@dilmandila what a great topic...! I think its an interesting and tricky needle to thread, especially considering how to lean into revisiting the rural as a site of community and futurity while playing against the rhetoric of western fascistic idealised fantasy – the suburban or rural as traditional/true/pure while the city, the polyglot, the multicultural, is positioned as 'modern', filthy and degenerate. My layperson's understanding is that archaeologically we find people through history have continually loved, or at least accepted cities for thousands of years (our oldest evidence miiight be Göbekli Tepe, 9500BCE or so), have worked really hard to invent them and make them thrive...so whether we position city as future, rural as past, or visa versa, and give those any kind of moral or ethical value, we're turning away from what seems to be the reality of human experience, that there has been a very long term symbiosis.

I seem to recall one hypothesis about early cities like Göbekli Tepe is that they might not have been permanently inhabited, but a kind of civilisational ritual vacation destination – instead of a holiday to escape, it was a holiday of coming together for maybe months of the year for religion, for social life, for art and culture to flourish, without a constant, hugely concentrated drain on natural resources in one spot. Maybe exploring the pasts of the city can help bring up more ideas for their future.

If you haven't read Changing Planes, a short story collection by Ursula LeGuin, I seem to recall there are a few stories in there that also touch on different visions of the city – empty cities, impermanent ones, that could help add extra kindling to the sparks of your ideas so far.