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How can designers address the emergent self-organizing nature of complex urban environments? Designing the Complex City highlights how both an excess and a lack of design control might contrast the lively complexity of cities, their adaptive and evolutionary capacity. By using key concepts from systems thinking, complexity sciences, life sciences, cognitive sciences, and social sciences, the book frames a systemic spatial design approach aimed at enhancing the potential of different spatial design disciplines to navigate place-specific emergent transformations without overdetermining their formal outcome. A range of heterogeneous case studies, developing at different scales, show how embracing a design approach that is embodied, open-ended, contextually responsive, incremental and adaptive does not question the relevance of designers’ specific skills in shaping the physical structure of cities; it may rather increase their potential to effectively intervene in complex adaptive cycles of urban decay and self-regeneration. Designing the Complex City provides insights for students, researchers, and academics in architecture, interior design, urban and landscape design, planning theory, and urban studies. It is essential reading for all designers who seek to proactively and meaningfully intervene in spontaneous socio-spatial dynamics.

“Complexity calls for alternative spatial designs, a message Elena Porqueddu conveys with compelling clarity. Highlighting flow, change and adaptability across various levels, she leaves no room for doubt about their implications for designers. Furthermore, she proposes an approach to design that gracefully addresses the challenges of spontaneous urban transformation”

Gert de Roo, Professor in Planning, University of Groningen, Netherlands

“The field of design seems to often undervalue the disruptive implications of complexity. This book tries to fill this gap in an original way by developing a fresh approach that is both theoretically and practically challenging in this regard.”

Stefano Moroni, Professor in Planning, Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy

The beauty of vibrant cities and neighbourhoods emerges and evolves over time beyond the intentions of urban planners and designers. As highlighted by recent studies, it is partly nurtured by the distributed actions and interactions of countless individuals who keep shaping and modifying the environment where they live in relation to their cultural habits and social rituals, their needs and wishes, which are diverse and in a constant state of becoming. This presentation builds on this assumption and explores how, by embracing the evolutionary and choral nature of urban beauty, designers can increase their potential to foster a harmony that is constantly nourished by the variety of multiple contributions.

The workshop is an opportunity to explore—from a multi-scale and transdisciplinary more-than-human perspective—the potential to extend the intense biodiversity of Oslo’s Kuba Park across the Vulkan concrete jungle and the bio-corridor that unfolds from Maridasvannet to Oslo’s Bay, along Akerselva.

The investigation is conducted by combining two different mapping techniques: the Multi-Scale Atlas and gigamapping. Participants from different disciplines are asked to walk through Kuba Park and Vulkan and detect—from their own perspective and field of expertise—the potential for interventions aimed at triggering multiple cross-scale good perturbations (spatial, ecological, social, etc.) in the specific urban ecosystem. This activity leads to the emergence of a new co-designed gigamap aimed at highlighting leverage points for multiple and transdisciplinary design actions that can enhance the continuity and biodiversity of the Akerselva bio-corridor. While, during this workshop, maps are based on data collected through a quick, direct experiential observation, the Atlas could be implemented and updated through further data collection, which would require a longer period of investigation, extending beyond the time of the workshop and across larger scales.

KEYWORDS: gigamapping, holistic diagnosis, socioecological systems, systemic design, codesign, spatial design

The workshop aims to explore – from a multi-scale and transdisciplinary more-than-human perspective – the place-specific potential of the POL-AI, BioDiveln and NetWall prototypes in leveraging the Stuttgart University campus’s urban ecosystem. The investigation will be conducted through the Multi-Scale Atlas (Porqueddu 2018, 2022, 2023) a tool for systemic enquiry which enables designers to (1) explore the cross-scale relationships in which place-specific spatial configurations are immersed, (2) frame them as parts of complex socio-material-environmental systems which evolve in a non-linear manner over time, (3) identify leverage points for design actions. The Atlas combines a multi-layer observation with multi-scale mapping with more-than-human perspective. This makes it possible to explore the relationships between seemingly separated perspectives and to intersect data collected through investigations from different disciplines, thus enhancing their potential synergies in fostering place-specific cycles of urban self-regeneration.

During the workshop, participants from different disciplines will be asked to walk through the campus and annotate – from their own perspective and field of expertise – the points of the urban fabric where POL-AI, BioDiveln and NetWall could better resonate with the context. They will annotate their observations (1) on the campus map (which is a top-view and bidimensional representation), and (2) through pictures which can highlight their sensorial, physical, social and emotional experience of the place and show the details which helped them to identify the most suitable position(s) for the prototypes (details which can neither be detected nor shown by simply referring to the top-view representation of the map). Every participant will then quickly illustrate the selected position(s) and the reasons for the choice.

Prior to gigamapping, the participants will be asked to present their perspectives. Thus, they generate empathy among each other and start searching for synergy. By overlapping the maps, which show each specific perspective on a separate layer, the group will explore the possible synergies between different perspectives and will discuss the multiple “good perturbations” (social, ecological, spatial, etc.) that the prototypes could generate (across scales) when placed at different points on the campus. This activity will lead to the emergence of a new co-designed gigamap aimed at evaluating POL-AI, BioDiveln and NetWall and highlighting the points where next interventions could better resonate with the place-specific (socio-material-environmental) complex urban ecosystem of which they will become an integral part. While this new gigamap is built on quick direct observation (a three hours workshop), the Atlas can be implemented and updated through further data collection, which would require a longer period of investigation extending beyond the time of the workshop and beyond the scale of the university campus.

Lively cities and neighbourhoods have been widely framed as complex adaptive systems which emerge and evolve over time through processes of self-organisation and through adaptive cycles. On the one hand, their overall shape cannot be designed in advance because it emerges from the bottom-up interaction between human and material components. On the other hand, the action of designers can generate “good perturbations” which can enhance the system’s capacity to self-regenerate over time and self-produce the solutions to emergent problems. Such design actions emerge from a multiscale social-spatial analysis that is fundamental in exploring cross-scale effects. In this perspective, a “multi-scale atlas” is presented here as a trans-disciplinary tool for systemic inquiry which enables designers to (1) explore the cross-scale relationships in which specific spatial configurations are immersed, (2) frame them as parts of complex socio-material-environmental systems which include human actions and activity rhythms, and (3) identify leverage points for design actions. A key point is that the atlas enables designers to be simultaneously external observers (from above) and part of the system they seek to influence. Furthermore, it is conceived as an open trans-disciplinary tool that is designed to be constantly implemented through data collected from different fields of expertise and in relation to specific enquiries. In this sense, it could also be of use to experts from disciplines who are not familiar with mapping by enabling them to visualise the spatial implications of specific problems related to their field of expertise and to develop co-disciplinary strategies for sustainable transition.

KEYWORDS: systems thinking, multi-scale mapping, socio-material systems, complex adaptive systems, leverage points, spatial design, trans-disciplinarity.

Systems thinking—encompassing theories of complexity, emergence, self-organization, autopoiesis, adaptation, and complex adaptive systems—has recently informed innovative approaches to planning and design theory. Nonetheless, it has not radically influenced the disciplines related to spatial design—concerning the physical construction and transformation of the built environment—and these disciplines often struggle to address the complexity of the contexts in which they intervene. Although it is possible to identify spatial interventions that succeed in this sense, their designers do not explicitly connect their strategies to systems theories. In this respect, these interventions remain scattered good practices, but a theoretical framework that structures a systemic approach to spatial design disciplines has not yet been fully developed. For this reason, the present paper aims to accomplish three outcomes. One, to highlight the implications of systems thinking for spatial design disciplines. Two, to start framing a systemic approach to spatial design as “systemic spatial design.” Three, to show how this approach would benefit the established disciplines related to the modification and construction of the built environment—architecture, interior, urban, and landscape design—by enhancing their potential to proactively cooperate with site-specific emergent transformations and to virtuously intervene in spontaneous cycles of urban self-regeneration and decline. In this perspective, a multi-scale atlas is presented here as a transdisciplinary tool for place-specific systemic inquiry. This makes it possible to (a) explore cross-scale relationships in which specific spatial configurations are immersed; (b) frame them as parts of complex socio-spatial-environmental systems, (c) identify leverage points; and (d) monitor unpredictable cross-scale effects.

Keywords: spatial design, complex adaptive systems, self-organization, multi-scale mapping, urban regeneration, adaptive cycles

Elena Porqueddu presents a spatial-architectural theory based on complexity theory and complex adaptation. She advances a systemic approach to mixed-discipline spatial design in urban planning, which she calls “systemic spatial design,” and introduces the “multi-scale atlas.” The paper presents a new approach to spatial design—the designer can intervene in the context, but the approach is adaptive and self-organizational, with no claim to control.

– SDA: Systemic Design Association

The physical construction and modification of space in cities are often associated with the disciplines of urban or landscape design, which entail a wide-scale overview and long-term interventions. Nonetheless, complex city theories show how vibrant streets and neighborhoods, to a large extent, organically evolve, adapt, and self-regenerate over time, thanks to a series of incremental temporary and tiny spatial adjustments emerging from the spontaneous initiatives of multiple individuals. These interventions are linked to the knowledge developed in other spatial design disciplines related to micro-scale short-term transformations, such as architecture, interior, and product design. They rarely address, however, problems related to urban adaptive cycles – of streets and neighbourhoods–which unfold beyond the scale of their usual activities. In this respect, the present paper highlights how:

• spatial designers who aim to foster processes of self-regeneration need to observe and understand the multiple rhythms and scales of social-spatial adaptation,
• such systemic understanding enhances the potential for unexpected synergies between different approaches, techniques and scales of intervention that belong to the various spatial design disciplines,
• these synergies could improve the capability of spatial designers to trigger/accelerate processes of self-regeneration in cities.

The specific topic of the spontaneous evolution of public-private interfaces over time is here used to illustrate the argument.

KEYWORDS: adaptive cycles, spatial design, public-private interfaces, urban regeneration, multi-scale thinking, systems thinking

The recent theories of planning and urban design widely recognise how cities are complex entities the overall form of which cannot be predicted in advance, emerging as it does from the bottom-up interaction between human and material components. Despite this awareness, the current practice of planning and urban design often tends to predict and control the future development of pre-defined areas by proposing top-down comprehensive master plans over emergent orders rather than cooperating with place-specific spontaneous dynamics. Although complex urban systems cannot be entirely designed from the top down, they need some direction as they can also spontaneously veer towards cycles of decline. In this regard, the current paper (1) proposes a Multi-Scale Atlas as a tool to detect complex adaptive cycles across different scales and (2) highlights how this multi-scale understanding is crucial to shape the site-specific minimum design interventions which can foster spontaneous incremental processes of self-regeneration or invert emergent cycles of decline.

The recent theory of planning and urban design highlights how healthy vibrant cities and neighborhoods behave as complex systems that are capable of constantly evolving and renewing over time, by endlessly adapting to new emergent needs and unexpected changes. Although adaptivity is increasingly considered an essential quality in these uncertain times, our urban areas are still dotted with post-war modernist settlements which have been widely described as Anti-Adaptive Neighborhoods (AANs) with a low degree of openness to processes of incremental adaptation and continuous adjustment. Since the anti-adaptive nature of these settlements often led to their obsolescence and consequent decline over time, an urgent question for planners and designers is: How can the adaptive capacity of AANs be increased, thereby turning them into structures that can evolve and self-regenerate over time? This question is becoming even more relevant in this historic period, in which the sudden and unexpected changes generated by the COVID 19 pandemic have often exacerbated pre-existing problems linked to anti-adaptivity, thus accelerating cycles of decline in AANs. By illustrating the renovation project for “Cité du Grand Parc” in Bordeaux by the architects Lacaton & Vassal, Druot and Hutin, the present paper highlights how designers can play a crucial role in turning rigid definitive structures into open adaptive systems and how their site-specific practice can offer valuable insights for planners and policy makers.

The recent theory of planning and urban design highlights how healthy vibrant cities behave as complex adaptive systems that are subject to spontaneous cycles of regeneration and decline. Although such systems cannot be designed entirely top-down or controlled, they can be influenced. In this perspective, the present paper investigates the power of spatial design to intervene in site-specific adaptive cycles, in order to foster processes of spontaneous self-regeneration and prevent or invert emergent decline. Such a systemic approach to spatial design endeavours to frame the most appropriate type, position and scale of minimum interventions which can maintain the system between the extremes of uniformity and diversity, stability and dynamism, thus preserving its adaptive capacity. The two case studies presented here show how such an approach succeeds in (1) increasing the system’s ability to keep self-organizing in new better social-spatial configurations (which can neither be predicted, nor predetermined), (2) triggering cross-scale incremental positive effects which extend in time far beyond the scale of the project site, and (3) minimizing social and economic costs, an aspect which is particularly relevant at a time when economic resources are extremely limited.

Keywords: spatial design, complex adaptive systems, urban regeneration, self-organization, multi-scale thinking

“Il quartiere spontaneo” è una struttura tridimensionale che emerge dai desideri dei bambini.
Disegneremo la nostra casa dei sogni su tessere multiformi e sceglieremo come connetterle alle tessere disegnate dagli altri bambini.
Quali spazi emergeranno dall’incontro di tanti desideri diversi?
I nostri desideri cambieranno incontrando quelli degli altri?
Possiamo progettare una struttura imprevedibile?
Possiamo esprimerci pienamente senza imporci sugli altri?
Che nome daremo al nostro “quartiere spontaneo”?

Le città vitali non sono state pensate, disegnate, costruite da un singolo individuo. La loro forma complessiva emerge e si evolve in relazione ai desideri e alle azioni dei singoli individui che le abitano e alle loro interazioni, agli incontri e agli scambi.

Nella costruzione di uno spazio condiviso, qual è il confine fra espressione individuale e bene collettivo? Possiamo esprimere pienamente la nostra unicità senza imporci sugli altri e senza diventare individualisti?

Attraverso la costruzione collettiva di una struttura componibile i bambini imparano come la creatività dei singoli individui sia linfa vitale per la comunità da cui scaturisce.

Da un lato i desideri e le azioni di ognuno contribuiscono all’evoluzione dello spazio complessivo. Dall’altro la creatività e l’unicità del singolo è continuamente alimentata dall’incontro con l’altro, emerge al confine fra lo spazio individuale e quello collettivo.

In una prima fase ogni bambino disegna la sua casa/stanza dei sogni sulle tessere da noi fornite e decide come e dove inserirla nello spazio condiviso. Questa è la fase in cui la creatività individuale nutre la collettività. I desideri individuali incontrano i desideri degli altri e si misurano con ciò che già esiste nel luogo.  I bimbi imparano a esprimere la propria unicità e a metterla al servizio della collettività.

I bimbi faranno esperienza di come la struttura tridimensionale emerga e si trasformi in relazione alla creatività e all’azione di ognuno e osserveranno come la sua forma sia imprevedibile e in continuo divenire.

Nella seconda fase daremo altre due tessere a ogni bambino. Stavolta non partiremo dai loro desideri individuali, ma da ciò che hanno già costruito. Ogni bimbo dovrà prima scegliere dove incastrare le sue due tessere (vicine o in due luoghi diversi) e da lì deciderà cosa disegnare sulla sua tessera.

In questa fase i bimbi imparano che la propria creatività è alimentata dall’incontro con gli altri, dagli scambi e dall’osservazione del mondo.

The recent theories of planning and urban design widely recognize how healthy, vibrant cities behave as complex socio-spatial systems characterized by processes of emergence, self-organization, and adaptation. The emergent, unpredictable nature of self-organizing systems is incompatible with forms of overdetermined top-down design which materialize into overall projects where everything is predefined from the micro- to the macro-scale. Nonetheless, such systems need some form of direction. In fact, they can also spontaneously veer towards their decline. In this perspective, the study presented explores the potential of spatial design to steer emergent transformations in positive directions without trying to formally predetermine their outcome. Here this open approach is exemplified by presenting two design strategies which succeed in triggering spontaneous incremental processes of self-regeneration in their area of influence.

La riconversione di spazi dismessi e abbandonati, il loro continuo adattamento a nuovi usi ed esigenze individuali e collettive è una pratica di per sé sostenibile in quanto reimmette nel ciclo di vita di un luogo alcune sue parti soggette a processi di declino. In questo senso la riconversione può essere paragonata al riciclo, cioè alla trasformazione di un prodotto di scarto in qualcosa di nuovo. L’architettura degli interni e il design sono protagonisti della riconversione in quanto sperimentano tecniche di trasformazione temporanea che consentono una continua reinterpretazione dell’esistente attraverso minimi interventi di demolizione e costruzione. L’uso del colore, della luce artificiale, di strutture effimere e rivestimenti, l’uso di tessuti e arredo spesso sono sufficienti a cambiare il volto di uno spazio e adattarlo a nuove attività.

Il “design circolare” mette in luce però come il cambiamento radicale consista nel progettare i nuovi prodotti pensando sin dall’inizio al loro ciclo di vita, alla loro potenziale trasformazione e riutilizzo nel tempo. Oltre alle sperimentazioni legate alle fonti di energia rinnovabile, sono molteplici i modi in cui l’architettura può interpretare i cicli di vita degli spazi che abitiamo.

Uno consiste nel progettare strutture in evoluzione continua, già concepite per essere facilmente e incessantemente modificate, ampliate, completate dalle azioni e interazioni di chi le abita, in relazione a esigenze, desideri, stili di vita diversificati e mutevoli nel tempo. Un esempio illustre è rappresentato dai famosi tubi di cartone riciclato dell’architetto giapponese Shigeru Ban, che costituiscono un sistema modulare di elementi identici che possono dar vita a forme molteplici a seconda dell’abilità e della creatività di chi li utilizza. I tubi possono essere assemblati anche da mani inesperte, ad esempio per la costruzione di rifugi di emergenza, ma sono stati impiegati dallo stesso Ban nella costruzione di architetture complesse e padiglioni temporanei. Una delle caratteristiche più interessanti dei tubi è che possono essere assemblati e disassemblati per riconfigurare lo stesso spazio o riutilizzati in nuove architetture.

Oltre alla trasformazione continua degli spazi in relazione all’evoluzione degli abitanti, emerge con forza il tema del ciclo di vita dei materiali. Le sperimentazioni contemporanee mirano a trasformare prodotti di scarto organici in nuovi elementi costruttivi dalle alte prestazioni tecnologiche e dall’alta qualità estetica: materiali che provengono dalla natura e che possono tornare ad essa. Vi sono innumerevoli esempi, come il lavoro di ricerca di Tiziana Monterisi e Alessio Colombo che hanno brevettato diversi biomateriali edilizi a base di scarti della produzione del riso. Le loro “case di riso” sono costruite con materiali che provengono dalla terra e sono progettate affinché i loro componenti possano il più possibile biodegradarsi in essa.

L’attuale emergenza ecologica richiede infine a designer e architetti di passare da un approccio lineare ad uno circolare e sistemico in cui i singoli componenti di uno spazio possano essere riutilizzati in molteplici e mutevoli configurazioni d’insieme, da un approccio antropocentrico ad un approccio eco-centrico, in cui gli oggetti antropici possono essere integrati nei cicli di rigenerazione continua degli ecosistemi naturali di cui l’uomo è parte.

The ‘open city’ has recently been theorised as the urban condition that best accommodates diversity, incorporates change, and fosters adaptation. In this respect, the open city can be framed as a complex system, the overall form of which cannot be predicted in advance as it is in a constant state of becoming. Although the open city, as an emergent system, cannot be designed from the top down, it needs some direction as it can also spontaneously veer towards its decline and turn into a closed system. What, then, is the role of (spatial) design in setting the conditions for the emergence of the open city and in preventing its self-destruction? By presenting two case studies, the present paper attempts to frame a design approach that can direct emergent changes without trying to formally predetermine their outcome.

Growing immigration flows are causing new challenges for urban planning and urban design in many cities of the Global North. The need for new places of worship for minority religions is a case in point. The chapter examines this issue using the case of Italian cities, and specifically the city of Rome. Italy is particularly interesting because, unlike other European countries, it has only recently experienced the phenomenon of immigration. Moreover, new immigrants are settling in historic cities, where the urban fabric is deeply imbued with specific cultural and religious traditions (particularly the Catholic religion, which has largely dominated the religious landscape of the country for centuries). Therefore, these new immigrants challenge traditional ways of conceiving and practicing urban design and planning. Drawing from the case study of Italy, the chapter proposes changes in urban design and planning practices to better address the needs of multicultural societies and cities.

The “open city” has recently been theorized as the urban condition which best accommodates difference, incorporates unpredictable changes and fosters adaptation. In this respect, the present paper highlights how the open city behaves as an emergent system whose overall form cannot be predicted in advance nor determined by an a priori intention. Although open urban systems have been increasingly identified as the best fields for flourishing resilience and city diversity, the current practice of planning and urban design focuses mainly on master plans, which tend to behave as closed systems, pretending to predict and overly control the future development of pre-defined bounded areas. By exploring this contradiction, the present paper attempts to frame a design and research approach that can steer emergent changes in positive directions without trying to formally predetermine their final outcome.

Keywords: design, open city, emergence, self-organization, complexity

The recent theories of planning and urban design widely recognize how cities are complex entities whose overall form cannot be predicted in advance, emerging as it does from the bottom-up interaction between human and material components. Despite this awareness, the current practice of planning and urban design often tends to predict and control the future development of pre-defined areas by proposing top-down comprehensive master plans over emergent orders rather than cooperating with place-specific emergent dynamics. In order to foster the development of a design approach which can instead become an integral element of emergent dynamics, the present paper proposes a Multi-Scale Atlas as a tool: (1) to detect and explore the multi-scale nature of emergent urban systems; and (2) to identify the site-specific spatial conditions which can encourage (or discourage) their positive evolution.

Keywords: design, emergence, complexity, diversity, resilience, multi-scale mapping

Urban density has often been considered one of the main conditions for the emergence of urban intensity, here understood as the potential for endless random and unpredictable interactions between heterogeneous individuals and activities. However, within the expanded territory of the contemporary metropolis, the rise of mobility and communication technology has brought about new possibilities for informal interaction and exchange beyond the traditional relationship of proximity. By combining a multi-scale approach with an understanding of everyday rhythms, the present paper explores: (1) how this unprecedented space-time condition enables the emergence of intensity across low density areas; and (2) the spatial conditions involved in this potential. Empirical research undertaken in a low density Italian area, situated 50 km South of Milan, provides material for illustrating the argument.

In a society increasingly characterized by emergent unpredictable needs and behaviors, interior design enables us to explore the potential for existing spaces to adapt to a continuous state of becoming. In this respect, lighting design can be considered an extraordina¬ry ‘building material’, able to instantly modify the space perception without any structural intervention. Artificial light can re-shape colors, underline connections or separations, highlight reflective materials or create a space for multiple activities. This presentation goes through heterogeneous Italian and international case studies, where lighting design is the protagonist of a radical transformation involving emotional as well as functional and technical aspects. The aim is to explore how the creation of luminous micro-landscapes can constantly update our everyday experience of urban space.

Resilience, the ability of complex systems to adapt to changing conditions, is a key frontier in ecological research as well as in innovative design theory and practice, which are increasingly focusing on connectedness and dynamism rather than on perfection and control. This presentation explores heterogeneous Italian and International case studies, showing an emergent attitude among designers to embrace change and adaptation. These can be spaces or objects able to respond to multiple behaviours, needs or situations, architectures and materials cooperating with natural and artificial forces, landscapes open to be endlessly re-shaped by social-environmental processes.  The aim is to explore the potential of an ecological approach to creatively face unpredictable circumstances and to reorganize heterogeneous materials in interconnected dynamic systems, thus fostering radical incremental transformations with the minimum need of economical and energetic resources.