complexity

The Meaning of Emergent Urbanism, after A New Kind of Science

Mathieu Helie — Mon, 21 May 2012 20:09:59 +0000

Stephen Wolfram is celebrating the tenth anniversary of the publication of A New Kind of Science, a milestone in the development of complexity science that is more significant than any other for me, as it was reading through that book in 2007 that gave me the motivation and the sense of purpose to begin writing about urbanism and complexity science.

Emergent Urbanism at the University of Montreal

Mathieu Helie — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:24:33 +0000

I was invited to the complex systems laboratory of the Université de Montréal this week to present emergent urbanism to their twenty-member large research group. Click through to SlideShare in order to see the full text of the presentation under the "notes on" tab. The entire text is in French, however I know a significant share of this website's visitors enjoy French once in a while.

Principles published

Mathieu Helie — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:57:37 +0000

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.

Modeling the processes of urban emergence

Mathieu Helie — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:57:11 +0000

Organization and intelligence

Mathieu Helie — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:00:49 +0000

1. Sun Tzu said: The control of a large force
is the same principle as the control of a few men:
it is merely a question of dividing up their numbers.

2. Fighting with a large army under your command
is nowise different from fighting with a small one:
it is merely a question of instituting signs and signals.
- From The Art of War by Sun Tzu

The Fundamentals of Urban Complexity

Mathieu Helie — Mon, 11 May 2009 14:00:11 +0000

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.

The complex grid

Mathieu Helie — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:52:42 +0000

In a medieval-era city the pace of urban growth is slow to a point where the growth of the city is not consciously noticed. Buildings are added sporadically, in random shape and order, as the extremely scarce economic situation makes no other pattern possible. Typically this means that the shape of streets will match the existing natural paths of movement, giving the street network an organic structure that is preserved through successive transformations in the urban fabric.

How they build today in Palestine

Mathieu Helie — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 22:20:10 +0000

Regional complexity and local community

Mathieu Helie — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:09:03 +0000

The housing crisis afflicting Britain has reached such an intolerable level that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is announcing what amounts to a nationalization of planning regulations (report via Planetizen). This comes on the heels of the mayor of Greater London being granted the power to override planning rules of boroughs in order solve the capital's even more outrageous housing situation, as recently as 2007.

Design, configuration and natural form

Mathieu Helie — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:37:52 +0000

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.

The challenge of dense sprawl

Mathieu Helie — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 05:11:59 +0000

A demonstration of complexity in Dubai

Mathieu Helie — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:49:29 +0000

Dubai's suburban development is often criticized for its poor taste and gigantism. While the products of Dubai megadevelopment are often crude, the engineering feats achieved in producing them are astonishing.

Recent pictures of the progress of the Burj Dubai tower, the tallest skyscraper ever built, demonstrate this contradiction in a single frame. The tower itself, while monstrously tall, is nothing very interesting. It consists of speculatively-stacked concrete floors waiting for someone to do something on them. But take a look at what is happening on the ground.

Fake Complexity - Frank Gehry

Mathieu Helie — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 19:47:56 +0000

The emperor of starchitecture, Mr. Frank Gehry (as seen on The Simpsons), is really quite naked when you lean in to take a closer look at any of his buildings. While he has made himself famous by defining his own characteristic style, flowing metal shells and mid-collapse building frames, the complexity of his buildings is there only in name.

Complex geometry and structured chaos part II

Mathieu Helie — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:29:52 +0000

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.

A demonstration of complexity in New York City

Mathieu Helie — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 01:47:01 +0000

This discussion originally appeared on the Wired New York forums.

Allow me to point to a great example of contemporary emergence in New York City, and perhaps clarify the principles involved.

This, as most of you probably know, is Times Square.