Designing Intelligent Cities: AI, Speculative Futures, and Urban Regeneration

Artificial intelligence, sensor networks, city-scale simulation, and impact simulation of policy and design choices increasingly shape urban development and regeneration. Conventional smart city strategies may minimize lived experience, cultural identity, and justice while overemphasizing control and efficiency. This article suggests shifting from smartness to intelligence: a flexible, human-centered strategy in which AI and urban digital twins serve as civic media that foster creativity, debate, and climate resilience. A case is made for flipping the conventional digital twin paradigm, moving from virtual thinking to physical reality rather than merely reproducing reality in virtual space, drawing on design thinking principles. A conceptual framework converts livability into operational criteria and connects the reality–virtuality continuum to participatory urbanism. Two practice cases, heritage preservation in Kashgar and industrial heritage regeneration in Anshan, illustrate how immersive gaming, narrative techniques, and educational animation can expand participation while maintaining cultural authenticity. Intelligent regeneration should be evaluated not by technological sophistication alone, but by its capacity to strengthen ecological balance, cultural continuity, and inclusive wellbeing in the face of accelerating climate change.