“Planetary Urbanisms” is the second installment of the Reclaiming Futures online exhibition, exploring the global, interconnected nature of urbanization and its ecological and social consequences. The project is led by Prof. Orit Halpern, TUDiSC speaker and Chair of Digital Cultures, and it highlights how contemporary urban development—shaped by global supply chains, corporate models, and state-led megaprojects—often displaces marginalized communities and deepens inequalities. Featuring works by Michaela Büsse and Dele Adeyemo, the exhibition critiques failed techno-utopian visions like Malaysia’s Forest City and traces the links between Lagos’s urban expansion and the resource exploitation of the Niger Delta. Accompanying essays by May Ee Wong, Olamide Udoma-Ejorh, Gökçe Günel, and Orit Halpern interrogate dominant narratives of development, smart cities, and modernization. Together, the projects and texts call for alternative, more just and ecologically grounded approaches to city-making—ones that center indigenous knowledge, local activism, and the lived realities of communities across the Global South.

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