The Future of the City of Christchurch -- As Inspired by the "Erewhon" Novel.

On Using the "Literary Method of Urban Design"

This urban futures project employs numerous techniques to forecast multitudinous urban settings. For example, it utilizes extrapolations from historical patterns and the anticipated role of new technologies. Another technique it employs is the Literary Method of Urban Design which uses literary works to predict likely urban scenarios of the future.

The Literary Method of Urban Design is a creative framework that uses literature as a lens through which to imagine the future of cities. Rather than relying solely on demographic projections or technical planning models, it draws upon narrative, metaphor, and theme to generate speculative urban scenarios. The method unfolds in three core steps. First, a literary work is selected. Second, a city is chosen. Third, the themes, symbols, and narrative tensions of the literary work are applied to create a graphic scenario for the future of that city.

A fourth, supplementary step concerns representation: how the resulting vision is communicated to an audience. This may take the form of architectural plans, urban maps, scenario drawings, or — as in this blog-post — an integrated visual and textual narrative.

For filmic introduction to the Literary Method of Urban Design, check out this video below previously screened at the Kuala Lumpur Environmental Film Festival:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuzZoIozHZw

In prior applications, this Literary Method of Urban Design has been used to explore urban futures across Europe and Asia. For this blogpost, one case study city from New Zealand (that is Christchurch) is paired with one specific New Zealand literary work (that is Erewhon by Samuel Butler).

The Future of Christchurch as Inspired by Samuel Butler’s Erewhon

Samuel Butler travelled from England to Christchurch in late 1859 aboard the sailing ship "Roman Emperor". Crossing the vast tussock plains of lowland Canterbury, he established a sheep station in the shadow of the Southern Alps. During quieter periods, he ventured deep into the mountains’ remote inner valleys, becoming one of the first Europeans to map several passes between Canterbury and Westland.

Alongside his practical work as a runholder, Butler engaged actively with intellectual debates of the day. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution had only recently been published, and Butler wrote articles for the Christchurch press reflecting on its implications. He speculated that machines, like plants and animals, might one day evolve—and that their evolution could proceed far more rapidly than that of biological life.

After nearly five years in New Zealand, Butler sold his land and livestock at a profit and returned to England. Settling in London, he devoted himself to artistic pursuits, particularly painting and fiction. In 1872 he published his first novel, Erewhon, subtitled "Over the Range". The book recounts the discovery of a seemingly utopian land reached by an Englishman who journeys alone across a formidable mountain range. The title Erewhon is an anagram of “Nowhere,” yet the landscape it evokes strongly suggests the Southern Alps and the high country Butler had explored while in Canterbury.

The novel follows a solitary English explorer who crosses into this remote highland realm and is captured by its inhabitants. Though initially welcomed with curiosity and courtesy, he inadvertently offends his hosts by revealing his pocket watch. The people of Erewhon react with alarm, confiscating the device and imprisoning him. He eventually learns that their society has long ago renounced machines, banning them as unnecessary and inherently dangerous.

The Erewhonians fear machines not merely for their immediate functions but for their potential to evolve into entities more intelligent than humans and capable of dominating the land. In this way, Butler anticipates modern anxieties about artificial intelligence by more than a century.

Despite their rejection of advanced technology, the people of Erewhon show deep respect for plant life. They treat vegetation with philosophical seriousness, regarding it as worthy of care and consideration, and they actively cultivate its flourishing within their territory.

Inspired by this rejection of ever-advancing machinery and this reverence for plant life, a speculative image of Christchurch’s future can be proposed. In this vision, the city is transformed into an expansive urban woodland. Trees dominate streets and neighborhoods, integrating habitation with ecology. Advanced digital technologies and fossil-fuel-dependent systems play little to no role in daily life.

The Future of Christchurch by the Urban Futures team -- as Inspired by Samuel Butler’s Erewhon

At first glance, such a society might seem irrationally technophobic. Yet Butler makes clear that Erewhon’s technological level resembles that of the thirteenth century. By that period in Europe, the so-called medieval industrial revolution had already introduced windmills and watermills—innovative yet renewable energy systems that strengthened food security and supported population growth without the environmental degradation associated with modern industry.

If Christchurch were to follow the path suggested by Erewhon, it might relinquish automobiles, artificial intelligence, and high-emission infrastructure. In their place, it would cultivate local food systems, urban forests, and renewable energy derived from wind and water. Such a city would aim to nourish its population while minimizing pollution of air and waterways.

In this scenario, future Cantabrians consciously choose resilience over acceleration. They recognize that unrestrained technological expansion may intensify climate change and create systems beyond human control. By contrast, a moderated technological culture rooted in ecological awareness may offer greater long-term survival and autonomy.

The question, however, is how Christchurch might transition from its present condition to such a future. Once again, Erewhon offers guidance. The shift must be gradual, unfolding as steadily as the growth of trees in an urban forest. Butler’s English explorer recognizes that if industrial society were to abandon modern machinery overnight and revert solely to medieval tools, the result would likely be widespread unemployment, hunger, and suffering.

Butler observed during his time in Canterbury that nineteenth-century New Zealand already possessed the qualities of a largely rural society—an agrarian landscape in formation. If such a society adopted technologies selectively and thoughtfully, rather than indiscriminately under pressure from industrialists or politicians enthralled by the myth of inevitable progress, it could chart a different course.

By choosing appropriate technologies—those that enhance well-being without accelerating ecological harm—New Zealand might serve as a model for older industrial nations. Over time, it could demonstrate how to disentangle from the most destabilizing aspects of industrial modernity and gradually relinquish dependence on ever-smarter machines.

Through the lens of Erewhon, Christchurch’s future becomes not a rejection of all technology, but a careful recalibration of it. The city evolves slowly, like a forest taking root—guided by restraint, ecological respect, and an awareness that survival may depend less on speed and more on wisdom.