Between the Ideal City and the Embodied City: The Dialectic of Imagination and Reality in the Construction of Urban Space

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* Dr. Chanfar Abdellah

  The greatness of societies, peoples, and nations is not measured by the ideal cities they dream of in their collective imagination, but by the smart and embodied cities they manage to realize in reality.
  In analyzing this crucial topic, we start from two essential questions:
2. First Question: Why do we flee to the “ideal city”?
  How can we explain the tendency of societies to evaluate their reality against their dreams, rather than against what is realistically achievable? Can ideals truly serve as a benchmark for judging accomplishments? The tendency to invent “ideal cities” in the collective imagination is not merely a naive utopian impulse, but rather a symbolic strategy to evade confronting the shortcomings of reality and the responsibility of transforming it.
  From Plato’s Republic, through Augustine’s City of God, to contemporary digital visions of so-called “smart cities,” the dream of urban perfection has remained a double-edged tool: diagnosing reality on the one hand, and justifying helplessness in the face of it on the other.
  Here arises a dialectical question: who really benefits from maintaining the comparison between what is and what ought to be? Is it the disillusioned citizen who finds solace in it, or the elites who use it as a discourse to excuse their failures?
3. Second Question: Between the “apples of paradise” and the “apples of earth”
  Do comparisons between what is imagined and what is realized shed light on reality or obscure it? Do they always lead to critical awareness, or rather slide into a rhetoric of complaint and lamentation? The ongoing comparison between the real city and the imagined city risks falling into a logical fallacy, as any relative achievement necessarily appears incomplete when compared to a perfect ideal.
  It is as if we were comparing the “apples of paradise,” described as perfect, to the “apples of earth,” marked by imperfection. Yet this fallacy may serve a hidden social and political function: it allows some actors to block any development project on the grounds that it does not meet the ideal, while justifying residents’ frustration and their withdrawal from positive action.
  Should we not, instead, evaluate cities based on what they actually achieve within the constraints of reality, rather than by the philosophical dreams of utopians?
Cities without Soul: The Crisis of Public Policies and Contemporary Urban Engineering
  How can we understand the extinction of soul in our cities and neighborhoods? Is it merely a material and technical issue, or does it reflect a deeper crisis of urban culture? The scene of Moroccan cities and villages illustrates a painful contradiction: massive material expansion accompanied by a shrinking quality of life and the fading spirit of place.
  Noisy, suffocating cities; concrete neighborhoods devoid of aesthetic identity; houses akin to cold tombs. All of this shows that building stones and roads is not enough to create a real city. The urban spirit is built through participatory human-centered planning, which recognizes that the city is not merely a residential cluster but a living organism with memory and emotion.
  We must therefore ask: are we merely building cities for housing, or are we creating spaces for dignity and decent living?
Smart Cities: A Possible Horizon or Just a Hollow Political Slogan?
  To what extent can the concept of smart cities offer a realistic alternative to our current urban environments? And what really hinders its realization? In Morocco, as in other developing countries, experimental projects of so-called smart cities—using digital technologies to improve urban management and service quality have emerged.
  However, these experiences remain faltering, amid incomplete infrastructure, spatial and social inequities in service distribution, and fragile citizen participation in decision-making. Urban intelligence cannot be reduced to the deployment of fiber optics or smart sensors; it begins, above all, with administrative reform, public space rehabilitation, and the enhancement of transparency and collective awareness.
  Thus, the question remains: do we truly want a smart city, or just a technological veneer over a traditional urban system?
The Entanglement of Urban Networks: From Chaos to Systematic Order
  Why do urban service networks in many Moroccan cities seem so chaotic? How can they be transformed into coordinated systems that respect the logic of the city? The material disorder visible in electricity, lighting, water, sanitation, and telecommunications networks reflects the absence of a systemic and integrated urban planning approach.
  This is not merely a technical flaw but an expression of the lack of strategic vision and coordination among actors. Addressing this phenomenon requires a holistic approach based on unifying urban databases, activating centralized monitoring, involving civil society, and integrating aesthetic and environmental considerations into infrastructure projects.
  But the central question remains: do we possess the political will and institutional awareness required for this transformation?
A Troubling and Decisive Existential Question: To Which City Do We Belong?
  In the end, what do we want from our cities? Neutral places to reside, or spaces of dignity and social justice? Are we ready to acknowledge that the cities we deserve are those we actively contribute to, not those we merely dream of?
  Here lies the existential dilemma of contemporary man: he is not a passive inhabitant of a pre-made city, but an urban actor who shapes it as much as it shapes him. If we want smarter and more humane cities, we must restore the value of collective participation and view the city as a joint project between the state and society.
  Perhaps it is time to move beyond the binary of the “heavenly city” and the “devilish city,” and instead think of the “possible city”: a city that does not claim perfection but grants all its inhabitants the right to dream and work together to improve it.
Open Conclusion for Reflection
  Greatness lies not in the cities we dream of but in those we build. Do we have the courage to live in our cities as they are, while working to shape them as they should be? Or will we remain trapped in utopian illusions as reality continues to deteriorate?
  The ideal city is but a guiding horizon; it does not absolve us from the responsibility of confronting the real city with all its contradictions and possibilities. Understanding this dialectic between what is possible and what is desirable may be the beginning of a more balanced and humane vision of the contemporary Moroccan city.
  This analysis highlights that the gap between imagined and realized cities is not merely a distance between dream and reality, but a matter of social awareness, urban culture, and political practice. Persisting in comparing the “apples of paradise” to the “apples of earth” leads only to the accumulation of frustration and paralysis.
  To overcome this dilemma, we must redefine the relationship between citizen and city on the basis of participation and accountability, strengthen institutional capacities for integrated planning, and shift from a narrow technical approach to a comprehensive human-centered vision.
* Practical Recommendations
  - Anchor a culture of realistic evaluation of urban achievements based on objective and achievable criteria.
  - Democratize urban planning by involving civil society and citizens in defining city priorities.
  - Improve urban governance by enhancing actor coordination and modernizing cartographic and infrastructural data.
  - Expand the concept of “smart city” to include social and institutional intelligence, not just technology.
  - Restore the aesthetic and cultural dimensions of public spaces to nourish the “spirit of the city” and renew its identity.
  Through these measures, urban and local spaces can be revived to become spaces of dignity and justice not merely walls of concrete and the din of alleys, squares, and streets.

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