Emergent Urbanism

Rediscovering Urban Complexity

complex design

The genesis of complex geometry

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Sun, 06/21/2009 - 23:54, last updated Sun, 11/06/2011 - 00:55

I don't believe that there is a dichotomy between a supposedly modern and traditional architecture. Instead there exist different geometric processes, and while traditionally builders have employed nesting processes in their work, for perhaps no other reason than it came naturally to them, modern builders have restricted themselves to linear geometric processes due to drawing their inspiration from Cartesian science and engineering.

Design, configuration and natural form

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Thu, 11/06/2008 - 20:37, last updated Sun, 11/06/2011 - 00:58

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.

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