The urban interstitium: infrastructure design for resilient and regenerative urban futures

As climate change, geopolitical instability, and environmental degradation accelerate, urban infrastructures play a pivotal role in either enabling or inhibiting regenerative transformation. Drawing on a multidisciplinary theoretical review, this paper presents a conceptual framework for integrated social, ecological, and technological infrastructures as the connective tissues of autopoietic urban socio-technical ecosystems. This framework reimagines infrastructures as dynamic, interstitial networks that enable cities to sense, interpret, and reorganize in response to rapidly changing conditions. The paper concludes by identifying design lessons for infrastructures capable of recovering from disruptions, adapting to changing conditions, and proactively transforming to sustain long-term vitality in the face of increasingly uncertain times.