Emergent Urbanism

Rediscovering Urban Complexity

mandelbrot set

Benoit Mandelbrot has died

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Sat, 10/16/2010 - 12:47, last updated Mon, 04/09/2012 - 15:53

Reported by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and other sources, Benoit Mandelbrot, the founder of the mathematical school of fractal geometry, has died at the age of 85.

In his honor, you should watch his last (that I know of) public appearance at TED Talks 2010.

The Fundamentals of Urban Complexity

Submitted by Mathieu Helie on Mon, 05/11/2009 - 10:00, last updated Sun, 11/06/2011 - 01:02

This is part II in an ongoing series of excerpts of an article set to be published this summer in The International Journal of Architectural Research, tentatively titled The Principles of Emergent Urbanism. Click here for part I, The Journey to Emergence.

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.

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.

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