The Rise of Vertical Urbanism: Imaginaries, Mobilities, and Lived Realities

ABSTRACT Vertical urbanization is reshaping cities across the Global North and South, driven by population growth, land scarcity, and speculative development. This shift includes the proliferation of high‐rise towers, underground networks, elevated infrastructures, multi‐level public spaces, and self‐built settlements. As urban futures are increasingly imagined in vertical terms, the challenges and opportunities presented by distinct vertical urbanisms raise pressing questions about densification, equity, and the transformation of both urban space and life in 21st‐century cities. In this paper, we review a decade of scholarship marking a “vertical turn” in urban studies to assess how geographers have explored the spatial, social, and political dimensions of urban verticality. We organize this review around three themes: (1) vertical imaginaries, the ways height and depth are envisioned and symbolically understood; (2) vertical mobilities, tracing circulation through multi‐layered infrastructures; and (3) lived vertical urbanisms, examining experiences of stratification, security, and sustainability. In synthesizing these literatures, we highlight the uneven geographies of access and inequality that vertical urbanism produces and outline future research directions to address the complex social, ecological, and ethical challenges of life in three‐dimensional urban environments.