Items related to Complexity: Design Strategy and World View

Complexity: Design Strategy and World View - Hardcover

Gleiniger, Andrea; Vrachliotis, Georg

 
9783764386887: Complexity: Design Strategy and World View

Synopsis

Digitalization has transformed the discourse of architecture: that discourse is now defined by a wealth of new terms and concepts that previously either had no meaning, or had different meanings, in the context of architectural theory and design. Its concepts and strategies are increasingly shaped by influences emerging at the intersection with scientific and cultural notions from modern information technology. The new series Context Architecture seeks to take a critical selection of concepts that play a vital role in the current discourse and put them up for discussion.When Vitruvius described the architect as a uomo universale, he gave rise to the architects conception of him- or herself as a generalist who shapes a complex reality. The architectural concept of complexity, however, failed to keep pace with industrial and social reality, becoming instead an increasingly formal and superficial notion that could ultimately be applied to almost anything.Against it, architectural modernism set the watchword of simplification: less is more. In this situation, Robert Venturi reintroduced the notion of complexity into architectural discourse: his goal was not just to restore the complexity of architectonic forms and their history but also to explore the concrete reality of the existing built environment. Today it is complexity studies, with their starting point in physics, that define the current approach to the concept of complexity. They have established a new connection between the natural sciences and information technology and have thus become a central premise of computer-based approaches to design.

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About the Authors

Andrea Gleiniger, Kunst- und Architekturhistorikerin, ZHdK; Georg Vrachliotis, Architekt und Architekturtheoretiker, ETH Zürich.



In cooperation with the Zurich University of the Arts and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich.

From the Back Cover

When the term “complexity” appears in architectural contexts,

it is clear at once that it has more than one definition, more

than one interpretation, more than one architectural conceptualization.

Perhaps more than other cultural disciplines,

architecture is confronted by complexity on the most diverse

levels. Clearly, it is often a question of models of a further level

of complexity, and hence also of conceiving a different world

picture, rather than of precisely categorizing or analyzing

what already exists.What is required are modes of reading

complexity that – despite or precisely because of their disparities

– lead inexorably to questions concerning their respective

systems of reference: which context generates which concept

of complexity?Which concept of complexity generates which

context?

With essays by Clemens Bellut, Johann Feichter,

Andrea Gleiniger, Klaus Mainzer, Denise Scott Brown,

Kostas Terzidis, Robert Venturi, and Georg Vrachliotis

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Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9783038211310: Complexity: Design Strategy and World View

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  3038211311 ISBN 13:  9783038211310
Publisher: Birkhauser Verlag AG, 2008
Softcover