This book presents a bold and original framework for reimagining cities as living and evolving systems. It argues that the future of urbanism lies in understanding the city as both genetic and quantum: a coded organism shaped by inheritance, memory, and identity, yet animated by uncertainty, feedback, and indeterminacy. Across eight interconnected chapters, the book moves from theory to transformation. It begins by unpacking the concept of ‘Urban DNA’, showing how cities inherit structures and meanings much like biological organisms. It then introduces ‘Quantum Urbanism’, a framework that explains how uncertainty, feedback, and probability shape contemporary urban life. In doing so, it explores reprogramming, mutation, and regeneration as key mechanisms of urban evolution, tracing how design, governance, and technology can act as instruments of renewal.

Throughout, the book challenges deterministic thinking and the idea that the city can be mastered through prediction, efficiency, or optimization. Instead, it proposes a post-deterministic urbanism that embraces complexity as creative material. In this new paradigm, the planner becomes a curator of conditions, the architect a designer of adaptive frameworks, and governance a platform for continual learning.

Ali Cheshmehzangi is a Professor and Head of the School of Architecture, Design and Planning (ADP) at The University of Queensland, Australia. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Hunan University, and was recently a Visiting Professor at Tongji University. More recently, Ali established the D3 Living Lab at UQ, and experimental research platform focused on data, digital, and design. He is the Brisbane Olympics Committee member for Games Legacy and Growth Sub-Committee as well as the Expert member of the 2032 Games led by UQ. He has been in the World’s top 2 percent field leader since 2021, recognised by Stanford University. He is among the top 20 global scholars in the ‘urban sustainability’ and ‘urban resilience’ research areas, as well as the founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Urban Sustainability (US) Book Series with Springer. To date, Ali has more than 65 academic books.