THE AUTOPOIESIS OF ARCHITECTURE Vol. II

Description

The Autopoiesis of Architecture, Volume II: A New Agenda for Architecture
Whereas the first volume of this set provides the intellectual groundwork for Schumacher’s ideas, the second volume addresses the specific, contemporary challenges that architecture faces. It formulates these tasks, looking specifically at how architecture organizes and articulates the complexity of post-fordist network society. This addresses how current architecture can upgrade its design methodology for an increasingly demanding task environment, characterized by both complexity and novelty. Architecture’s role within contemporary society is explained and its relationship to politics is clarified. Finally, the emerging new style of Parametricism is introduced and theoretically grounded.

CONTENTS

Introduction to Volume 2

6. The Task of Architecture

• 6.1 Functions
• 6.1.1 Functions versus Capacities
• 6.1.2 Substantial versus Subsidiary Functions
• 6.1.3 Tectonics
• 6.1.4 The Categorization of Function-types
• 6.1.5 Problem-types (Function-types) vs Solution-types (Archetypes)
• 6.1.6 Patterns of Decomposition/Composition
• 6.1.7 Functional Reasoning via Action-artefact Networks
• 6.1.8 Limitations of Functional Expertise
• 6.2 Order via Organization and Articulation
• 6.2.1 Organization and Articulation: Historical and Systematic
• 6.2.2 Architectural Order
• 6.2.3 A Definition of Organization for Contemporary Architecture
• 6.2.4 Complicated, Complex, Organized, Ordered
• 6.3 Organization
• 6.3.1 Relating Spatial to Social Organization
• 6.3.2 Territorialization and Integration
• 6.3.3 Systems, Configurations, Organizations
• 6.4 Supplementing Architecture with a Science of Configuration
• 6.4.1 Set Theory
• 6.4.2 Harnessing Network Theory
• 6.4.3 Excursion: Network Theory
• 6.4.4 A City is not a Tree
• 6.4.5 Space Syntax: Concepts and Tools of Analysis
• 6.4.6 Space Syntax: Theoretical Claims
• 6.4.7 From Organization to Articulation: Taking Account of Cognition
• 6.5 Articulation
• 6.5.1 Articulation vs Organization
• 6.5.2 The Problem of Orientation and the Problematic of Legibility
• 6.5.3 Articulate vs Inarticulate Organization
• 6.5.4 Articulation as the Core Competency of Architecture
• 6.5.5 Generalizing the Concept of Function
• 6.6 The Phenomenological vs the Semiological Dimension of Architecture
• 6.7 The Phenomenological Dimension of Architectural Articulation 145
• 6.7.1 The Perceptual Constitution of Objects and Spaces
• 6.7.2 Cognitive Principles of Gestalt-Perception
• 6.7.3 Parametric Figuration
• 6.8 The Semiological Dimension of Architectural Articulation
• 6.8.1 The Built Works of Architecture as Framing Communications
• 6.8.2 Analogy: Language and Built Environment as Media of Communication
• 6.8.3 Signs as Communications
• 6.8.4 Territory as Fundamental Semiological Unit
• 6.8.5 Saussure’s Insight: Language as System of Correlated Differences
• 6.8.6 Extra-Semiological Demands on Architecture’s Medial Substrate
• 6.8.7 Syntagmatic vs Paradigmatic Relations
• 6.9 Prolegomenon to Architecture’s Semiological Project
• 6.9.1 The Scope of Architecture’s Signified
• 6.9.2 The Composite Character of the Architectural Sign
• 6.9.3 Absolute and Relative Arbitrariness
• 6.9.4 Natural and Artificial Semiosis
• 6.9.5 Designing Architecture’s Semiological Project
• 6.9.6 Cognitive and Attentional Conditions of Architectural Communication
• 6.9.7 Speculation: Expanding the Expressive Power of Architectural Sign Systems
• 6.10 The Semiological Project and the General Project of Architectural Order
• 6.10.1 The Semiological Project in Relation to the Organizational and the Phenomenological Project
• 6.10.2 Relationship between Architectural Languages and Architectural Styles
• 6.10.3 The Requisite Variety of Architectural Articulation

7. The Design Process

• 7.1 Contemporary Context and Aim of Design Process Theory
• 7.2 Towards a Contemporary Design Process Reflection and Design Methodology
• 7.2.1 Method vs Process
• 7.3 The Design Process as Problem-solving Process
• 7.3.1 The Design Process as Information-processing Process
• 7.3.2 The Structure of Information-processing Systems
• 7.3.3 Programmes
• 7.3.4 The Task Environment and its Representation as Problem Space
• 7.3.5 Problem Solving as Search in a State Space
• 7.3.6 Planning Spaces
• 7.3.7 Heuristic versus Exhaustive Problem-solving Methods
• 7.4 Differentiating Classical, Modern and Contemporary Processes
• 7.5 Problem Definition and Problem Structure
• 7.5.1 Wicked Problems
• 7.5.2 The Structure of Ill-structured Problems
• 7.5.3 An Information-processing Model for Information-rich Design Processes
• 7.6 Rationality: Retrospective and Prospective
• 7.6.1 Rational in Retrospect: Observing Innovative Design Practice
• 7.6.2 Prospective Rationality
• 7.6.3 Processing the Three Task Dimensions of Architecture
• 7.7 Modelling Spaces

8. Architecture and Society

• 8.1 World Architecture within World Society
• 8.2 Autonomy vs Authority
• 8.3 Architecture’s Conception of Society
• 8.3.1 The Crisis of Modernism’s Conception of Society
• 8.3.2 Social Systems Theory and the Theory of Architectural Autopoiesis
• 8.4 Architecture in Relation to other Societal Subsystems
• 8.4.1 Architecture In Relation to the Economic System
• 8.4.2 The Economy and the Design-Principle of Economy of Means
• 8.4.3 Economic Conditions of Architectural Discourse
• 8.4.4 Architecture and Education
• 8.5 Architecture as Profession and Professional Career
• 8.5.1 Authorship, Reputation, Oeuvre
• 8.5.2 Centre-periphery Differentiation within Architecture
• 8.5.3 The Absorption of Uncertainty
• 8.5.4 The Architectural Design Studio as Organization
• 8.6 The Built Environment as Primordial Condition of Society
• 8.6.1 The Built Environment As Indispensable Substrate of Social Evolution
• 8.6.2 From Spatial Order to Conceptual Order
• 8.6.3 Beauty and the Evolution of Concepts of Order

9. Architecture and Politics

• 9.1 Is Political Architecture Possible?
• 9.1.1 Political Vacuum
• 9.1.2 Normal vs Revolutionary Politics
• 9.2 Theorizing the Relationship between Architecture and Politics
• 9.2.1 The Incommensurability of Architecture and Politics
• 9.2.2 Architecture Responds to Political Agendas – Three Scenarios
• 9.2.3 Service Provisions Between Architecture and Politics
• 9.3 Architecture Adapts to Political Development
• 9.3.1 Modern Architecture Calls on Politics
• 9.3.2 The ABC Group: Political Agitation Within Architecture
• 9.3.3 The Vicissitudes of Political Polarization
• 9.4 The Limitations of Critical Practice in Architecture
• 9.4.1 General Political Critique and Macro-political Ambitions
• 9.4.2 Architecture’s ‘Micro-Political’ Agency: Manipulating Non-political Power
• 9.4.3 Who Controls the Power-distributing Capacity of Design?
• 9.4.4 Public Competitions As Structural Coupling between Architecture and Politics

10. The Self-descriptions of Architecture

• 10.1 Theoretical Underpinnings
• 10.1.1 Reference as Self-reference
• 10.1.2 Levels of Self-reference
• 10.2 The Necessity of Reflection: Architectural Theory as Reflection Theory
• 10.2.1 Continuity vs Consistency
• 10.2.2 Categorical vs Variable Structures of Communication
• 10.3 Classic Treatises
• 10.3.1 Alberti’s De re aedificatoria
• 10.3.2 Durand’s Pr´ ecis des lec¸ons d’architecture
• 10.3.3 Le Corbusier’s Vers une architecture
• 10.3.4 The Autopoiesis of Architecture
• 10.4 Architectural Historiography
• 10.4.1 History of Architecture’s Autonomization and Internal Structuration
• 10.4.2 History of Architectural Styles as Responses to Epochal Shifts in the Societal Environment
• 10.5 Architectural Criticism

11. Parametricism – The Parametric Paradigm and the Formation of a New Style

• 11.1 Parametricism as Epochal Style
• 11.1.1 Historiographical Sketch: The Epochal Alignment of Styles
• 11.1.2 A Unified Style for the 21st Century
• 11.1.3 The Maturity of Parametricism
• 11.1.4 Polarized Confrontation: Parametricism versus Minimalism
• 11.1.5 Styles as Design Research Programmes
• 11.2 The Parametricist Research Programme
• 11.2.1 Conceptual Definition of Parametricism
• 11.2.2 Operational Definition of Parametricism: The Defining Heuristics of Parametricism
• 11.2.3 Genealogy of the Parametricist Heuristics
• 11.2.4 Analogies: Emulating Natural Systems
• 11.2.5 Agendas Advancing Parametricism
• 11.2.6 The Agenda of Ecological Sustainability
• 11.3 Parametricist vs Modernist Urbanism
• 11.3.1 Simple Order, Disorder, Complex Order
• 11.3.2 Implementing Parametricist Urbanism
• 11.4 Elegance

12. Epilogue – The Design of a Theory

• 12.1 Theoretical Foundation: Communication Theory vs Historical Materialism?
• 12.2 The Theory of Architectural Autopoiesis as Unified Theory of Architecture
• 12.3 Notes on the Architecture of the Theory
• 12.4 The Theory as the Result of Contingent Theory Design Decisions

Concluding Remarks

784 pages / 17 x 22 cm / English