smart’ notions, culled from contemporary urban literature with military and urban history, looking for useful insights or limitations.