Special issue editorial Urban Analytics and City Science Urban Systems Design: From “science for design” to “design in science” The direct design of cities is often regarded as impossible, owing to the fluidity, complexity, and uncertainty entailed in urban systems. And yet, we do design our cities, however imper- fectly. Cities are objects of our own creation, they are intended landscapes, manageable, experienced and susceptible to analysis (Lynch, 1984). Urban design as a discipline has always focused on “design” in its professional practices. Urban designers tend to ask nor- mative questions about how good city forms are designed, or how a city and its urban spaces ought to be made, thereby problematizing urban form-making and the values entailed. These design questions are analytically distinct from “science”-related research that tends to ask positive questions such as how cities function, or what properties emerge from inter- active processes of urban systems. The latter questions require data, analytic techniques, and research methods to generate insight. This theme issue “Urban Systems Design” is an attempt to outline a research agenda by connecting urban design and systems science, which is grounded in both normative and positive questions. It aims to contribute to the emerging field of urban analytics and city science that is central to this journal. Recent discussions of smart cities inspire urban design, planning and architectural professionals to address questions of how smart cities are shaped and what should be made. What are the impacts of information and communication tech- nologies (ICT) on the questions of how built environments are designed and developed? How would the internet of things (IoT), big data analytics and urban automation influence how humans perceive, experience, use and interact with the urban environment? In short, what are the emerging new urban forms driven by the rapid move to ‘smart cities’? New urban form of smart cities? Space of flow and cities as flows This question was, in fact, addressed almost 30 years ago by Manuel Castells in his book The Informational City. Castells proposed a theory of the “space of flows”, a new logic of spatial organization in the age of information technologies. The space of flows is a counter proposition to the space of place, which ties to local communities through physical settings grounded in history, culture and identity. The space of flows is not a purely electronic space nor a cyberspace. It is a new form of spatial organization of power and a form of domina- tion, which can escape the control of any locale. As a consequence, the space of place is becoming fragmented, localized and increasingly powerless (Castells, 1989). This proposition was made during the time before and again during the 1990s EPB: Urban Analytics and City Science 2019, Vol. 46(8) 1381–1386 ! The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/2399808319877770 journals.sagepub.com/home/epb