Explore the evolution and future of urban landscapes in this 54-minute Turing Lecture by Sir Alan Wilson, CEO of the Alan Turing Institute. Delve into the history of cities and discover groundbreaking techniques revolutionizing urban development and improving daily life. Learn about urban economies, sustainability, and city shapes while examining various scenarios and modeling approaches. Understand the progression of modeling techniques, from Newtonian models to entropy-based systems, and their applications in retail, transport, and urban growth. Investigate the impact of computing power on urban studies, digital humanities, and improved visualizations. Analyze urban dynamics, the disposition of forces, and the role of big data in real-time decision-making. Gain insights into machine learning applications for smarter cities and participate in a thought-provoking Q&A session.