This thesis investigates the growing desire among urban dwellers to escape the pressures of modern city life and reconnect with an idealised rural existence. Sparked by my own urban-rural dilemma, I reflect on the mental burden of modernity, marked by burnouts, disconnection and high-speed digital life, and trace a revival of the Romantic longing for nature and community. Just as the industrial age gave rise to Romanticism, today’s climate crises, hyper-connectivity and social alienation catalyse a similar “back-to-nature” movement. Through a historical and theoretical lens, the text explores the rural ideal in both Romantic art and contemporary architectural projects, revealing tensions between idealisation and reality.

Rather than offering a simple escape, I argue that many contemporary rural visions (often packaged as luxury or greenwashed developments) merely reproduce the contradictions of urban modernity. Drawing on theorists like Hilde Heynen and Hannah Arendt, the essay questions whether peace of mind can be found solely by leaving the city or whether solutions can be found by reimagining the urban itself. In its final chapters, the essay advocates for a redefinition of the city as a place of shared experience and collective care, where public green spaces are not just aesthetic elements but active, social and political infrastructures. Ultimately, this thesis proposes that we do not escape modernity by abandoning it, but by transforming the conditions of everyday urban life.