When we think of the future, we often treat it as an empty space, a blank canvas waiting for modern high-rises and "progress." But as contemporary design ethnography teaches us: The future is not empty. The future is already crowded. It is loaded with the physical consequences of the choices, policies, and designs we approve today. What we build today doesn't just disappear tomorrow; it stays to shape or destroy the livability of our world.
A Heartbreaking Reality Check from Cumilla City
During this Eid vacation, I visited my hometown, Cumilla City. Culturally ancient and economically vital, Cumilla is currently undergoing hyper-urbanization. But this growth comes with a devastating price tag: the systematic erasure of our history and public spaces. The most shocking example? Munsef Bari one of Cumilla’s most iconic, colonial-era heritage properties. With its beautiful courtyards and green, open vistas, it has been a vital historical anchor and environmental breathing space for generations. Today, a massive corporate signboard stands in front of it. Its demolition is imminent. It is set to be replaced by another concrete multi-storied building. Like Munsef Bari, countless heritage structures and open spaces across Cumilla are being wiped out to accommodate vertical density.
The Disconnect in Modern Urban Planning
As a researcher, this live experience exposes a dangerous gap in how our city authorities and urban planners operate. Right now, authorities grant building approvals by looking at isolated, two-dimensional blueprints. They focus on real estate speculation and short-term capital. In doing so, they completely ignore the future urban environment. By prioritizing concrete over climate, current environmental design practices are actively manufacturing severe crises:
- The Urban Heat Island Effect: Replacing green areas and old brick structures with dense glass and concrete traps solar radiation, turning Cumilla into a suffocating heat zone.
- Severe Waterlogging: Paving over canals, ponds, and open soil creates impervious surfaces. Even moderate monsoon rain now triggers toxic flooding because the water has nowhere to sink.
- Loss of Resilience: We are losing the natural and social infrastructures that keep our communities connected and ecologically safe.
My Message to Planners, Authorities, and Society
We are not just "waiting" for a future; we are actively designing it right now. Our current interventions are making tomorrow incredibly vulnerable. We are responsible for our future. If our design practices do not become friendly to the future, a horrible, unliveable reality awaits the next generation.
We urgently need:
- Political Commitment: Strong legislative action to protect cultural landmarks like Munsef Bari from corporate real estate.
- Accountable Planning: Municipal approval processes must evaluate cumulative environmental and microclimatic impacts, not just structural margins.
- Societal Responsibility: As citizens, we must demand a say in how our cities are built.
Let’s stop treating the future as an empty site for exploitation. We must design with long-term accountability, because the concrete we pour today is the exact reality our children will be forced to survive in tomorrow.
