9788898774975 the aesthetics of sustainability single page

MADE IN ITALY

EURO 20,00

Sustainability has to find its own power of seduction if it is to compete successfully with the ambiguous, but established charms of the unsustainable city.

Talking about sustainability as an ethical necessity is a given, but aesthetics, style and emotions must also come into play. Those seductive elements were essential to making the city attractive — particularly the capitalistic city — and have, paradoxically, much to do with excess and exuberance, with surplus production, conspicuous consumption and waste.

The research presented in this book is a discourse about the importance of aesthetics, revisited through the lenses of systemic thinking, complexity theory and transdisciplinarity, in the sustainable design of city and territory.

It is a ‘map of paths’ based on referential sequences recalling not only the contemporary cultural imaginary but also a new conceptual apparatus sprung from the transdisciplinary union between thought, science and aesthetics, creating a cartography of resonances among different realms and presenting new models and tools for a possible new promising path.

self-organization THE AESTHETICS Systemic thinkingin theandevolution of cities OF SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability may represent a new form of humanity but, as proposed in its current form in many urban and landscape projects, it often lacks a quality essential to any anthropic space: seduction.

THE AESTHETICS OF SUSTAINABILITY Systemic thinking and self-organization in the evolution of cities

Ilaria Di Carlo

ACNOWLEDGMENTS

8

From formal logic to informational logic Manuel Gausa Navarro

10

The Sustainability of Aesthetics Marjan Colletti

14

Cities in nature: beyond Sustainability Pino Scaglione

20

INTRO Preface_The issue: Aesthetics of Sustainability

22

PART I THE SELF-ORGANIZED CITY: ontology and hermeneutics 1.1.

The theme of SUSTAINABILITY in complexity theory 1.1.1.

Sustainability today: a container of empty meanings or an empty container of meanings?

1.1.2.

Merleau–Ponty and the concept of nature as the primordial 1.1.3.

Slavoj Žižek and ecology against Mother Nature 1.1.4.

The question of the Eco-Modernist and the ‘good Anthropocene’ 1.1.5.

The concept of ecology for Guattari

30

47 48 50 52 54

59 60

31 64 32

68

33 35 36

71 74

39 75

1.2.

The agency of AESTHETICS as ecological category and adaptive system 1.2.1.

The aesthetics of sustainability today

INDEX

43 44

79 80 82

1.2.2.

The three ecologies and the importance of the evolutionary approach: aesthetics as an ethic 1.2.3.

The three ecologies and the importance of the evolutionary approach: aesthetics as an adaptive system 1.2.4.

‘We know more than we can tell’: aesthetics as a form of tacit knowledge 1.2.5.

Relational Aesthetics and the intersubjectivity issue: aesthetics as social interstice 1.2.6.

Neuroscience and the embodiment of space: aesthetics as embodied simulation 1.3.

The Origins of COMPLEXITY THEORY in Urban Planning and Urban Design 1.3.1.

Obsolete academics: typologies and typological thinking 1.3.2.

The beginning of the fall: from the death of typologies to the rise of cellular automata 1.3.3.

Order versus Chaos 1.3.4.

Emergence and the temporal dimension. the Past: Self-organization in history 1.3.5.

Emergence and the temporal dimension. the Present: Emergence and Emergency 1.3.6.

Emergence and the temporal dimension. the Future: Technology, superfluous and seduction 1.4.

The key for change: TRANSDISCIPLINARITY 1.4.1.

Transdisciplinarity and new models 1.4.2.

Transdisciplinarity and the passage from design to organization

ACNOWLEDGMENTS

8

From formal logic to informational logic Manuel Gausa Navarro

10

The Sustainability of Aesthetics Marjan Colletti

14

Cities in nature: beyond Sustainability Pino Scaglione

20

INTRO Preface_The issue: Aesthetics of Sustainability

22

PART I THE SELF-ORGANIZED CITY: ontology and hermeneutics 1.1.

The theme of SUSTAINABILITY in complexity theory 1.1.1.

Sustainability today: a container of empty meanings or an empty container of meanings?

1.1.2.

Merleau–Ponty and the concept of nature as the primordial 1.1.3.

Slavoj Žižek and ecology against Mother Nature 1.1.4.

The question of the Eco-Modernist and the ‘good Anthropocene’ 1.1.5.

The concept of ecology for Guattari

30

47 48 50 52 54

59 60

31 64 32

68

33 35 36

71 74

39 75

1.2.

The agency of AESTHETICS as ecological category and adaptive system 1.2.1.

The aesthetics of sustainability today

INDEX

43 44

79 80 82

1.2.2.

The three ecologies and the importance of the evolutionary approach: aesthetics as an ethic 1.2.3.

The three ecologies and the importance of the evolutionary approach: aesthetics as an adaptive system 1.2.4.

‘We know more than we can tell’: aesthetics as a form of tacit knowledge 1.2.5.

Relational Aesthetics and the intersubjectivity issue: aesthetics as social interstice 1.2.6.

Neuroscience and the embodiment of space: aesthetics as embodied simulation 1.3.

The Origins of COMPLEXITY THEORY in Urban Planning and Urban Design 1.3.1.

Obsolete academics: typologies and typological thinking 1.3.2.

The beginning of the fall: from the death of typologies to the rise of cellular automata 1.3.3.

Order versus Chaos 1.3.4.

Emergence and the temporal dimension. the Past: Self-organization in history 1.3.5.

Emergence and the temporal dimension. the Present: Emergence and Emergency 1.3.6.

Emergence and the temporal dimension. the Future: Technology, superfluous and seduction 1.4.

The key for change: TRANSDISCIPLINARITY 1.4.1.

Transdisciplinarity and new models 1.4.2.

Transdisciplinarity and the passage from design to organization

1.1.1 Sustainability today: a container of empty meanings or an empty container of meanings?

In recent years, the term Sustainability, together with its other co-star, ecology, has taken on a growing imminent sense of urgency. The word has acquired a meaning more akin to a ‘religious aura’ rather than a sense appropriate for a genuine global policy objective.

It has become what Slavoj Žižek calls ‘the new opium for the masses’1 and, thus, has been emptied of a meaningful identity.

The reasons behind this unfortunate unfolding are attributable mainly to three factors: first, its hyperinflationary use as a container of meanings; second, a sort of nostalgic, low-tech, pseudo-bucolic notion of sustainability; and third, its ‘form of consumption’, a reductionist approach to the complexity of reality.

We encounter the abuse of the term sustainability with its exploitation in a paradoxical capitalistic mode as a way of controlling consumption. Here, control isn’t just used to mean ‘decreasing consumption’; it’s employed in the more manipulative form of ‘directing consumption’, easily recognizable as a sort of branding (How often do we find this word in advertisements for selling anything from cars to detergents? Fig.1.0). In this usage, sustainability flounders between a revisited form of metabolism and green-washing.

On the other hand, the very naive idea of Mother Nature worship as the only possible ethical choice (in a world condemned by the evil of artificiality) has forced sustainability and ecology into taking on reactionary form: demagogy.

Finally, sustainability has become trapped in a reductionist portrait that paralyzes its complexity.

The existing praxis got us used to thinking of and relating to sustainability as something that mostly concerns economic, environmental and technical issues.

Numbers, norms and technical apparata constitute its language. Pseudo-scientific paradigms are borrowed to validate its essence. Mental and social aspects, that deal practically or theoretically with subjectivity – and which are so much part of the experience of reality – are somehow dismissed, or at worst forgotten.

‘It is as if there were a scientistic super-ego which demanded that psychical entities be reified, understood only in terms of their extrinsic co-ordinates’2 In this case, sustainability is simplified and reduced to a bulimic application of restrictions and regulations and the asphyxiating legitimisation of a technoscientific paradigm.

As John Thackara says:“Our world is awash in eco-information, but starved for meaning.” 3

32

The Aesthetics of Sustainability

The problem with sustainabilit y is fundamentally a problem of ecophenomenology4, or in other words, of how environmental problems are framed. Today, the philosophical question of the relationship of nature and ecology with culture and humankind is almost entirely forgotten, possibly obscured by the reductive urge to solve environmental issues. However, this environmental crisis “existing as it does in the human world of value and significance”5, is a philosophical crisis at heart.

Discourse about sustainability will acquire new credibility and meaning only if we can reduce its applicability, embrace a more active and combatant concept of ecology and dignify its human, philosophical, social and aesthetic aspects at the same level as the technological, scientific and ethic ones.

Within this research framework the thoughts of the philosophers Maurice Merleau–Pont y, Slavoj Žižek and, ultimately, Felix Guattari are of particular interest, exactly because they envision an ecological anti-dialectic, anti-chiastic perspective on nature and humankind which is fundamental to overhauling the phenomenological problem of Fig. 1.0: Examples of green-washing sustainability.

1.1.2.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the concept of nature the primordial In a series of courses held at the Collége de France between 1957 and 1960 Merleau-Ponty (Rochefort-sur-Mer, 1908 – Paris, 1961) decided to reflect and wonder on a subject that he considered an ‘outdated theme’, but that has much to do with the modern image of the world6: the concept of nature.

The fall into disuse of the philosophy of nature was due, according to MerleauPonty, to the dichotomy that arose between philosophy and the natural sciences.

Nonetheless, he was convinced that if philosophy did not encompass nature, then

PART I _ THE SELF-ORGANIZED CITY: ONTOLOGY AND HERMENEUTICS

33

1.1.1 Sustainability today: a container of empty meanings or an empty container of meanings?

In recent years, the term Sustainability, together with its other co-star, ecology, has taken on a growing imminent sense of urgency. The word has acquired a meaning more akin to a ‘religious aura’ rather than a sense appropriate for a genuine global policy objective.

It has become what Slavoj Žižek calls ‘the new opium for the masses’1 and, thus, has been emptied of a meaningful identity.

The reasons behind this unfortunate unfolding are attributable mainly to three factors: first, its hyperinflationary use as a container of meanings; second, a sort of nostalgic, low-tech, pseudo-bucolic notion of sustainability; and third, its ‘form of consumption’, a reductionist approach to the complexity of reality.

We encounter the abuse of the term sustainability with its exploitation in a paradoxical capitalistic mode as a way of controlling consumption. Here, control isn’t just used to mean ‘decreasing consumption’; it’s employed in the more manipulative form of ‘directing consumption’, easily recognizable as a sort of branding (How often do we find this word in advertisements for selling anything from cars to detergents? Fig.1.0). In this usage, sustainability flounders between a revisited form of metabolism and green-washing.

On the other hand, the very naive idea of Mother Nature worship as the only possible ethical choice (in a world condemned by the evil of artificiality) has forced sustainability and ecology into taking on reactionary form: demagogy.

Finally, sustainability has become trapped in a reductionist portrait that paralyzes its complexity.

The existing praxis got us used to thinking of and relating to sustainability as something that mostly concerns economic, environmental and technical issues.

Numbers, norms and technical apparata constitute its language. Pseudo-scientific paradigms are borrowed to validate its essence. Mental and social aspects, that deal practically or theoretically with subjectivity – and which are so much part of the experience of reality – are somehow dismissed, or at worst forgotten.

‘It is as if there were a scientistic super-ego which demanded that psychical entities be reified, understood only in terms of their extrinsic co-ordinates’2 In this case, sustainability is simplified and reduced to a bulimic application of restrictions and regulations and the asphyxiating legitimisation of a technoscientific paradigm.

As John Thackara says:“Our world is awash in eco-information, but starved for meaning.” 3

32

The Aesthetics of Sustainability

The problem with sustainabilit y is fundamentally a problem of ecophenomenology4, or in other words, of how environmental problems are framed. Today, the philosophical question of the relationship of nature and ecology with culture and humankind is almost entirely forgotten, possibly obscured by the reductive urge to solve environmental issues. However, this environmental crisis “existing as it does in the human world of value and significance”5, is a philosophical crisis at heart.

Discourse about sustainability will acquire new credibility and meaning only if we can reduce its applicability, embrace a more active and combatant concept of ecology and dignify its human, philosophical, social and aesthetic aspects at the same level as the technological, scientific and ethic ones.

Within this research framework the thoughts of the philosophers Maurice Merleau–Pont y, Slavoj Žižek and, ultimately, Felix Guattari are of particular interest, exactly because they envision an ecological anti-dialectic, anti-chiastic perspective on nature and humankind which is fundamental to overhauling the phenomenological problem of Fig. 1.0: Examples of green-washing sustainability.

1.1.2.

Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the concept of nature the primordial In a series of courses held at the Collége de France between 1957 and 1960 Merleau-Ponty (Rochefort-sur-Mer, 1908 – Paris, 1961) decided to reflect and wonder on a subject that he considered an ‘outdated theme’, but that has much to do with the modern image of the world6: the concept of nature.

The fall into disuse of the philosophy of nature was due, according to MerleauPonty, to the dichotomy that arose between philosophy and the natural sciences.

Nonetheless, he was convinced that if philosophy did not encompass nature, then

PART I _ THE SELF-ORGANIZED CITY: ONTOLOGY AND HERMENEUTICS

33

. Gausa M. et al., Ecology, active (or bold), definition, in The Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture. City, technology and society in the information age, ACTAR, Barcelona, 2003 14 . Migayrou F., Ecology, active (or bold), definition, in The Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture. City, technology and society in the information age, ACTAR, Barcelona, 2003 15 . Gausa M. et al., Op. Cit. 16 . Guattari F., The three Ecologies, Continuum International Publishing Group – Athlone, July 2000 17 . For more on the concepts of ‘additionality’ and ‘cradle to cradle’ see Mc Donough W. and Braungart M., ‘Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the way we make things’, North Point Press, 2002 18 . Mc Donough W. and Braungart M., The Upcycle: beyond Sustainability. Designing for Abundance, North Point Press, 2013 19 . Pessoa F., Il libro dell’inquitudine, Feltrinelli ed., Milano, 2000 20 . Smaje C. ‘Dark thoughts on Ecomodernism’ available on line @ http://dark-mountain. net/blog/dark-thoughts-on-ecomodernism-2/ 21 . Pessoa F., Op. Cit. 22 . Ecomodernist Manifesto, April 2015, available on line @ http://www.ecomodernism.org/ 23 . Ecomodernist Manifesto, Op. Cit 24 . For more on this topic please see the article by G. Monbiot ‘Meet the ecomodernist: ignorant of history and paradoxically old-fashioned’ available on line @ http://www. theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2015/sep/24/meet-the-ecomodernists-ignorant-of-history-and-paradoxically-old-fashioned 25 . For more on this topic please see the article by C. Smaje ‘Dark thoughts on Ecomodernism’ available on line @ http://dark-mountain.net/blog/dark-thoughts-on-ecomodernism-2/ 26 . Ecomodernist Manifesto, Op. Cit 27 . Ecomodernist Manifesto, Op. Cit 28 . Guattari F., Op. Cit. 29 . Guattari F., The Three Ecologies, Continuum International Publishing Group – Athlone, July 2000 30 . Guattari F., Op. Cit. 31 . For a deeper understanding of the issue of Aesthetics in the Evolutionary Theory see also Chapter 1.2 of this volume.

32-33-34-35-36 . Guattari F., Op. Cit 37 . Kwinter S., in Organization or design? Architecture symposium at Harvard GSD, October 2015 available on web @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRRYDzNg8hA 13

1.2.

The agency of aesthetics as ecological category and adaptive system “Beauty is the symbol of moral good”.

(I.Kant)

NOTES

“Beauty is a manifestation of arcane laws of nature, without the appearance of which, it would remain forever hidden from us”.

(J.W. Göethe)

. Gausa M. et al., Ecology, active (or bold), definition, in The Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture. City, technology and society in the information age, ACTAR, Barcelona, 2003 14 . Migayrou F., Ecology, active (or bold), definition, in The Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture. City, technology and society in the information age, ACTAR, Barcelona, 2003 15 . Gausa M. et al., Op. Cit. 16 . Guattari F., The three Ecologies, Continuum International Publishing Group – Athlone, July 2000 17 . For more on the concepts of ‘additionality’ and ‘cradle to cradle’ see Mc Donough W. and Braungart M., ‘Cradle to Cradle. Remaking the way we make things’, North Point Press, 2002 18 . Mc Donough W. and Braungart M., The Upcycle: beyond Sustainability. Designing for Abundance, North Point Press, 2013 19 . Pessoa F., Il libro dell’inquitudine, Feltrinelli ed., Milano, 2000 20 . Smaje C. ‘Dark thoughts on Ecomodernism’ available on line @ http://dark-mountain. net/blog/dark-thoughts-on-ecomodernism-2/ 21 . Pessoa F., Op. Cit. 22 . Ecomodernist Manifesto, April 2015, available on line @ http://www.ecomodernism.org/ 23 . Ecomodernist Manifesto, Op. Cit 24 . For more on this topic please see the article by G. Monbiot ‘Meet the ecomodernist: ignorant of history and paradoxically old-fashioned’ available on line @ http://www. theguardian.com/environment/georgemonbiot/2015/sep/24/meet-the-ecomodernists-ignorant-of-history-and-paradoxically-old-fashioned 25 . For more on this topic please see the article by C. Smaje ‘Dark thoughts on Ecomodernism’ available on line @ http://dark-mountain.net/blog/dark-thoughts-on-ecomodernism-2/ 26 . Ecomodernist Manifesto, Op. Cit 27 . Ecomodernist Manifesto, Op. Cit 28 . Guattari F., Op. Cit. 29 . Guattari F., The Three Ecologies, Continuum International Publishing Group – Athlone, July 2000 30 . Guattari F., Op. Cit. 31 . For a deeper understanding of the issue of Aesthetics in the Evolutionary Theory see also Chapter 1.2 of this volume.

32-33-34-35-36 . Guattari F., Op. Cit 37 . Kwinter S., in Organization or design? Architecture symposium at Harvard GSD, October 2015 available on web @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRRYDzNg8hA 13

1.2.

The agency of aesthetics as ecological category and adaptive system “Beauty is the symbol of moral good”.

(I.Kant)

NOTES

“Beauty is a manifestation of arcane laws of nature, without the appearance of which, it would remain forever hidden from us”.

(J.W. Göethe)

1.3.1.

Obsolete academics: typologies and typological thinking Traditional top-down planning, on which very much of our contemporary urban interventions are still based, is a well-founded, deterministic, and organized discipline whose models and tools have been superseded.

In a 1967 article ‘Non-Plan, a Radical Rethinking of Planning Orthodoxy’1, the architects Cedric Price and Paul Baker with town planner Peter Hall fiercely criticized urban design as promoted by CIAM (Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne). They highlighted a serious crisis of confidence regarding the output of the ‘technicians’ in architecture and town and regional planning. This crisis is still going on: ‘the barriers between the different disciplines, the all-too obvious distance between designers and users and the lack of both scientific and economic means, only serve to further discredit projects.’2 Urban planning today seems to be in its darkest period: ‘it has lost “epistemologically” the sense of reality […], perched behind a short-sighted technicality, it was never able to become a “human science”. […] Cities, in their living complexity, seem to interest very little to urban planners, used to chase more or less drastic solutions related to equipment that has been very little updated in the last 50 years. […] The representation of the complexity is still an ‘atlas’ made of screens, flows, zoning areas, in which it is extremely difficult to recognize not only a “genius loci”, but, most of all, a relationship of belonging and mutual influence between the city and its citizens.’3 Traditional urban design tools like typologies and land use have turned out to be too rigid and prone to oversimplifying a reality which is far more complex and unstable.

Let’s try for a moment to analyse, for instance, the notions of typology and typological thinking that are so much enshrined in the academics of traditional urban planning and seem to be living a sort of contemporary revival in recent years.

The notion of typology in architecture implies a desire for order, control, reason and syntax (Fig.1.11). It refers to what Caroline Bos and Ben van Berkel have named ‘a legacy of rationality’.4 In times where, on opposite ends, both the economic recession in the West and the large-scale opportunities in Asia and the Middle East are defining the conditions of city and territory, the aspiration for an Fig. 1.11: JNL Durand, Portico Typology ordering device as a sort of polar star to direct people seems tempting.

60

The Aesthetics of Sustainability

Fig. 1.12: Relationships between supposedly different entities: Circus Maximus, Rome, Italy. VI-IV century B.C.

Fig. 1.13: Relationships between supposedly different entities: Panathenaion, Athens, Greece, VI-IV century B.C.

Fig. 1.14: Relationships between supposedly Fig. 1.15: Relationships between supposedly different different entities: Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy, I entities: Olympic Stadium, Beijing, China, 2008 century B.C. – XVII century A.C.

Typological design offers the advantage of a quick, standardized product with precedents, a clear taxonomy, strict logic, extremely communicable, reassuringly predictable. It also has the power of being both an instrument of analysis and an element of design.

Broadly speaking, typological reasoning is a great model or principle for the legibility of socio-cultural and material products.

Its strength lies in its capacity to establish relationships: relationships between entities that are supposedly different (Fig. 1.12-1.15). It creates chains and resonances among objects of different species, revealing the stratifications subjected to many experiences.5 Fig. 1.16: Relationships between collective memory and the city: The Roman classical system, typologies as unifying symbols in the Roman Empire

PART I _ THE SELF-ORGANIZED CITY: ONTOLOGY AND HERMENEUTICS

61

1.3.1.

Obsolete academics: typologies and typological thinking Traditional top-down planning, on which very much of our contemporary urban interventions are still based, is a well-founded, deterministic, and organized discipline whose models and tools have been superseded.

In a 1967 article ‘Non-Plan, a Radical Rethinking of Planning Orthodoxy’1, the architects Cedric Price and Paul Baker with town planner Peter Hall fiercely criticized urban design as promoted by CIAM (Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne). They highlighted a serious crisis of confidence regarding the output of the ‘technicians’ in architecture and town and regional planning. This crisis is still going on: ‘the barriers between the different disciplines, the all-too obvious distance between designers and users and the lack of both scientific and economic means, only serve to further discredit projects.’2 Urban planning today seems to be in its darkest period: ‘it has lost “epistemologically” the sense of reality […], perched behind a short-sighted technicality, it was never able to become a “human science”. […] Cities, in their living complexity, seem to interest very little to urban planners, used to chase more or less drastic solutions related to equipment that has been very little updated in the last 50 years. […] The representation of the complexity is still an ‘atlas’ made of screens, flows, zoning areas, in which it is extremely difficult to recognize not only a “genius loci”, but, most of all, a relationship of belonging and mutual influence between the city and its citizens.’3 Traditional urban design tools like typologies and land use have turned out to be too rigid and prone to oversimplifying a reality which is far more complex and unstable.

Let’s try for a moment to analyse, for instance, the notions of typology and typological thinking that are so much enshrined in the academics of traditional urban planning and seem to be living a sort of contemporary revival in recent years.

The notion of typology in architecture implies a desire for order, control, reason and syntax (Fig.1.11). It refers to what Caroline Bos and Ben van Berkel have named ‘a legacy of rationality’.4 In times where, on opposite ends, both the economic recession in the West and the large-scale opportunities in Asia and the Middle East are defining the conditions of city and territory, the aspiration for an Fig. 1.11: JNL Durand, Portico Typology ordering device as a sort of polar star to direct people seems tempting.

60

The Aesthetics of Sustainability

Fig. 1.12: Relationships between supposedly different entities: Circus Maximus, Rome, Italy. VI-IV century B.C.

Fig. 1.13: Relationships between supposedly different entities: Panathenaion, Athens, Greece, VI-IV century B.C.

Fig. 1.14: Relationships between supposedly Fig. 1.15: Relationships between supposedly different different entities: Piazza Navona, Rome, Italy, I entities: Olympic Stadium, Beijing, China, 2008 century B.C. – XVII century A.C.

Typological design offers the advantage of a quick, standardized product with precedents, a clear taxonomy, strict logic, extremely communicable, reassuringly predictable. It also has the power of being both an instrument of analysis and an element of design.

Broadly speaking, typological reasoning is a great model or principle for the legibility of socio-cultural and material products.

Its strength lies in its capacity to establish relationships: relationships between entities that are supposedly different (Fig. 1.12-1.15). It creates chains and resonances among objects of different species, revealing the stratifications subjected to many experiences.5 Fig. 1.16: Relationships between collective memory and the city: The Roman classical system, typologies as unifying symbols in the Roman Empire

PART I _ THE SELF-ORGANIZED CITY: ONTOLOGY AND HERMENEUTICS

61

Fig. 1.29: Self-organizing models: Actual and Virtual. Palermo and Ka Care City (Ecologicstudio and Carlo Ratti)

Fig. 1.32: Self-Organizing models: Actual & Virtual. Joal Fadiouth, Senegal & Mist City (T. Tetarintze)

Fig. 1.30: Self-organizing models: Actual and Virtual. Kenya villages and Water Slope city (D. Dobrev)

Fig. 1.33: Self-organizing models: Actual and Virtual. Barrios of Caracas, Venezuela and Digital Favelas (N. Leach)

Fig. 1.31: Self-organizing models: Actual and Virtual. Ulan Bator, Mongolia and Islamic Garden City (Shi Oi Ng)

Fig. 1.34: Self-organizing models: Actual and Virtual. Angkor Watt, Cambodia and Recursive Formation (SPAN Architecture)

In the end, the quality of self-organization could be assimilated into the capability of envisioning an idea, orchestrating and managing a certain degree of disorder (Prigogine’s ‘order through fluctuations’?) and mutation through time.

We could ultimately argue that self-organization is the capacity of material organizations to develop and evolve through time following a concept rather

72

The Aesthetics of Sustainability

than a design. The more articulated, refined and meaningful the concept, the more sophisticated its temporal organization.

In fact, while, in the attempt to define emerging, self-organised artefacts, it is not possible to talk of a specific authorship of an idea or a concept, it is possible to illustrate them in terms of ‘[die] Arbeit des Begriffs’. This is Adorno’s concept, which

PART I _ THE SELF-ORGANIZED CITY: ONTOLOGY AND HERMENEUTICS

73

Fig. 1.29: Self-organizing models: Actual and Virtual. Palermo and Ka Care City (Ecologicstudio and Carlo Ratti)

Fig. 1.32: Self-Organizing models: Actual & Virtual. Joal Fadiouth, Senegal & Mist City (T. Tetarintze)

Fig. 1.30: Self-organizing models: Actual and Virtual. Kenya villages and Water Slope city (D. Dobrev)

Fig. 1.33: Self-organizing models: Actual and Virtual. Barrios of Caracas, Venezuela and Digital Favelas (N. Leach)

Fig. 1.31: Self-organizing models: Actual and Virtual. Ulan Bator, Mongolia and Islamic Garden City (Shi Oi Ng)

Fig. 1.34: Self-organizing models: Actual and Virtual. Angkor Watt, Cambodia and Recursive Formation (SPAN Architecture)

In the end, the quality of self-organization could be assimilated into the capability of envisioning an idea, orchestrating and managing a certain degree of disorder (Prigogine’s ‘order through fluctuations’?) and mutation through time.

We could ultimately argue that self-organization is the capacity of material organizations to develop and evolve through time following a concept rather

72

The Aesthetics of Sustainability

than a design. The more articulated, refined and meaningful the concept, the more sophisticated its temporal organization.

In fact, while, in the attempt to define emerging, self-organised artefacts, it is not possible to talk of a specific authorship of an idea or a concept, it is possible to illustrate them in terms of ‘[die] Arbeit des Begriffs’. This is Adorno’s concept, which

PART I _ THE SELF-ORGANIZED CITY: ONTOLOGY AND HERMENEUTICS

73

1.4.2.

Transdisciplinarity and the passage from design to organization The discourse about transdisciplinarity exposes another interesting and crucial aspect in the definition of the discipline of architecture and urban design: the passage from the mechanical era of design to the digital era of organization.

During the mechanical era and up to now organization and its methodologies have been mainly the operational field of the urbanists, the architects whose major role was to develop strategic paradigms for the city and territory, as opposed to the architects who were instead involved in the production of single buildings, repertories of forms with their own peculiar design/style.

The research of new models to study and describe the complexity of cities exploiting a transdisciplinary approach implied a sort of ‘decontextualization’ of the praxis in search of a meta-language which would allow addressing properly, critically and fruitfully models and techniques migrating from other disciplines and codes.

During a very stimulating debate hold at Harvard GSD in October 2015 entitled ‘Organization or design?’, Ciro Najle brilliantly pointed out that ‘the notion of design involves the understanding of architecture (and urban design) as an act of embellishment of the environment to make it agreeable, pleasant, visually amicable and domesticating what we see for the purpose of softening out its sharp edges and therefore making itself liveable. [...] such good intentions are usually perverse and the notion of organization, as harsh as it sounds, confronts the wrongness of the conditions of our practice much more directly and takes a vehement distance towards this wrongness.6’ In other words, quoting Sanford Kwinter, the way in which organization and even self-organization of material reality transform perception and their relationship to feelings, ideas and the sense of the world is the new definition of architecture.

The word design has disappeared and we are possibly facing a paradigm shift, whereby our practice would be defined as the capacity to transform through organization the sense of the world.

The word organization, moreover, enjoys a privileged position compared to the word design in respect to two significant concepts of todays’ investigation about the future of architecture and urbanism: space and ecology.

Organization, dissimilar to design, has a deeper, more structural and fundamental epistemological link with the concept of space. To organize in fact is to arrange methodically parts or elements of something in space into a structured order.

And the concept of space at the present time is of paramount importance in any methodological strategy for our discipline: ‘Nowadays to occupy a spatial position

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Fig.1.35 -1.36: The Creation of Complexity through Organization: The Living bridges of Cherrapunji, India

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1.4.2.

Transdisciplinarity and the passage from design to organization The discourse about transdisciplinarity exposes another interesting and crucial aspect in the definition of the discipline of architecture and urban design: the passage from the mechanical era of design to the digital era of organization.

During the mechanical era and up to now organization and its methodologies have been mainly the operational field of the urbanists, the architects whose major role was to develop strategic paradigms for the city and territory, as opposed to the architects who were instead involved in the production of single buildings, repertories of forms with their own peculiar design/style.

The research of new models to study and describe the complexity of cities exploiting a transdisciplinary approach implied a sort of ‘decontextualization’ of the praxis in search of a meta-language which would allow addressing properly, critically and fruitfully models and techniques migrating from other disciplines and codes.

During a very stimulating debate hold at Harvard GSD in October 2015 entitled ‘Organization or design?’, Ciro Najle brilliantly pointed out that ‘the notion of design involves the understanding of architecture (and urban design) as an act of embellishment of the environment to make it agreeable, pleasant, visually amicable and domesticating what we see for the purpose of softening out its sharp edges and therefore making itself liveable. [...] such good intentions are usually perverse and the notion of organization, as harsh as it sounds, confronts the wrongness of the conditions of our practice much more directly and takes a vehement distance towards this wrongness.6’ In other words, quoting Sanford Kwinter, the way in which organization and even self-organization of material reality transform perception and their relationship to feelings, ideas and the sense of the world is the new definition of architecture.

The word design has disappeared and we are possibly facing a paradigm shift, whereby our practice would be defined as the capacity to transform through organization the sense of the world.

The word organization, moreover, enjoys a privileged position compared to the word design in respect to two significant concepts of todays’ investigation about the future of architecture and urbanism: space and ecology.

Organization, dissimilar to design, has a deeper, more structural and fundamental epistemological link with the concept of space. To organize in fact is to arrange methodically parts or elements of something in space into a structured order.

And the concept of space at the present time is of paramount importance in any methodological strategy for our discipline: ‘Nowadays to occupy a spatial position

82

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Fig.1.35 -1.36: The Creation of Complexity through Organization: The Living bridges of Cherrapunji, India

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2.2.1.

Bio-technological models for energy infrastructures · Course: Master in Urban Design, UDII, BPro, The Bartlett, UCL, 2012/13 · Project Title: Edible Landscapes – Sidi Bouzid · Students and Image Credits: Shi Min Pong, Ruowei Song, Ting (Wendi) Wen · Tutors: Claudia Pasquero, Marco Poletto (RC 16) · Computation: Immanuel Koh and Iker Mugarra · Lab Leader: Claudia Pasquero

Fig 2.1: Multi-layered model of operational territories. The model materialises a projective terrain for the breeding of a new edible landscape

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The location of the project is Sidi Bouzid, situated in the middle of Tunisia at the intersection of the Mediterranean climatic zone and Saharan desert. It’s the area where the most of Tunisia’s food is grown and one of the main agricultural hubs of the country. Until a few decades ago, it boasted diverse agricultural products, from temperate fruits and vegetables to semi-arid olives and plants.

However, due to recent climatic shifts, agricultural food production has decreased exponentially. More wells are needed to obtain water to grow crops, which is further exacerbating the productive landscape.

Another interesting point about the region is the presence of important technological systems. From government irrigation programs to private algaecultivation initiatives, the actors/agents within the productive landscape of Sidi Bouzid have already adopted various practices and strategies to mitigate the acute water situation and the shifting climatic conditions of the area.

Climate change, the rising price of food and reliance on global imports of wheat have placed great pressures on farmers to produce. That has pushed many of them to adopt intensive farming as proposed by Western corporations. Corporate exploitation of territories and their inhabitants, was partly responsible for the Arab Spring.

The project is an attempt to offer a different opportunity to the landscape and the people who inhabit it.

It adopts bio-inspired algorithmic design methods to draw terrains of negotiation across strategic and tactical forms of intervention. Algorithmic coding enables testing of design intentions across a fluid eco-social terrain, generating a multiplicity of responses and effects across scales and regimes (from the molecular to the territorial) Edible Landscapes deploys lightweight, low-tech farming kits to create a new self-organizing infrastructure that can augment productivity and introduce new food streams. The infrastructure is controlled by a robust, adaptive urban code

Fig 2.3 -2.4: Edible landscape

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2.2.1.

Bio-technological models for energy infrastructures · Course: Master in Urban Design, UDII, BPro, The Bartlett, UCL, 2012/13 · Project Title: Edible Landscapes – Sidi Bouzid · Students and Image Credits: Shi Min Pong, Ruowei Song, Ting (Wendi) Wen · Tutors: Claudia Pasquero, Marco Poletto (RC 16) · Computation: Immanuel Koh and Iker Mugarra · Lab Leader: Claudia Pasquero

Fig 2.1: Multi-layered model of operational territories. The model materialises a projective terrain for the breeding of a new edible landscape

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The Aesthetics of Sustainability

The location of the project is Sidi Bouzid, situated in the middle of Tunisia at the intersection of the Mediterranean climatic zone and Saharan desert. It’s the area where the most of Tunisia’s food is grown and one of the main agricultural hubs of the country. Until a few decades ago, it boasted diverse agricultural products, from temperate fruits and vegetables to semi-arid olives and plants.

However, due to recent climatic shifts, agricultural food production has decreased exponentially. More wells are needed to obtain water to grow crops, which is further exacerbating the productive landscape.

Another interesting point about the region is the presence of important technological systems. From government irrigation programs to private algaecultivation initiatives, the actors/agents within the productive landscape of Sidi Bouzid have already adopted various practices and strategies to mitigate the acute water situation and the shifting climatic conditions of the area.

Climate change, the rising price of food and reliance on global imports of wheat have placed great pressures on farmers to produce. That has pushed many of them to adopt intensive farming as proposed by Western corporations. Corporate exploitation of territories and their inhabitants, was partly responsible for the Arab Spring.

The project is an attempt to offer a different opportunity to the landscape and the people who inhabit it.

It adopts bio-inspired algorithmic design methods to draw terrains of negotiation across strategic and tactical forms of intervention. Algorithmic coding enables testing of design intentions across a fluid eco-social terrain, generating a multiplicity of responses and effects across scales and regimes (from the molecular to the territorial) Edible Landscapes deploys lightweight, low-tech farming kits to create a new self-organizing infrastructure that can augment productivity and introduce new food streams. The infrastructure is controlled by a robust, adaptive urban code

Fig 2.3 -2.4: Edible landscape

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Fig 2.53: Proxy model components and interface

Fig 2.54: Proxy model at work

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Fig 2.55: Project development

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Fig 2.53: Proxy model components and interface

Fig 2.54: Proxy model at work

128

Fig 2.55: Project development

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The emphasis is no longer on spatial interaction, but on the dynamics of development and local movement.

They are agent-based models which focus on how individuals respond to environmental attributes that are encoded in cellular landscapes. And they can be applied in very different spatial scales, such as pedestrian movement, evolution of systems of cities at a regional scale, and urban growth at the city scale.9 Besides the particular operational (fractal + CA) approach, what is really engaging about the research conducted by Batty and CASA is their idea of models and model use. Models should ‘contain what we consider important to how cities function rather than seek the most parsimonious ways of distilling our knowledge into testable propositions that we match against data’ and most of all ‘there needs to be a dialogue between model builders and model users however they might be constituted. Models are being used increasingly to “inform” rather than “predict” as a new relativism sweeps the field.’10 This is a paramount concept that we will investigate at more depth in Chapter 3.

Fig 2.68: Growth from the bottom up: a) deterministic growth based on developing cells if one cell is already developed in their 8 adjacent neighbours b) stochastic growth based on a developing cell if any cell is developed in the adjacent neighbourhood according to a random probability

. Batty M., Model cities, TPR 78 (2) , 2007 . Batty M., Op. Cit. 3 . De Landa M., Op.Cit. 4 . Batty M., Model Cities, A science of Cities, 2007 available on line @ http://www.complexcity.info/files/2011/06/batty-tpr-2007.pdf 5 . Batty M., Building a Science of Cities, UCL Working Papers Series, paper 170, 2011 6-7-8 . Batty M., Op. Cit. 9 . Batty M., Agents, cells, and cities: new representational models for simulating multiscale urban dynamics, Environment and Planning A, volume 37, pgg. 1373-1394, 2005 10 . Batty M., Op. Cit. 1 2

NOTES

2.7.

Borrowing from COMPUTATIONAL SOCIOLOGY & SOCIAL SCIENCES

The emphasis is no longer on spatial interaction, but on the dynamics of development and local movement.

They are agent-based models which focus on how individuals respond to environmental attributes that are encoded in cellular landscapes. And they can be applied in very different spatial scales, such as pedestrian movement, evolution of systems of cities at a regional scale, and urban growth at the city scale.9 Besides the particular operational (fractal + CA) approach, what is really engaging about the research conducted by Batty and CASA is their idea of models and model use. Models should ‘contain what we consider important to how cities function rather than seek the most parsimonious ways of distilling our knowledge into testable propositions that we match against data’ and most of all ‘there needs to be a dialogue between model builders and model users however they might be constituted. Models are being used increasingly to “inform” rather than “predict” as a new relativism sweeps the field.’10 This is a paramount concept that we will investigate at more depth in Chapter 3.

Fig 2.68: Growth from the bottom up: a) deterministic growth based on developing cells if one cell is already developed in their 8 adjacent neighbours b) stochastic growth based on a developing cell if any cell is developed in the adjacent neighbourhood according to a random probability

. Batty M., Model cities, TPR 78 (2) , 2007 . Batty M., Op. Cit. 3 . De Landa M., Op.Cit. 4 . Batty M., Model Cities, A science of Cities, 2007 available on line @ http://www.complexcity.info/files/2011/06/batty-tpr-2007.pdf 5 . Batty M., Building a Science of Cities, UCL Working Papers Series, paper 170, 2011 6-7-8 . Batty M., Op. Cit. 9 . Batty M., Agents, cells, and cities: new representational models for simulating multiscale urban dynamics, Environment and Planning A, volume 37, pgg. 1373-1394, 2005 10 . Batty M., Op. Cit. 1 2

NOTES

2.7.

Borrowing from COMPUTATIONAL SOCIOLOGY & SOCIAL SCIENCES

2.7.2.

Social network models for open-source citizen political participation · Course: IAAC Fab Lab, Barcelona · Project Title: The Smart Citizen project · Team and Image Credits: Alex Posada, Guillem Camprodon, M.A. Heras, Alexandre Dubor, Leonardo Arrata, Aitor Aloa, Angle Muñoz, Xavier Vinaixa, Gabriel Bello-Diaz, Francisco Zabala, Jorren Schauwaert, Alejandro Andreu · Team Leader: Tomas Diez

Fig 2.73: Smart Citizens Interface on the web

152

‘A new ‘mental map’ related with […] a more effective, more unprejudiced and more relational spatial formulation –and a vehiculation– of information (meant in its wider connotation of active vector of interchange).

A new relational and ‘informational’ logic definitely connected with its own understanding of our environment.’7 The definition of a new mental framework Fig 2.74: The Smart Kit that Complexity theory offers our discipline comes from Manuel Gausa in his seminal book ‘Open’. And it perfectly summarises the contents and goals of the Smart Citizen Project.

The project, in fact, objectifies one of the most critical factors in Complexity theory (the one most researched in the field of social networks): the power of ‘relational logic’.

The proposal is a full set of tools in platform that can generate participatory processes among global citizens. It consists of a geolocation engine, free software and hardware for data collection and sharing, and, of course, the Internet.

The goal of the platform is to create collective participation by raising people’s awareness of the real conditions of their ‘habitat’. The platform harvests environmental indicators such as air and noise pollution, humidity, light intensity, etc., shares them instantly in real time on the net, and compares them with other places in the same city or in other countries. It does this by using relational logic. It connects data, people and knowledge and optimises relationships between resources, technology, communities, services and events in the urban environment.

The project’s Smart Kit is a small, slim, colourful, low-power consumption device that can be placed on balconies or windowsills. It is compatible with Arduino and all the design files are open source. More specifically, it is ‘a piece of hardware comprised of a sensor and a data-processing board, a battery and an enclosure. The first board carries sensors that measure air composition (CO and NO2), temperature, humidity, light intensity and sound levels.

Once it’s set up, the device will stream data measured by the sensors over Wi-Fi using the FCC-certified, wireless module on the data-processing board.’8 Fig 2.75: The Smart Citizen Interface as appears on the Amsterdam smart city Project

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2.7.2.

Social network models for open-source citizen political participation · Course: IAAC Fab Lab, Barcelona · Project Title: The Smart Citizen project · Team and Image Credits: Alex Posada, Guillem Camprodon, M.A. Heras, Alexandre Dubor, Leonardo Arrata, Aitor Aloa, Angle Muñoz, Xavier Vinaixa, Gabriel Bello-Diaz, Francisco Zabala, Jorren Schauwaert, Alejandro Andreu · Team Leader: Tomas Diez

Fig 2.73: Smart Citizens Interface on the web

152

‘A new ‘mental map’ related with […] a more effective, more unprejudiced and more relational spatial formulation –and a vehiculation– of information (meant in its wider connotation of active vector of interchange).

A new relational and ‘informational’ logic definitely connected with its own understanding of our environment.’7 The definition of a new mental framework Fig 2.74: The Smart Kit that Complexity theory offers our discipline comes from Manuel Gausa in his seminal book ‘Open’. And it perfectly summarises the contents and goals of the Smart Citizen Project.

The project, in fact, objectifies one of the most critical factors in Complexity theory (the one most researched in the field of social networks): the power of ‘relational logic’.

The proposal is a full set of tools in platform that can generate participatory processes among global citizens. It consists of a geolocation engine, free software and hardware for data collection and sharing, and, of course, the Internet.

The goal of the platform is to create collective participation by raising people’s awareness of the real conditions of their ‘habitat’. The platform harvests environmental indicators such as air and noise pollution, humidity, light intensity, etc., shares them instantly in real time on the net, and compares them with other places in the same city or in other countries. It does this by using relational logic. It connects data, people and knowledge and optimises relationships between resources, technology, communities, services and events in the urban environment.

The project’s Smart Kit is a small, slim, colourful, low-power consumption device that can be placed on balconies or windowsills. It is compatible with Arduino and all the design files are open source. More specifically, it is ‘a piece of hardware comprised of a sensor and a data-processing board, a battery and an enclosure. The first board carries sensors that measure air composition (CO and NO2), temperature, humidity, light intensity and sound levels.

Once it’s set up, the device will stream data measured by the sensors over Wi-Fi using the FCC-certified, wireless module on the data-processing board.’8 Fig 2.75: The Smart Citizen Interface as appears on the Amsterdam smart city Project

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Pubblicato da LISt Lab info@listlab.eu listlab.eu

Produzione GreenTrenDesign Factory Piazza Manifattura, 1 38068 Rovereto (TN) - Italy T: +39 0464 443427 info@greentrendesign.it

Autori Ilaria Di Carlo Direttore Editoriale Pino Scaglione Assistente Editoriale Gioia Marana Produzione Digitale Arianna Scaglione Art Director & Graphic Design Blacklist Creative Studio, Barcelona blacklist-creative.com

ISBN 9788895623412 Stampato e rilegato in Unione Europea, Luglio 2016 Tutti i diritti riservati © dell’edizione LISt Lab © dei testi gli autori © delle immagini gli autori

Promozione e distribuzione in Italia Messaggerie Libri, Spa, Milano, assistenza.ordini@meli.it; amministrazione.vendite@meli.it Promozione e distribuzione internazionale USA ActarD 355 Lexington Avenue, 8th Floor New York, NY 10017, USA T +1 212 966 2207 F +1 212 966 2214 salesnewyork@actar-d.com Rest of the world ACC Book Distribution Ltd Sandy Lane, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 4SD, UK T +44 (0) 1394 389950 F +44 (0) 1394 389999 sales@antique-acc.com Comitato Scientifico delle edizioni List Eve Blau (Harvard GSD), Maurizio Carta (Università di Palermo), Alfredo Ramirez (Architectural Association London) Alberto Clementi (Università di Chieti), Alberto Cecchetto (Università di Venezia), Stefano De Martino (Università di Innsbruck), Corrado Diamantini (Università di Trento), Antonio De Rossi (Università di Torino), Franco Farinelli (Università di Bologna), Carlo Gasparrini (Università di Napoli), Manuel Gausa (Università di Genova), Giovanni Maciocco (Università di Sassari/Alghero), Antonio Paris (Università di Roma), Mosè Ricci (Università di Trento), Roger Riewe (Università di Graz), Pino Scaglione (Università di Trento).

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