The Resurrection of a Hurricane-destroyed Pier: Bright Green Brighton

This project plans to forecast the future of the 10,000 cities across the globe -- as though they have survived climate change and social discord and gone on to flourish anew. Today, we highlight the future of the English town of Brighton.

Brighton, England, in the future -- by the Urban Futures Team

This panoramic vision of Brighton reimagines the beloved seaside city in a retro-futuristic future shaped by climate crisis and creative renewal. Familiar architectural and geographical features remain visible: the curve of the pebble beach, the terraces along the seafront, and the distinctive skyline that hints at the Royal Pavilion’s domes and historic promenade façades. Yet above them rise elegant steampunk-inspired towers, airships drifting across a luminous sky, and re-engineered Victorian structures fitted with brass, glass, and green terraces. The image captures a city that has not abandoned its heritage but has instead layered innovation upon it, merging nostalgia with forward-looking design.

At the heart of the composition stands the reborn Brighton Pier. Once destroyed by a catastrophic hurricane intensified by global warming, the original iron structure was torn from its pilings and scattered into the Channel. Rather than reconstructing it in steel alone, the city chose a radical ecological approach. The pier has been resurrected through the cultivation of salt-tolerant tamarisk trees (Tamarix ramosissima), whose dense roots and interwoven trunks form a living framework. Over time, these hardy trees fused with engineered supports, creating a hybrid structure—part botanical, part architectural—that blossoms in soft pink hues each season. What was once a symbol of leisure is now also a testament to resilience, demonstrating how urban design can collaborate with nature rather than resist it.

In the distance, orderly grids of seaweed farms stretch across the water’s surface, forming a second layer of climate adaptation. These marine fields cultivate kelp and other macroalgae not only for food and medicinal compounds but also for bioengineered hydrogen production. Through advanced processing facilities along the coast, harvested seaweed is converted into clean hydrogen fuel that powers the graceful airships floating overhead, replacing fossil fuels with a renewable alternative born from the sea itself. The farms serve multiple purposes: they sequester carbon, restore marine biodiversity, and provide economic stability to a city long defined by its maritime identity.

Beyond their industrial and nutritional value, the seaweed arrays function as living breakwaters. By attenuating wave energy and stabilizing coastal currents, they reduce the intensity of storm surges before they reach the shoreline. In this way, the image portrays a Brighton that has transformed vulnerability into strength. The city’s survival is not depicted through hardened concrete barriers alone, but through ecological intelligence—trees that anchor a pier, seaweed that fuels airships, and architecture that honors the past while embracing a sustainable future.