The New Paradigm The paradigm of the Old Modernity of the recent past represented order and reality based upon the Cartesian and Newtonian concepts of the universe. This is an outdated world view. Yet we are still trying to apply the mechanistic model to our existence today. Since we fail to recognize this discrepancy, our crisis, says Fritjof Capra, is essentially “a crisis of perception.” The new paradigm is a systems view of life which has great consequences for architecture. A system is said to be a set of things which work together as a whole and whose properties in this relationship are greater than the sum of its parts. According to systems theory, we can and should experience the world in its inseparable relatedness of all natural phenomena. This new world view is holistic and ecological. It is the new framework upon which are being rigged our endeavors in the various sciences, theology and the arts; and we must surely include architecture and urban design, whose purpose it is to give to these human endeavors environmental expression.
The Organics of Technology Sir James Jeans has said of the universe, “We seem to be moving towards a non-mechanical reality. In industry they begin to think in terms of an integrated research-development-management and marketing system described in biological terms, as ‘production metabolism.’ In business management, the economist John Galbraith observes that giant corporations are increasingly governed by organic principles. The organic has become an essential part of our new world view, and will certainly take stronger governance in our architecture. In a recent article, Forrest Wilson stated that “electronically controlled components, i.e., moving parts, have changed faster than architectural elements. We must revise our view of building from inanimate to animate artifact.” Now the most significant faculties of all living systems are: “selforganization,” i.e., maintaining its existence through continual interaction with its environment; and “self-regulation,” i.e., maintaining equilibrium through constant adjustment within its own sys-
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