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Why we offer an integrated "systems approach"...
"People used to say that just as the 20th century had been the century of physics, the 21st
century would be the century of biology... We would gradually move into a world whose
prevailing paradigm was one of complexity, and whose techniques sought the co-adapted
harmony of hundreds or thousands of variables. This would, inevitably, involve new tech-
nique, new vision, new models of thought, and new models of action. I believe that such
a transformation is starting to occur... To be well, we must set our sights on such a future."
- Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order
The town of Ronda in Andalucia, Spain - an intriguing historical example of a structure
incorporating many layers of complex cultural response to local conditions and needs.
The town also had an urban code that used sophisticated "generative" processes.
Can we make settlements with this level of organized com-
plexity and stable adaptive quality, in our "modern" age?
Increasingly, it appears we must do so.
As we are learning from today's sciences of complexity,
our current technologies are comparatively primitive in
adaptive complexity, and a new generation of processes
will be required for a truly "sustainable" human future -
and perhaps even a future worthy of our own humanity.
Promising alternatives are emerging, including
notably the work of Christopher Alexander, and
also many others working along similar lines.
We work in collaboration with a number of them.
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Some photos of "garden-variety" morphogenesis from an ordinary London garden. These forms arise from comprehensible processes.
Exciting new developments in biology and the mathematics of complexity - and in architecture - are pointing the way forward.
HOW DOES LIFE DO IT?
Katarxis 3, an on-line journal, looks at the implications of the "new sciences" for architecture and
urbanism, with biologists, mathematicians, physicists, philosophers, historians, architects and planners.
Interviews and essays by Christopher Alexander, Andres Duany, Leon Krier; Philip Ball, Brian Goodwin,
Ian Stewart; Brian Hanson, Nikos Salingaros, Michael Mehaffy; Senior Editor, Lucien Steil. Most of these
participants joined others, including RIBA president George Ferguson, and theorist Charles Jencks, at a
seminal conference in London in September 2004 on "New Science, New Urbanism, New Architecture":
Report: http://www.planetizen.com/oped/item.php?id=137
Full Proceedings: http://www.katarxis3.com/NewScienceNewUrbanismNewArchitectureDRAFT.pdf
Gallery of images of architecture from around the world and spanning 4,500 years.
What can we learn today from these patterns of "collective intelligence"?
On-line book, Notes on an Incomplete Architecture.
In our design work we have built places that respond to their contexts with what we call "connective geometry" - that is, structures that serve to connect different regions into an interrelated whole, at room, building and urban scales. Examples of connective geometry in some of our houses:
A design for a town in the US southwest, using regional patterns and a nested system of connective geometries:
"Connective geometry" in our work at Orenco Station in Oregon, using very different regional patterns:
A plan for a community in the English countryside, and a ranch in Texas - very different local identities and patterns:
More about: Work Ideas Background
The greatest art is to shape the quality of the day.
- Henry David Thoreau