Emergent Urbanism

Rediscovering Urban Complexity

architecture

The patterns of place

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Mon, 02/15/2010 - 15:00, last updated Sun, 11/06/2011 - 00:50

(This article originally appeared in Get Ahead Magazine, for the Get Ahead Festival of independent short films in Brooklyn.)

Leon Krier's lesson in architecture

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Tue, 12/29/2009 - 13:36, last updated Sun, 11/06/2011 - 00:50

Review of The Architecture of Commun

Principles published

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Fri, 07/24/2009 - 13:57, last updated Sun, 11/06/2011 - 00:55

The full article conceptualizing the principles of emergent urbanism has been published by the International Journal of Architectural Research volume 3 issue 2. You can download the complete article or read the whole issue.

Design, configuration and natural form

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Thu, 11/06/2008 - 20:37, last updated Mon, 04/09/2012 - 15:05

When did human creations stop being natural? We look at a tower block, a subdivision or a shopping mall parking lot and see the worst of industrial civilization translated into form. We tolerate them as necessary to achieve the material wealth of our civilization. Those human settlements that are still natural we grant special protections through UNESCO and historical preservation laws. We do not have a law that promotes the creation of new historic settlements because we are not quite sure how they are made.

Complex geometry and structured chaos part II

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Wed, 07/23/2008 - 20:29, last updated Sun, 11/06/2011 - 01:06

Complexity, to employ the definition proposed by Jane Jacobs in the final chapter of Death and Life of Great American Cities, is a juxtaposition of problems. This implies that a complex solution is a juxtaposition of solutions: fractal geometry.

How does the way we build arrive at complex solutions to complex problems without driving the builders to madness? How can we solve problems which exist at every scale in space, but also exist at every scale in time? Let's take a look at St. Paul's Cathedral in the City of London.

Fake Complexity - CCTV Headquarters

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Tue, 06/24/2008 - 19:06, last updated Mon, 04/09/2012 - 15:42

Engineering firm ARUP provided the complexity for this project.

From time to time I happen upon an attempt to "do" complexity that completely misses the point. In this first installment of many "Fake Complexity" topics, the culprit is Rem Koolhaas and his CCTV Headquarters for Beijing.

Architecture without design

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Wed, 03/26/2008 - 22:37, last updated Mon, 09/05/2011 - 21:47

Just eccentric ordinary people making it up as they go along.

Architecture should be abolished

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Fri, 11/30/2007 - 19:24, last updated Mon, 09/05/2011 - 21:47

Just what exactly does this have to do with constructing buildings and cities? When you can just as easily make jewelry as boats, you are not an architect. You are someone who draws shapes.

Complex geometry and structured chaos

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Mon, 11/19/2007 - 00:08, last updated Mon, 04/09/2012 - 15:02

Fractal geometry has infiltrated popular culture since it was formalized in the early 80's from the works of Benoit Mandelbrot. While it has been used to study the form of cities by researchers such as Pierre Frankhauser and Michael Batty, the insights to be drawn from this field of mathematics have not yet penetrated the field of urbanism, defined as the construction of cities.

Further comment

Please send your comments by email at mthl@mthl.info, or find me on Twitter @mathieuhelie. The commenting system is closed at the moment as no measures can hold back blog spamming bots.

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