Neuroergonomics and sociogenesis, lectures part3

Neuroergonomics and sociogenesis

Internationa Society of BiourbanismSummer School 2014

www.biourbanism.org - [email protected]

International Society of Biourbanism - Summer School 2014

From MIT Technology Review, published by MIT, Massachusetts

Institute of Technologywww.technologyreview.com/view/429679/isobenefit-l ines-rewrite-

rules-for-understanding/

by Dr. Luca D’Acci


The Isobenefit Lines join the urban points with equal levels of benefit

given from urban amenities,

thinking of amenities as urban attractions such as parks, pedestrian streets, nice squares, and pleasant shopping

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Urban life’s pleasantness

nice gardens and parks, pedestrian areas, cultural amenities, agreeable places and streets, pleasant shopping areas, and so forth

The public-goods analysed are amenity-beauties improving the urban quality life of citizens


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references:

• D'Acci L., (2013). Monetary, Subjective and Quantitative Approaches to Assess Urban Quality of Life and Pleasantness in Cities. Social Indicators Research, January 2014, Volume 115, Issue 2, pp 531-559

• D'Acci L., (2013). Hedonic inertia and underground happiness. Social Indicators Research, September 2013, Vol 113, n.3, pp 1237-1259.

• D'Acci L., (2013). Simulating Future Societies in Isobenefit Cities. Futures. Volume 54, November 2013, Pages 3–18.

• D'Acci L., (2013). Mathematize urbes by humanizing them, Physics and Society arXiv:1307.3923

• D'Acci L. (2014). How Much Site Quality Influence Housing Value? SSRN• D'Acci L., Terna P. (2014). Citizens as Urban Planners. A Multi-Agent

Based model of household location choice. Work in Progress.


Algorithmic Sustainable Designmorphogenesis

Antonio Caperna, [email protected]

Lecture 04


Algorithmic Sustainable Design

GOAL

Explain the mathematical and scientific basis behind structure, and how structures affect the way in which human beings interact with the built environment.

Propose tools that use scientific concepts in creating forms.


We use the scientific method to answer many of the important questions in architecture:

What makes something “beautiful”?

How important is “information” in design?

Is there a connection between the design of a building and the physiological and psychological state of its users?

What should the relationship of the building be to its site and surrounding area?


In mathematics, an algorithm is a defined set of step-by-step procedures that

provides the correct answer to a particular problem.


Algorithmic design An algorithm is a set of instructions that can be followed to achieve a

desired, but not always pre-determined end result

Goes through successive states

Breaks up the problem into smaller steps

Sometimes uses recursive feedback

Contrast with a conception of “all at once”


SUSTAINABILITY

to understand how all matter both biological and inanimate organizes itself into coherent structures.


Sustainable design

Use morphogenetic rules that nature follows

Mimic but not copy physical, and especially biological structures

The limitations of natural materials constrain built forms to certain

geometries


A “morphogenetic” rule is a prescription for obtaining a form (from the Greek word morphe) via some sort of genetic information. Working within this approach to design, we seek simple rules that generate complex forms out of many steps rather than having the form specified all at once.

This is the way that biology works to build the bodies of living organisms: coded information is applied to assemble chemical elements into a very complex form that is alive.


The incredible variety and beauty of life is coded, through simple rules

Complexity emerge in the process of stepwise

Form emerges over time, in an unfolding process


what can we learn from biological systems?

Biological systems offer design strategies for successfully adapting to an age of climate change and resource depletion.


“engineered resilience” – the designed ability to handle a controlled environment within the bounds of predictability

“ecological resilience,” the ability to handle unpredictable shocks that can occur at any time in a chaotic, “far from equilibrium” world

C.H. Holling


biological systems

inter-connected network structure

diversity and redundancy

(differ from "efficiency")

display a wide distribution of

structures across scales

have the capacity to self-adapt and

"self-organize“ (generally through

the use of genetic information)


SELF-ORGANIZATION IN HUMAN SETTLEMENTS ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN

ENVIRONMENT

Use of simple

local adaptive rules

for

generating

form


… organisms, computer programs, buildings, neighbourhoods, and cities share the same general rules governing a complex hierarchical system.


Morphogenetic adaptation to the

natural orographic structure

Primitive villages on promontory

International Society of Biourbanism - Summer School 2014Tuscania

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SERMONETA

Morphological growth







Every increment of construction must be made in such a way as to heal the city (‘‘to make whole”)

That is, we must take a series of incremental steps in construction, and at each step we must make an assessment about whether the proposed construction adds to, or takes away from, the wholeness of the city.


In his The Nature of Order, Alexander reintroduce the notion of process (in urban design) that aims to generate wholeness within the urban structure

How are these wholes to be understood and manipulated? Alexander introduces a geometric entity he calls a ‘‘center’’


According to Christopher Alexander, urban design must: BE a generative process, from which a form will emerge – one that cannot

be pre-planned or standardized, but will of necessity be, at least in some key respects, local and unique.

NOT BE an act of tabula rasa imposition of a form designed remotely, based upon an abstract program. It must understand, respect, and seek to improve the existing conditions.

incorporate the decisions and needs of the local stakeholders, as a matter not only of fairness, but also of the intrinsic quality of the result


Another approach to generativity is typified by Peter EisenmanCity of Culture of Galicia project in Santiago de Compostela, Spain

This post-semiotic sensibility is not dominated by easily consumed imagery of signs andsignifieds, but rather is understood as a series of traces, marks that produce an alternativecondition of figure and ground. The City of Culture evolves from the superposition of threesets of traces. First, the plan of the medieval center of Santiago is placed on the hillside site,which overlooks the city. Second, a Cartesian grid is laid over these medieval routes. Third,the topography of the hillside is allowed to distort the two flat geometries, thus generatinga topological surface that superposes old and new in a simultaneous matrix.

The original center of Santiago conforms to a figure/ground urbanism. The buildings arefigural and the streets, residual. Through this transformative mapping operation, ourproject emerges as a warped surface that is neither figure nor ground but both a figuredground and a figured figure that supercedes the figure-ground urbanism of the old city.Santiago’s medieval past appears not as a form of representational nostalgia but as anactive present found in a tactile, pulsating new form.

(Source. Eisenman Associates 2007)


The design evolves from the superposition of three sets of information.

First, the street plan of the medieval center of Santiago is overlaid on a topographic map of the hillside site (which overlooks the city).

Second, a modern Cartesian grid is laid over these medieval routes.

Source. http://www.arcspace.com/features/eisenman-architects/city-of-culture-of-galicia/


Third, through computer modeling software, the topography of the hillside isallowed to distort the two flat geometries, thus generating a topologicalsurface that repositions old and new in a simultaneous matrix never beforeseen.



Located on Monte Gaiás, a small hill overlooking Santiago de Compostela, the City of Culture is a new cultural center for the Province of Galicia in northwestern Spain.



Image courtesy EisenmanArchitectsVolumetric analysis

City of Culture of Galicia by Eisenman Architects in Santiago de Compostela, Spain Photo courtesy Eisenman Architects Competition model, 1999







Eisenman’s generativity is used solely as a resource for one artist’s expressive master plan, imposed on the site at a very large scale.

In that sense its semiotics is in fact alive and well, but disguised within a subtler artistic reference to incidentally generated traces of its natural subject. It regenerates only the most skeletally abstract aspects of the historic evolutionary pattern, so as to avoid ‘‘representational nostalgia.’’ It is otherwise a static and non-adaptive work of art.

Eisenman’s position as an altogether different model – a hijacking of the city by fine artists, who would see it transformed into an enormous abstract sculpture gallery.

(Michael Mehaffy, quoted in La Giorgia 2007)


Koolhaas lamented the effect of laissez-faire market forces on the profession:If you look back over the past 2,000 years, architecture dignified civic and public life. Then the market economy happened, replacing all former values and erasing almost all ideology over the entire world. What it represents for all of us today is an invitation to simply be extravagant and spectacular. … The work we do is no longer mutually reinforcing, but I would say that any accumulation is counterproductive, to the point that each new addition reduces the sum’s value. … So there are many problems, first of all our work, which is not able to find its wayout of this recurring dilemma, then there are the many reasons to question our sincerity and motives.



Eisenman, speaking at the same event, argued that we are in the late period of modernism – its ‘‘death rattle’’ – but we are struggling to find a new paradigm to replace it:We are in the rococo phase of modern architecture. … The problem we need to solve is the urgency of media to have something new to look at and talk about all the time. Our need to be in the news all the time. … The slowness required to find and understand meaning in architecture no longer has any attraction.[We need an architecture] that asks how, at this moment in time, without a new paradigm, can we understand our discipline and our culture in a different way.



Pattern language


Lecture 05


THE STRUCTURE OF PATTERN LANGUAGE


Scientific knowledge as web of patterns and concept (Geoffrey Chew)

relationships

boundary

World as web of relationships

Approximately knowledge


In A Pattern Language, Alexander and his colleagues extracted 253 solutions or design "patterns" that recur in architecture

Each "pattern" represents a rule governing one working piece of a complex system


Pattern Languageas a tool able to combine physical and

moral capacity to produce, in a coherent whole (system), a living structure through a

generative process

(Caperna, 2012)


pattern languages arise from two very different needs:

(a) as a way of understanding, and possibly controlling, a complex system;

(b) as necessary design tools with which to build something that is functionally and structurally coherent.

To visualize patterns and their interconnections, we use a graph representation


Pattern Language use a “genetic approach:

- generate the environment indirectly, just as biological organisms are generated, indirectly, by a genetic code

- any good environment is that every part of it is extremely highly adapted to its particularities.


The value of Alexander's Pattern Language is that it is not about specific building types, but about building blocks that can be combined in an infinite

number of ways

mathematical, combinatory approach to design


Every complex system has a hierarchical structure; i.e., different processes are occurring on different scales or levels. Connections exist both on the same levels, and across levels (Mesarovic, Macko et al., 1970).

The same is true for a pattern language. The "language" generates a connective network by which the ordering of nodes on one level creates nodes at a higher level. This process goes on all the way up, and all the way down in levels


A city needs the same sort of resilience to changing conditions that a healthy ecosystem has.

We require a set of evolutionary laws, which are the opposite of rigid design laws such as monofunctional zoning. Furthermore, those laws have to allow the reconnection of urban units so as to maintain or increase the degree of life in the environment.


Pattern languages help us to tackle the complexity of a wide variety of systems ranging from computer software, to buildings and cities.

Each "pattern" represents a rule governing one working piece of a complex system, and the application of pattern languages can be done systematically.

Design that wishes to connect to human beings needs the information contained in a pattern language.


… decision to use a genetic approach …

… one of the characteristics of any good environment is that every part of it is extremely highly adapted to its particularities.

That local adaptation can happen successfully only if people (who are locally knowledgeable) do it for themselves. In traditional society where lay people either built or laid out their own houses, their own streets, and so on, the adaptation was natural.

It occurred successfully because it was in the hands of the people that were directly using the buildings and streets. So, with the help of the shared pattern languages which existed in traditional society, people were able to generate a complete living structure.

(C. Alexander)


archetypal

Introduction; relationship with above patterns

Main point of a problem

Full Description

Solution (heart of the problem)

Chart, components of the solution

relationship with lower patterns


How?A procedure for generating such a map is based on the conceptual "chunking" of information (Miller, 1956). The goal is to cluster patterns into groups of about five or fewer on each level of scale. Suppose one needs to design something using available patterns; pick those that are most relevant to the problem at hand, then choose not more than about a dozen related patterns from an existing patterns catalogue. Identify a vertical dimension appropriate to the process that generates the end product, and study how the generative process develops as one moves up the levels of scale.


69 PUBLIC OUTDOOR ROOM


120 - PATHS AND GOALS* The layout of paths will seem right and comfortable only when it is compatible with the process of walking. And the process of walking is far more subtle than one might imagine.

Therefore:

To lay out paths, first place goals at natural points of interest. Then connect the goals to one another to form the paths. The paths may be straight, or gently curving between goals; their paving should swell around the goal. The goals should never be more than a few hundred feet apart.


148 - SMALL WORK GROUPS

When more than half a dozen people work in the same place, it is essential that they not be forced to work in one huge undifferentiated space, but that instead, they can divide their workspace up, and so form smaller groups.

Therefore:

Break institutions into small, spatially identifiable work groups, with less than half a dozen people in each. Arrange these work groups so that each person is in at least partial view of the other members of his own group; and arrange several groups in such a way that they share a common entrance, food, office equipment, drinking fountains, bathrooms.


59QUIET BACKS

69PUBLIC OUTDOOR LAND

119 ARCADES


120 PATHS AND GOALS

125 STAIR SEATS


124 ACTIVITIE POCKET134 ZEN VIEW


BIOCLIMATIC PATTERNS


Appropriate Form,

Typology and Orientation


OLINTO


Passive Solar Design


PRIENEPassiveSolar Design


Most ancient Greek cities were designed to allow every house to have a southern exposure to optimize solar heating during the colder months.


Street network North-South (cardo) and east – ovest (decumano)

The main streets running east-west allowed all houses of the ancient Greek city of Priene to access the sun in winter to heat their interiors.


Source. http://www.aibim.org/315-2/


Habitat Spaces with Thermal Role. Habitat spaces on bioclimatic concept in arid climate.

Traditional Patio function in the day (Basrah, Iraq)

Patio (courtyard). is for the traditional dwelling the outside space that creates a microclimate and the most efficient form of using the inside space of house. The system’s efficiency can be amplified by supplying the place with fountains, water pools, and big leaves plantations. The water pools and the vegetation get warmer during the day and keep a convenient temperature during cold night period


Traditional Patio function in the day (Basrah, Iraq)

Patio (courtyard).

The air stays due to the difference of density in the upper part of the patio and allows a comfortable environment in the lower part of the patio


A simple Sahn, with a howz in the middle. Notice flanking domed arcade.

Almost every mosque and traditionally all houses and buildings in areas of the Arab World contain a courtyard known as a sahn (Arabic صحن( , which are surrounded on all sides by rooms and sometimes an arcade.

Sahns usually feature a centrally positioned pool known as a howz.

If a sahn is in a mosque, it is used for performing ablutions. If a sahn is in a traditional house or private courtyard, it is used for aesthetics and to cool the summer heat.


Courtyardfrom a traditionalhouse in Damascus, Syria


The most astonishing ventilation systems, however, have been developed by various species of termites.


APPLICATION


Rome. Centocelle


Ferrovia Roma-Pantano

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Fontechiari

Contratto di Quartiere

Falchetti

V. Woolf

Main patterns network



Meta-Project


30 ACTIVITY NODES

. . . this pattern forms those essential nodes of life which help to generate IDENTIFlABLE NEIGHBORHOOD (14), PROMENADE (31), NETWORK OF PATHS AND CARS (52), and PEDESTRIAN STREET (100)…Community facilities scattered individually through the city do nothing for the life of the city.

Therefore:Create nodes of activity throughout the community, spread about 300 yards apart. First identify those existing spots in the community where action seems to concentrate itself. Then modify the layout of the paths in the community to bring as many of them through these spots as possible. This makes each spot function as a "node" in the path network. Then, at the center of each node, make a small public square, and surround it with a combination of community facilities and shops which are mutually supportive.


30 ACTIVITY NODES

. . . this pattern forms those essential nodes of life which help to generate IDENTIFlABLE NEIGHBORHOOD (14), PROMENADE (31), NETWORK OF PATHS AND CARS (52), and PEDESTRIAN STREET (100)…


60 ACCESSIBLE GREEN

. . . at the heart of neighborhoods, and near all work cominunities, there need to be small greens - IDENTIFIABLE NEIGHBORHOOD (14), WORK COMMUNITY (41) Of course it makes the most sense to locate these greens in such a way that they help form the boundaries and neighborhoods and backs - SUBCULTURE BOUNDARY (13), NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARY (15), QUIET BACKS (59).

People need green open places to go to; when they are close they use them. But if the greens are more than three minutes away, the distance overwhelms the need.

Therefore:Build one open public green within three minutes' walk - about 750 feet -of every house and workplace. This means that the greens need to be uniformly scattered at 1500-f0ot intervals, throughout the city. Make the greens at least 150 feet across, and at least 60,000 square feet in area.






Source. Fabrizio Vescovo



Generative processes of Mediterranean Cities and Towns

Besim S. Hakim, FAICP, [email protected]

http://historiccitiesrules.com

Lecture 06


There are radical differences between traditional systems of building andurbanism and contemporary practice. This is due to another system ofconception, implementation and associated processes of growth and change.And it is also due to the manner in which responsibilities were allocated to thepeople involved in decisions affecting building activities, and in the methodsspace was conceived, partitioned, configured and controlled.

This presentation will address the essential underlying system of the traditionalexperience that can be learned from and recycled for contemporary use. It isthe nature of the generative process and its lessons, including the manner inwhich responsibilities are allocated to various parties and the effect that has onbuilding activities and the resulting structure and form of the town.


A fundamental principle must be observed: that imitation of tradition shouldbe avoided and replaced by a process of learning by analysis as indicated in thediagram below.

NO to imitation. YES to learning by analysis


Fez (lower left)Zaria (lower right)

Different urban morphologies from similar generative processes: Shibam


Shibam (scale: 50% smaller)

Zaria neighborhood cluster

Fez neighborhood cluster (same scale as Zaria neighborhood)


Two maps from Muharraq, Bahrain (Left: Old Muharraq. Right: Housing from1990s) visualize the difference of the built environment that resulted from agenerative process (left) and a pre-planned and designed one (right). The lattertype is based on a static plan in the form of a blueprint, commonly known as a“master plan” that describes what needs to be done and which generates afabricated structure. Whereas a generative program is one that creates builtenvironments that are guided by a step-by-step procedure within a reasonabletime frame. In essence a generative process tells us what to do, what actions totake to build or revitalize buildings, rather than detailed drawings that tells uswhat the end-result is supposed to be.


Tunis medina (top) and the

modern sector (below) built

during the French colonial rule.

Photo date 1975.


9-week human embryo

The analogy is very clearly described by Lewis Wolpert in hisbook The Triumph of the Embryo, 1991, page 17, under thesub-heading:A Developmental Programme:

“If the cells in the embryo ‘know’ where and when to changeshape, contract, or move, then it begins to be possible toenvisage a program for the development of form.” And “Wecan think of this pattern of cell activities as being part of theembryo’s developmental program. It is a program thatcontains the instructions for making the shapes. A key featureof a generative program is that it can be made up of quitesimple instructions, yet generate very complex forms.”

From the same author in his Principles of Development,1997, page 21:“All the information for embryonic development is containedwithin a fertilized egg. So how is this information interpretedto give rise to an embryo? One possibility is that the structureof the organism is somehow encoded as a descriptiveprogram in the genome, which contains a program ofinstructions for making the organism – a generativeprogram”.


“Consider origami, the art of paper folding.By folding a piece of paper in variousdirections, it is quite easy to make a paper hator a bird from a single sheet. To describe inany detail the final form of the paper with thecomplex relationships between its parts isreally very difficult, and not of much help inexplaining how to achieve it. Much moreuseful and easier to formulate areinstructions on how to fold the paper. Thereason for this is that simple instructionsabout folding have complex spatialconsequences. In development, gene actionsimilarly sets in motion a sequence of eventsthat can bring about profound changes in theembryo. One can thus think of the geneticinformation in the fertilized egg as equivalentto the folding instructions in origami: bothcontain a generative program for making aparticular structure.”

ORIGAMI


What is remarkable, however, about generative programs and their codingsystem and related decision-making mechanisms is that they clearly replicatenatural phenomenon and related processes of inception, growth, change,rejuvenation, decay, and re-birth. The phenomenon of Emergence, that wasdiscovered and elaborated on within the last two decades by scientists fromdifferent disciplines, confirms that these traditional towns follow models ofsustainable natural processes.

The resulting system for habitat will be Dynamic in nature, which means thatEmergent forms and configurations, particularly at the micro level, will beunpredictable. The resulting qualities of form will be unique to each location,thus enhancing the sense of place and identity at each micro level of the builtenvironment. These unpredictable and sometimes surprising results will beevident from the level of the house design to the manner clusters of housesrelate to each other, to the character of the public realm in streets, and to thelevel of a whole neighborhood.


The lessons from the experience of traditional Mediterranean and Near-Easttowns, particularly their aspects of control, management, and coding, areprimarily applicable to the housing sectors of contemporary and future townsand cities. The following essential principles, applicable to the habitat sectorsof cities, need to be adopted and applied:

• Habitat, or housing, formation and its subsequent growth and change overtime should be formed and designed to behave as a Complex Adaptive System.• The system must also be Self-Regulating.• The system must rely on feedback. Negative Feedback is what should occurduring the process of self-regulation.• The system must operate by a Generative Program and not a DescriptiveProgram.• The generative program must be non-linear in nature, i.e. it should rely ondecisions that are informed by feedback.

Continued on next slide


• At the micro level Agents behave in Adaptive ways, and they form the nextlevel of Aggregate Agents who in turn form another layer and so on. An agentcould be an individual or a household.• The Responsibility distribution between agents at various levels will requiremaking changes to the current system of production and delivery, such as therole of the developer in assembling and sub-dividing land.• The rules and codes should primarily be based on intentions for performanceand therefore should be Proscriptive in nature. However, a minority of thecodes might have to be prescriptive, particularly those related to technologicalelements such as the car and various infrastructure elements.• The resulting system for habitat will be Dynamic in nature, which means thatEmergent forms and configurations, particularly at the micro level, will beunpredictable. The resulting qualities of form will be unique to each location,thus enhancing the sense of place and identity at each micro level of the builtenvironment. These unpredictable and sometimes surprising results will beevident from the level of the house design to the manner clusters of housesrelate to each other, to the character of the public realm in streets, and to thelevel of a whole neighborhood.


The nature of rules and process and their effect on urban form:• The more a rule is prescriptive, that specifies form in terms of precise

dimensions and shapes rather than being proscriptive based on intention, the more it is incapable of helping to make a place in which the parts are carefully adapted to each other (left graph); and

• The more that the administrative/legal process that carries out the rule can allow sensitivity to individual and local circumstances, the more it is capable of helping to make a place in which the parts are carefully adapted to each other (right graph).


To summarize, a generative program must be composed of the followingcomponents:

1. Meta-principles comprised of ethical/legal norms that are derived from thehistory and value system of the society for which such a program isproposed.

2. Private and public rights are fairly and equitably exercised.

3. Private and public responsibilities are properly allocated and implemented.

4. Control and Management.

5. Rules and codes.

Details published in: “Generative processes for revitalizing historic towns or heritage districts” by Besim S. Hakim, Urban Design International (2007) 12, 2/3, 87-99.


Seven Meta-Principles were predominant in most societies around the Mediterranean and they are a part of ethical norms:

1. Good intentions are the basis for sound decisions.2. The basis for action is the freedom to act within one’s property, constrained by the ethical

norm of ‘Beauty without Arrogance’, and by avoiding creating harm as stipulated in the following norms.

3. Harm to others and oneself should be avoided, and if two damages should occur then, and only if necessary, accept the lesser of the two. “Do not do to others that which would anger you if others did it to you” – Socrates, 5th century BCE.

4. Respect the rights of older established conditions on the ground including existing buildings, and by extension accepting the idea of interdependence and cooperation between neighbors.

5. Respect the privacy of others, particularly avoiding the creation of direct visual corridors into private domains. In addition, where applicable due to local customs, avoid blocking access to desirable views.

6. Do not debase the social and economic integrity of adjacent properties by changes or the use of one’s property that would create such harm.

7. Local customary practices must be respected and followed, although with the passage of time changes to those customs might be necessary.


Private and public rights are fairly and equitably exercised:In a generative bottom-up system most of the decisions affecting the built environment are made by the people in their neighborhoods. Rights that affect those decisions have to be clearly articulated and understood by the public. They are:1. Right for abutting an adjacent neighbor, and the right of servitude and access. This will depend

on the specific configurations of the site and buildings.2. Privacy rights – their protection and maintenance.3. Rights of original and earlier usage. This means that subsequent decisions and acts have to take

into account existing conditions.4. Rights for the full utilization of one’s property that include the right to increase useable areas

such as building a Sabat (room bridging the right-of-way without creating obstructions to traffic), or increasing the height of a building within stipulated restrictions if those exist for a specific locality or site.

5. Right for using a part or all of one’s property for generating income, provided such use does not create damage to the neighborhood.

6. Right of pre-emption of an adjacent property. This right provides the first option for purchasing an adjacent property by the neighbors.

7. Rights that allows owners of property to endow their property and the income it generates for charitable purposes.

8. Right of inheritance by taking into consideration the impact it might have on division of a property.

Public rights relate to transportation, infrastructure, and certain public facilities. The public authorities have to implement and maintain them.


Private and public responsibilities are properly allocated and implemented:

Historically the responsibilities of private citizens and institutions in generative systems that were clearly evident are:1. Utilizing the exterior Fina when needed and the responsibility for keeping it clean. (The Fina is

a longitudinal space along the exterior wall of buildings about one meter wide. It has many useful purposes).

2. Informing the public authorities of any danger to the public realm from within private properties so that corrective action is taken. A typical example is the leaning wall that might pose a danger to passersby on the street.

3. Each individual and family is responsible to maintain peace and tranquility with their surrounding neighbors.

Responsibilities of public authorities were:1. Protecting the rights of the public.2. Building and maintaining public streets and sewer lines, water and electricity distribution and

maintenance, garbage collection, and insuring that the public realm- streets and open spaces-are always kept safe.

3. Protecting the integrity of local customs that are related to change and growth in the built environment.

4. Resolving equitably problems and disputes that may arise between property owners, particularly between adjacent neighbors.


Control and Management.• Control and management will be guided by the meta-principles and would ensure private andpublic rights are fairly and equitably exercised, and that responsibilities are properly followed byprivate and public parties.

• Control and management should be based locally and must have legitimacy to the people living inthe area or who will live there in the near future.

• An effective method that was predominant in many traditional societies was the system ofneighborhood representatives. Sometimes a council of elders was responsible for the day-to-dayaffairs of a community including matters that related to building activities.

• In contemporary societies the role of a representative or a council of elders can take the form ofthe Office of Arbitrator. Ideally a council of neighborhood representatives should select theArbitrator. His/her primary responsibility would be to liaise between neighborhoods and themunicipal central authorities to maintain a healthy generative process controlled by the people, i.e.keeping it a bottom-up system. The Arbitrator will also be responsible for ensuring that all parts ofa generative program function properly, and that the rights and responsibilities of private andpublic parties are respected.


Rules and codesAnother important component of a generative system are the necessary rules and codes that canbe followed during the process of growth and change and for resolving unforeseen conflictsbetween neighbors. It is preferable that such a system of rules and codes is compatible with theethical/legal norms, the rights and responsibilities of private and public parties, and should also belinked in content to traditional local customs that are still viable socially and technically. Theyshould also be proscriptive in nature and their intention clear, i.e. what is to be achieved must beunderstood by everybody involved in the generative process. They are to be open for interpretationin response to the peculiarities of each location and condition. Prescriptive codes that do not allowlocalized interpretation must be discouraged unless they are absolutely necessary. For examples ofsuch codes see my published study in Urban Design International, vol.12 – no. 2/3, 2007, pp. 87-99.





Practical Eco-techniques that are based on natural principles


Students must learn to develop generative programs and simulate their application in the studio.



Algorithmic Sustainable Design“The Nature of Order”


Lecture 07

International Society of Biourbanism - Summer School 2014The Nature of Order, by Antonio Caperna PhD

CONTENTS

The nature of “Order”

Wholeness

Centers

15 Geometrical Properties


“The Universe is built on a plan the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect”

Paul Valery


A new vision of Architecture

To make buildings which have lifeand profound order


“I have tried to construct a coherent picture of life on earth,

which makes sense of these matters, and gives us something to live for, and worth living for”

A new vision of Architecture


…”a new view of ourselves in relation to

the world. This view ultimately nourishes

(and if accepted, could become the foundation of) a new kind of hope— a hope that is all the

more profound because it links together

knowledge from philosophy, science, and religion, and helps us to

experience the wholeness of the

whole”


LIFE

The 20th Century scientific conception of life as organism (any carbon-oxygen-hydrogen-nitrogen system)

Is a virus, a forest alive?


Each thing – regardless of what it is – has some degree of life

This conception

has scientific evidence

has a solid basis in math and physics of the space

furnish us a single coherent conception of the world


THE NATURE OF ORDERWhat exactly do we mean by order?

“order” that it is able to help us create life in a building

Order as mechanical order

How things work as mechanism

Order as product of generative computable process

An order of a growing thing in which one system UNFOLDS continuously to form another


Order as any system produced by interacting generative morphological rules(e.g. biological order, an order of a growing thing in which one system unfold continuously to form another;structural grammars of the kinds defined by Chomsky are a special cases of this kind of order – see Chomsky N., Structural linguistics)

Alan Turing, The chemical basis of Morphogenesis


Order as new relationship between function and ornament.

There is no difference between functional order and ornamental order.

They are different aspect of a single kind of order


Harmony-Seeking ComputationsGOAL

as new form of computation that resembles certain recent results in chaos theory and complexity

theory which focuses on the harmony reached in a system and able to create harmonious configurations (buildings, towns, ecology, etc.)

(Computation is a process following a well-defined model understood andexpressed as, for example, an algorithm)


WHOLENESS, AND ITS BUILDING BLOCKS: THE CENTERS


What is wholeness?


A phenomenon has been observed in artifacts. It may be called “life” or “wholeness.”

This quality has been noticed in certain works of art, artifacts, buildings, public space, rooms, parts of buildings, and in a wide range of other human artifacts


AN INTUITIVE MODEL OF WHOLENESS

Wholeness and value as a necessary partOf any complex system

An intuitive model of wholeness as a recursive structure


That the thing we recognize as the "gestalt’ of a figure, the pattern of flows in a hydrodynamic field, the "something" about an individual human face which seems like that person’s wholeness, and which we recognize instantly, is – in each case -- a describable mathematical structure.

However, there was no then-existing mathematical structure I knew of, which was able to capture this "something" or which could embody it.


The wholeness

is an abstract mathematical structure, existing in space. It captures what we may loosely consider as the global structural character of a given configuration, in itself and in relation to the world around it.

It is a structure that exists at many levels of scale, and covers the interrelationships of the configurations at different scales.

It is built by centers, which become activated in the space as a result of the configuration as a whole. Centers have different levels of strength or coherence. The coherence of a configuration is caused by relationships among centers. There are 15 kinds of relationships among centers that increase or intensify the strength of any given center.


An intuitive model of wholenesswholeness is crucial issue

The wholeness is that global structure which pays attention to, and captures, the relative strength of different parts of the system, paying attention both to the way they are nested in one another, and how the pattern of strength varies with the nesting.…As a result of experiments I conducted at the Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard in the early 1960s, I became convinced that wholeness, "the wholeness we see," is a real, well-defined structure, not merely a cognitive impression.That the thing we recognize as the "gestalt’ of a figure, the pattern of flows in a hydrodynamic field, the "something" about an individual human face which seems like that person’s wholeness, and which we recognize instantly, is – in each case -- a describable mathematical structure.However, there was no then-existing mathematical structure I knew of, which was able to capture this "something" or which could embody it.


The idea of wholeness

Cosmology - Mach's Principle: gravitational constant G is a function of all thematter existing in the universe

Ecology - James Lovelock: Gaia….. A planet as a single organism

Medicine - J. S. Haldane’s explanation of the impossibility of drowning anydefinite boundary around an organism showed that there is an inseparablequality in which organism and environment are bound together and exist as awhole.


WHOLENESS

At any given moment, in any part of the world, there is a deep wholeness that exists there.

This is the structure of the whole: the largest and deepest physical configuration that is present there. It can be felt and seen

(C. Alexander)

Think about the Wt dynamically.

Everything is changing constantly


Physical model of wholeness

Sequential-digital: Reading the strips left to right


The primary entities of which the wholeness structure is built are centers, centers that become activated in the space as a result of the configuration as a whole.

Centersstructural features which appear to be underpinning the wholeness structure, as it appears in the geometry of physical things.

15 structural features that appear again and again in coherent systems, and appear to play a major role in establishing the wholeness of these systems


LIVING CENTERS (LC)

Physical system that has geometrical characters

able to support and favourish activities.

Restoration of Latent od dameged centers

15 geometrical proprieties (*)

Patterns

Living center as organized field

force

Classification

Living Centers

Latent

Damaged


Wholeness and Centers

– A design that has “life” must have a high degree of “wholeness”

– Wholeness – “local parts exist chiefly in relation to the whole, and their behavior and character and structure are determined by the larger whole in which they exist and which they create.”

– Centers – entities that contribute to the wholeness of a design; “a distinct physical system which occupies a certain volume in space, has a special marked coherence”


“The Nature of Order”More particularly, it is possible to define a new class of transformations, “wholeness-extending transformations,” which allow continuous elaboration of any portion of the world, according to non-disruptive and healing acts

it can be shown that these transformations generate the 15 properties, as a natural by-product of their wholeness-extending actions

the use of these wholeness-extending transformations which has caused the appearance of the greatly loved

healthy environments can only be generated by actions and processes based on wholeness-extending transformations.


“The Phenomenon of Life”

This quality of life seems to be correlated with the repeated appearance of fifteen geometric properties that appear throughout the object’s configuration

We began to refer to this quality, when viewed in its geometrical aspect, as “living structure”

The appearance of living structure induce deep feeling, and a feeling of connectedness in those who are in the presence of these things.


“The Phenomenon of Life”

Degree of life is an objective quality that may be measured by reliable empirical methods

It is possible that the properties, as they occur in artifacts, may originate with cognition, and work because of cognition, and that is why we respond to them.


CentersThe crux of this matter is this: a CENTER is a kind of entity which can only be defined in term of other centers.

The idea of a center cannot be defined in terms of any other primitive entities except centers.


CentersIn math such concept is called recursive(see R.L. Goodstein, “Recursive number theory: a development of a recursive arithmetic in a logis free equation calculus”)

In The Power of Centers, Rudolf Arnheim use the centers as the fundamental building block of life or wholeness

Centers as foundation of R.J. Boscovich theory’s of matter (A Theory of Natural Philosophy)


The Power of Centers, R. ArnheimIn the dynamic sense, a center is a focus of energy from which the vector radiate into the environment.It is also a place upon which vectors act concentrically


Center as a fieldIn mathematics and physics, a scalar field associates a scalar value to every point in a space. The scalar may either be a mathematical number, or a physical quantity. Scalar fields are required to be coordinate-independent, meaning that any two observers using the same units will agree on the value of the scalar field at the same point in space (or spacetime). Examples used in physics include the temperature distribution throughout space, the pressure distribution in a fluid

A scalar field such as temperature or pressure, where intensity of the field is graphically represented by intensity of the color.

In physics, a scalar is a simple physical quantity (e.g. mass, temperature, etc.)


Center as a fieldEach part of the field points in some direction, towards some other centers. Here we see wholeness, not merely as a nested system of centers but as an ordered system in which the way that different centers and sub-centers help each other creates the field effect.


Each Center is a field of other centers (recursive definition of centers)There are no ultimate elementary components of the field, except the centers themselves

This is the foundation of living structure

Life comes from the wholeness, from the system of centersThe degree of life attained comes from the degree of life of the component centers, and from their disposition


Quality of life seems to be correlated with the repeated appearance of fifteen

geometric properties—or geometrical invariants—that appear throughout the

object’s configuration


Geometric Properties

…all living structure — indeed all “good” structure would be composed of these fifteen fundamental properties

… these properties were not confined to buildings and works of art.

They are equally visible in nature


We began to refer to this quality, when viewed in its geometrical aspect, as “living structure.”

The appearance of living structure in things—large or small—is also correlated with the fact that these things induce deep feeling, and a feeling of connectedness in those who are in the presence of these things


“The fifteen properties are the ways in which living centers can support other living

centers.”


The fifteen properties of life

These 15 properties forms a basis for the wholeness-extending transformations that create life and coherence as configurations unfold


Fifteen fundamental properties

• Morphological features that resonate with the human senses

• Found in man-made form and structure

• Independent of culture, period, or region — something innate

• Also present in natural forms and objects


1. LEVELS OF SCALE is the way that a strong center is made stronger partly by smaller strong centers contained in it, and partly by its larger strong centers which contain it..

2. STRONG CENTERS defines the way that a strong center requires a spatial field-like effect, created by other centers, as the primary source of its strength

3. BOUNDARIES is the way in which the field-like effect of a center is strengthened by the creation of a ring-like center, made of smaller centers which surround and intensify the first. The boundary also unites the center with the centers beyond it, thus strengthening it further.

4. ALTERNATING REPETITION is the way in which centers are strengthened when they repeat, by the insertion of other centers between the repeating ones.

5. POSITIVE SPACE is the way that a given center must draw its strength, in part, from the strength of other centers immediately adjacent to it in space.


6. GOOD SHAPE is the way that the strength of a given center depends on its actual shape, and the way this effect requires that even the shape, its boundary, and the space around it are made up of strong centers.

7. LOCAL SYMMETRIES is the way that the intensity of a given center is increased by the extent to which other smaller centers which it contains are themselves arranged in locally symmetrical groups.

8. DEEP INTERLOCK AND AMBIGUITY is the way in which the intensity of a given center can be increased when it is attached to nearby strong centers, through a third set of strong centers that ambiguously belong to both.

9. CONTRAST is the way that a center is strengthened by the sharpness of the distinction between its character and the character of surrounding centers.

10. ROUGHNESS is the way that the field effect of a given center draws its strength, necessarily, from irregularities in the sizes, shapes, and arrangements of other nearby centers.


11. GRADIENTS is the way a center is strengthened by a graded series of different-sized centers which then "point" to the new center and intensify its field effect.

12. ECHOES is the way that the strength of a given center depends on similarities of angle and orientation and systems of centers forming characteristic angles thus forming larger centers, among the centers it contains.

13. THE VOID is the way that the intensity of every center depends on the existence of a still place--an empty center--somewhere in its field.

14. SIMPLICITY AND INNER CALM is the way the strength of a center depends on its simplicity--on the process of reducing the number of different centers which exist in it, while increasing the strength of these centers to make them weigh more.

15. NON-SEPARATENESS is the way the life and strength of a center is merged smoothly-sometimes even indistinguishably--with the centers that form its surroundings.


Levels of scale When a configuration contains centers, these centers are associated with centers at a range of sizes that occur at well-marked levels of scale. The scale jumps between levels are small: in coherent systems the centers of different sizes are often in size-ratios of 2 to 1, 3 to 1 and 4 to 1.

If the jumps are larger – for example 10 to 1 or 100 to 1 the coherence tends to fall apart.


where Y is a variable such as metabolic rate or life span, Y0 is a normalization constant, and b is a scaling exponent.

Y = Y0 Mb



What does this mean?


Fractal-like networks effectively endow life with an additional fourth spatial dimension

The quarter-power scaling law is pervasive in biology

Organisms have evolved hierarchical branching networks that terminate in size-invariant units, such as capillaries, leaves, mitochondria, and oxidasemolecules. Natural selection has tended to maximize both metabolic capacity, by maximizing the scaling of exchange surface areas, and internal efficiency, by minimizing the scaling of transport distances and times

These design principles are independent of detailed dynamics and explicit models and should apply to virtually all organisms

Source:The Fourth Dimension of Life: Fractal Geometry and Allometric Scaling of Organisms, Geoffrey B. West, James H. Brown, Brian J. Enquist


“In biological systems, scaling laws can reflect adaptive processes of various types and are often linked to complex systems poised near critical points. The same is true for perception, memory, language and other cognitive phenomena.Findings of scaling laws in cognitive science are indicative of scaling invariance in cognitive mechanisms and multiplicative interactions among interdependent components of cognition”

SOURCEScaling laws in cognitive sciences, Kello, C. T., Brown, G. D. A., Ferrer-i-Cancho, R., Holden, G., Linkenkaer-Hansen, K., Rhodes, T. & Van Orden, G. C., 2010


ResultsExistence of scale constants

occurs through fractal qualities of structureswe can find them in our cerebral functions, language, biological structures, etc..

They represent a link between physics, biology and psychology, and join human species to other species


Fractal configuration and scale constants concur to create

comfortable (psychological, neurophysiologically)

beautiful (aesthetically and harmonically) and

highly connected environment

support the life and furnish a deep sustainability



Isfahan (Iran)

Nature connect to human consciusenessthrought forms and colours, and also via a seldom recognized scaling rule

Salingaros


Alexander originally established the scaling hierarchy phenomenologically by measuring internal subdivisions in buildings, man-made artifacts, natural structures, and biological forms. He propose for the scaling factor k as being somewhere between 2 and 3 (Alexander, 1996).

"The small scale is connected to the large scale through a hierarchy of intermediate scales with scaling factor roughly equal to e= 2.7“

(Salingaros, Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, volume 15 (1998), pages 283-293)


STRONG CENTERS

Wholeness is composed of centers, and centers arise from wholeness. A given wholeness is coherent to the degree that the centers within it are coherent.2 Centers are recursive in structure. Each center that exists acts to strengthen other centers, larger and smaller


Great Mosque at Kairouan, Tunisia

Like levels of scale, the concept of a strong center is recursive; it does not refer to someone grand center, but to the fact that at a great variety of scales, in a thing which is alive, we can feel the presence of a center, and that it is this multiplicity of different centers, at different levels, which engages us.


Strong centers play a key role by creating a focal points in the city

61 .SMALL PUBLIC SQUARES

126 SOMETHING ROUGHLY IN THE MIDDLE


• Each “center” ties a substantial region of space together coherently

• Each center combines surrounding centers and boundaries to focus

• Centers support each other on every scale — recursive hierarchical property


THICK BOUNDARIESStrong centers typically (though not always) have thick boundaries.

The thick boundary:

may exists in 1, 2 or 3D, is made up of smaller centers that have the LEVELS OF SCALE relation to the

larger center being surrounded. typically form a transition zone of interaction, allowing physical, chemical,

or biological processes to occur without contaminating their centers. often have only one level of scale smaller than the thing it surrounds; help to form the “field of force” that creates and intensifies a center; they

surround, enclose, separate and connect



The Iwan is north-oriented and as it has no outside wall, shady, cool, high space, fit for reception is created. This type of space is also an intermediary space

Iwan such as traditional spaces for houses from arid climate regions

the iwan entrance to the TajMahal in Agra


In nature, we see many systems with powerful, thick boundaries. The thick boundaries evolve asa result of the need for functional separations and transitions between different systems. Theyoccur essentially because wherever two very different phenomena interact, there is also a "zone of interaction" which is a thing in itself, as important as the things which it separates.

Confluence of the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimoes near Manaus, Brazil


ALTERNATING REPETITION

When repetition of similar centers occurs in a coherent system, the centers typically alternate with a second system of centers, thus forming a double system of centers with a beat or rhythmic alternation, from the positive space between the repetitions. Centers intensify other centers by their repeating rhythm; when a second system of centers repeats, in parallel, it intensifies the first system by providing a kind of counterpoint, or opposing beat.


“One of the ways that centers help each other most effectively is by their repetition. Centers intensify other centers by repeating. The rhythm of the repeating center, slowly, like the beat of a drum, intensifies the field effect.”

Christopher Alexander, p. 165, Book One, The Nature of Order


The relation between centers can be intensified by the use of repetition


City country fingers

Oslo (Norway)


ISB SUMMER SCHOOL 2012: NEUROERGONOMICS AND URBAN DESIGN


NON ALTERNATING REPETITION


POSITIVE SPACEIn coherent systems every bit of space is coherent, well shaped; and the space between coherent bits of space are also coherent and well-shaped and the space between coherent bits of space are also coherent and well-shaped. Thus every bit of space swells outward, is substantial in itself, and is never the leftover from an adjacent shape – like ripening corn, each kernel swelling until it meets the others, each one having its own positive shape caused by its growth as a cell from the inside. The positiveness of space is difficult to pin down exactly, but it is like a weak kind of convexity, or quasi-convexity. In systems where the space is positive, the principal elements of space are nearly all quasi-convex, and the pieces of space between these elements are also quasi-convex.


Positive space in the cell structure of wood issue


Refers to Gestalt psychology

• Ties into the basis of human perception

• Convexity plays a major role in defining an object or a space (area or

volume)

• Mathematical plus psychological reasons

• Strongly applicable to the spaces we inhabit

• Threat felt from objects sticking out


People feel comfortable in spaces which are "Positive" and use these spaces; people feel relatively uncomfortable in spaces which are "negative" and such spaces tend to remain unused.


An outdoor space is positive when it has a distinct and definite shape

it has been shaped over the time by people it has therefore taken a definite, cared for shape with meaning and purpose Every bit of space is very intensely useful There is NO leftover waste space which in not useful


Another way of defining the difference between "Positive" and "negative" outdoor spaces is by their degree of enclosure and their degree of convexity.

space is non-convex, when somelines joining two points lie atleast partly outside the space

space is convex when a line joining any two points inside the space itself lies totally inside the space.

degree of convexity


degree of enclosure

Positive spaces are partly enclosed and the "virtual" area which seems to exist is convex. Negative spaces are so poorly defined that you cannot really tell where their boundaries arc, and to the extent that you can tell, the shapes are non-convex.


Camillo Sitte, in City Planning According to Artistic Principles shows that the successful spaces - those which are greatly used and enjoyed - have two properties:

- partly enclosed;

- they are open to one another, so that each one leads into the next.


“In the present Western view of space…we tend to see buildings floating in empty space, asif the space between them were an empty sea.”



enclosure goes back to our most primitive instincts


partly enclosed

Transform this . . . . . . to this.

And when an existing open space is too enclosed, it may be possible to break a hole through the building to open the space up.


- You feel more comfortable in a workspace if there is a wall behind you- Each workspace should be 50 to 75 per cent enclosed by walls or windows- Every workspace should have a view to the outside- No other person should work closer than 2.4 m to your workspace

Alexander studies of people's space needs in workplaces show a similar phenomenon. To be comfortable, a person wants a certain amount of enclosure around him/her and his/her work


GOOD SHAPEThis describes a particular, coherent quality of the particular shapes that occur in or around a coherent center.

ginkgo_leaf


This describes a particular, coherent quality of the shapes that occur in or around a coherent center. This kind of “good” shape is somewhat unusual, and is marked by the fact that the shape itself is made up from multiple coherent centers which together form the shape, and of other coherent centers which together form the shape of the space around the shape.


Alexander gives a partial list of required properties for both “good shape” and the elements that make up a “good shape”:

1. High degree of internal symmetries. 2. Bilateral symmetry (almost always). 3. A well-marked center (not necessarily at the geometric middle). 4. The spaces it creates next to it are also positive (positive space). 5. It is very strongly distinct from what surrounds it. 6. It is relatively compact (i.e., not very different in overall outline from something between 1:1 and 1:2 – exceptions may go as high as 1:4, but almost never higher). 7. It has closure, a feeling of being closed and complete.


LOCAL SYMMETRIES

A local symmetry is a symmetry of a localised region of space that is not possessed by the space beyond.

Strong centers often have strong local symmetries within them, and local parts of space with strong symmetries are typically strong centers.

This feature binds together smaller centers within the whole, further creating coherence.


The plan of Alhambra: the plan is a marvel of centers formed in a thousand combinations, and yet with beautiful symmetrical order at every point in space.

(Source: Alexander, Christopher. The Nature of Order)


Symmetries within hierarchy

• Within universal scaling, symmetries must act on every scale

• “Symmetry” does not mean overall symmetry, as is usually envisioned

• We have multiple sub-symmetries acting within larger symmetries

• Hierarchically nested symmetries


OVERALL SYMMETRIES

“perfect symmetry is often a mark of death in things,

Detroit Renaissance Center (Skidmore, Owings & Marrilet al.)


OVERALL + LOCAL SYMMETRIESit is not the overall symmetry of a design or large symmetries that support strong centers and that contribute coherence to the overall design

Zeppelinfiled by Albert Speer: brutal overall symmetry of a very

simple-minded type, but few local symmetries.


Cognitive studyComparation of white and black strips and measuring of their coherence as felt, experimented, perceived by different subjects.

Resultthe coherence of the strips: depends on the number of local symmetries is an objective matter of cognitive processing, independent of the person who judging, and independent of the particular kind of experimental judgment which is used to measure.


DEEP INTERLOCK AND AMBIGUITY This occurs where coherent centers are “hooked” into their surroundings, making it difficult to disentangle the center from its surroundings. Often there are ambiguous zones which belong both to the center and to its surroundings, again making it difficult to disentangle the two.

“In a surprisingly large number of cases, living structures contain some form of interlock: situations where centers are “hooked” into their surroundings. This has the effect of making it difficult to disentangle the center from its surroundings. It becomes more deeply unified with the world and with other centers near it.”



This property contains the interrelation between two or more C which react on each other to create a new unit.


The ambiguity between indoors and outdoors in a building is crucial social reason

arcades create an ambiguous territory between the public world and the private world, and so make buildings friendly.


Arcade

Properties- as place that is partly inside the building it must contain the character of the inside- as a territory which is also apart from the public world, it must be felt as an extension of the building interior and therefore covered- Arcades don't work if the edges of the ceiling are too high


the effect of the arcade can be increased if the paths open to the public pass right through the building.

Arcades which pass through buildings.


Another strong way of connecting

Forms interpenetrate to link together

Analogy comes from fractals, where lines tend to fill portions

of space, and surfaces grow with accretions

Abrupt transition does not bind


CONTRAST

Every center relies to some degree on the contrast of discernible opposites, and on its differentiation from the ground where it occurs. It is intensified when the ground, against which it is contrasted, is clarified and is itself made of centers and POSITIVE SPACE. The essence of this feature is that this differentiation arises from the degree or sharpness of contrast that is attained between adjacent centers. Note, though, that too much contrast is likely to be harmful, and must then be offset by NOT-SEPARATENESS, below.


Unity can only be created from distinctness.

The difference between opposite gives birth to “something”


“Life cannot occur without differentiation. Unity can only be created from distinctness.”

Badia Fiesolana (sec. XII)Contrast of rough and smooth, dark and light, solid and void are all working togrther


Contrast is necessary:

To establish distinct subunits

To distinguish between adjoining units

To provide figure-ground symmetry of opposites

False transparency reduces contrast

Reduced contrast weakens design


Space under an arcade versus open street space

Weak spaces: inside versus outside a glass curtain wall —no contrast


GRADIENTSThis quality play a large role throughout nature

In an electric field, the field - strength varies with distance from the charge, forming a gradient of intensity

In a river, we have gradient of turbulence


Centers are generated and strengthened by gradients of size, shape, or quality. Thus any quality among a system of centers that varies systematically produces a gradient, and this gradient, by pointing to a particular center, helps to build that center and to intensify its coherence.


A gradient is a mediator, which slowly changes of appearance in a certain direction and with a certain regularity.

One quality changes slowly across space, and becomes another.”


Gradients = transitions— sometimes we should not quantize form into discrete pieces, but need to change it gradually

• Getting away from uniformity• Urban transect: city to countryside• Interior spaces: public to private

“Gradients play a very large role throughout nature. Any time that a quantity varies systematically, through space, a gradient is established .”

Christopher Alexander p. 275, Book One, The Nature of Order


Golden Gate showing gradients in the bays, steelwork, and gusset plates

Doge’s palace. Venice. Complex gradients


ROUGHNESS

Roughness or irregularity appear pervasively in natural systems.It is the result of the interplay between well defined order and the constraints of three dimensional space

In real life, living things are not always in ultimate accuracy…they have a “morphological roughness”


In coherent structures we usually find a rough arrangement and repetition of centers rather than exact repetition in shape, spacing and/or size. Thus apparently similar centers are different according to context, allowing each part to be adapted to the geometric constraints around it, modifying details of the repeating structure as it needs to be. Texture and imperfections are generated, and in part create the possibility of uniqueness and life.


Persian bowl showing the roughness in the beautiful drawing of the ornaments; they vary in size, position, orientation, and according to he space formed by neighboring ornaments, and so make the space perfectly harmonious.

(Source: Alexander, Christopher. The Nature of Order)


Roughness can be defined as a pre-defined grid which has certain imperfections which are related to the pattern. These imperfections generate a local disturbance within an image and they are thus developing a certain tension in the total field. In this way, the imperfections draw the attention of the spectator and bring ‘life’ to a composition.

The effect of imperfections within a field is shown in above figures.Disturbance of the strict grid (left) by scaling of certain points (right) resulting in a more lively composition


Piazza Navona


Many different manifestations of roughness — all positive!

• 1. Fractal structure goes all the way down in scales — nothing is smooth

• 2. Relaxation of strict geometry to allow imperfections — more tolerant

• 3. Ornament can be interpreted as “roughness” in a smooth geometry


Roughness and symmetry breaking

• So-called “imperfections” differentiate repeated units to make them similar

but not identical — hand-painted tiles

• Symmetry breaking (approximate) prevents informational collapse

• Deliberate roughness in repetition


Roughness and adaptation

• Sustainability implies adaptation

• Local conditions create roughness — breaks regularity and perfect

symmetry

• The whole changes according to its context thus it becomes unique

• Hierarchy: sustainability; adaptivity; uniqueness; roughness


ECHOES

Within coherent configurations there are often deep underlying similarities or family resemblances among the elements. These similarities are often characterized by typical angles, and typical curves, so that they generate what appear to be deeply related structures, sometimes so deep that everything seems to be related.


Two types of echoes:

• 1. Translational symmetry — similar forms found on the same scale but at

a distance

• 2. Scaling symmetry — similar forms exist at different scales

All natural fractals obey fractal similarity — not exactly similar when magnified, but only “echoes”


THE VOID

In the most profound centers that have perfect wholeness, there is often at the heart of the structure a void that is large, undifferentiated, like water, infinite in depth, surrounded by and contrasted with the clutter of the structure and fabric all around it.


Correspond to the fact that differentiation of minor system almost always occurs in relation to the quiet” of some larger and more stable system.The smaller structure tend to appear around the edge of larger and more homogeneous structure.In plasma physics this appear in the form of galaxies which have strongly homogeneous zones, bounded by more intricate zones where the structure is more intense and more densely distributed (see Galactic model of element formation, pag.296)

A hint of something that might one day be a general theory showing why the void will occur in complex systems to mantein thei wholeness, appears in the most general models of fractal geometry. Beyound that we have little explanation.


Largest scale of fractal

• Largest open component of a fractal survives as the void

• Not possible to fill in all of a fractal with detail

• In “implied” centers, a complex boundary focuses on the open middle —

the void


In the most profound centers that have perfect wholeness, there is often at the heart of the structure a void that is large, undifferentiated, like water, infinite in depth, surrounded by and contrasted with the clutter of the structure and fabric all around it


Does not exist now is the result of a general disturbance in our capacity to make wholeness, which is not a necessary functional property of office buildings


SIMPLICITY AND INNER CALM

Nova Scotia. Source: www.natureoforder.com

"Everything essential has been left; nothing extraneous is left.

But the result is simple in a profound sense, but not in the superficial geometric sense. So it is not true that outward simplicity creates inner calm; it is only inner simplicity, true simplicity of heart, which creates it."


More subtle quality

• Lack of clutter — a separate property

• Balance achieved by overall coherence

• Symmetries all cooperating to support each other — nothing extraneous

or distracting

• Appears effortless (though such coherence is in fact very difficult to

achieve)


Simplicity in nature

• Never actually “simple” in the sense of being minimalist

• “Simple” in nature means extremely complex but highly coherent

• A system appears “simple” to us because it is so perfect; the form is

seamless


Green streetsPools and streamsLow sill


NON-SEPARATENESSConnectedness, maybe the most important property No system exists in perfect isolation

This describes the connectedness of each center to the world beyond it. When a whole is a living center, we experience it as being at one with the world around it, not separate from it. This means that when not-separateness exists, visible strands of continuity of line, angle, shape, and form, connect the inside of a living center with the parts of the world beyond that center, so that it is, ultimately, impossible to draw a line separating the two.


Achieving coherence

• Coherence is an emergent property — not present in the individual

components

• In a larger coherent whole, no piece can be taken away

• Decomposition is neither obvious, nor possible


Measure of coherence

• When every component is cooperating to give a coherent whole, nothing

looks separate, nothing draws attention

• This is the goal of adaptive design

• A seamless blending of an enormous number of complex components

• The opposite of willful separateness


Extending outside

• Not-separateness goes beyond internal coherence

• The whole connects to its environment

• Connects with everything beyond itself

• Try as much as possible to generate large-scale coherence


WE EXPERIENCE a living whole as being at one with the world, and not separate from it, according to its degree of wholenessCONNECTEDNESS

The Nature of Order, by Antonio Caperna PhD


Old people everywhereConnected buildingsConnected play


Conclusion

• Alexander’s 15 fundamental properties are an incredibly essential set of practical design tools

• Arguments based on mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology

• Architects have to accept them as universal, deciding on stylistic reasons whether to follow them or not


• Traditional practitioners intuitively recognize some of the 15 properties as part of their own design method

• Yet, some are unknown to them • Now put together into a coherent set• I find it more useful to introduce them

after having derived basic design rules


UNFOLDING


We have analyzed the world around us as field-like structure with centers arranged by in a systematic fashion and interacting within the whole….

What about the process of how living structure create itself over the time?May we adopt a new view of architectural process that is capable of generating living structure?


UNFOLDING

As architectural (dynamical) process that is capable of generating living structure

approach where all design constraints of building, community, and sustainability can be taken on board. Its inspiration is strongly biological, stemming notably from current research in morphogenesis (the step-by-step evolution of form and growth patterns) and autopoiesis (the dynamics of self-completion).


UNFOLDING AS(DYNAMICAL) PROCESS

In many sciences, process is an inescapable part of order


UNFOLDING AS (DYNAMICAL) PROCESS

The flower is the temporary product of the unfolding of the bud and seed pod under the influence of DNA

We observe only an istantaneous cross section – in time- of a continuous and ongoing process of flux and change


D'Arcy Thompson in his treatise “On Growth and Form“Describing the origin of biological form as a necessary result of biological growth, showing – again and again by example – that biological form could be only understood as a product of the growth process


The Method of Coordinates reveals the phenomenon of correlation inregards to form within the family (e.g., primates).Example: Evolution of the human skull shape

Human Skull

Skull of chimpanzee

Skull of baboon


Ilya Progogine tooks decades to show that physics must be understood as a directional process

The way classical physics viewed phenomena without the orientation of time was fundamentally at odds with reality and was incapable of describing some of the most important physical phenomena


Our current view of architecture rests on too little awareness of becoming as the most essential feature of the building process

Architects are much too concernend with the design of the world (its static structure), and not yet cocernedwith the design of the generative processes that create the world (its dynamic structure)


fractals in typical Ethiopian village architecture

… organisms, computer programs, buildings, neighbourhoods, and cities share the same general rules governing a complex hierarchical system.

MORPHOGENETIC PROCESS


UNFOLDING PROCESS

a (new class) of transformations

allow continuous elaboration of any portion of the world, according to non-disruptive and healing acts

depend on the system of wholeness-extending transformations that preserve and extend wholeness


harmony-seeking computation creates new configurations, unknown configurations, and good ones, by taking off from a known configuration, extending, and enhancing, and preserving its wholeness, but without (necessarily) requiring human creativity. The process itself is creative.


ReferencesAlexander, Christopher (2000) The Nature of Order (New York, Oxford University Press). (in press)Alexander, C., Ishikawa, S., Silverstein, M., Jacobson, M., Fiksdahl-King, I. and Angel, S. (1977) A Pattern Language (New York, Oxford University Press).Alexander, C., Neis, H., Anninou, A. and King, I. (1987) A New Theory of Urban Design (New York, Oxford University Press).Batty, Michael and Longley, Paul (1994) Fractal Cities (London, Academic Press).Bovill, Carl (1996) Fractal Geometry in Architecture and Design (Boston, Birkhäuser).Salingaros, Nikos A. (1995) "The Laws of Architecture from a Physicist's Perspective", Physics Essays, Vol. 8 pp. 638-643.Salingaros, Nikos A. (1998) "Theory of the Urban Web", Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 3 pp. 53-71. [Earlier version published electronically by Resource for Urban Design Information in 1997Salingaros, Nikos A. (1999) "Urban Space and its Information Field", Journal of Urban Design,Vol. 4 pp. 29-49.Salingaros, Nikos A. (2000) "Structure of Pattern Languages", Architectural Research Quarterly,Vol. 4 pp. 149-161.Salingaros, Nikos A. and West, Bruce J. (1999) "A Universal Rule for the Distribution of Sizes", Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, Vol. 26 pp. 909-923.Caperna A., Introduction to The Pattern Language, www.archimagazine.comCaperna A., ICT per un Progetto Urbano Sostenibile, www.tesionline.it

http://www.biourbanism.org http://www.pism.uniroma3.it

Education

Neuroergonomics and sociogenesis, lectures part3