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The Sustainable World
Aims and Objectives
Sustainability is a key concept of 21a century planning in that it broadly
determinesthe ability of the current generationto use resources and live a lifestyle
without compromising the ability of future generations to do the same.
Sustainability affects our environment, economics, security, resources, health,
economics, transport and information decisions strategy. It also encompasses
decision making, from the highest administrativeoffice, to the basic community
level. It is planned that this Book Series will cover many of these aspects
across a range of topical fields for the greater appreciation and understanding
of all those involved in researching or implementing sustainability projects in
their field of work.
Topics
Data Analysis Simulation Systems
Data Mining Methodologies Forecasting
Risk Management Infrastructure and Maintenance
Brownfield Devebpment Mobility and Accessibility
Landscaping and Visual Impact Studies Strategy and Development Studies
Public Health Issues Environment Pollution and Control
Environmental and Urban Monitoring Laad Use
Waste Management Transport, Traffic and Integration
Energy Use and Conservation City, Urban and Industrial Planning
Institutional, Legal and Economic Issues The Community and Urban Living
Education Public Safety and Security
Visual Impact Global Trends
Main Editor
E. Tiemi
University of Siena
Italy
D. Almona J.W. Everett
University of Cadiz Rowan University
Spain USA
M. Andretta R.J. Fuchs
Montecatini United Nations
Italy Chile
A. Bejan F. Gomez
Duke University Universidad Politecnica de Valencia
USA Spain
A. Bogen KG. Goulias
Down to Earth Pennsylvania State University
USA USA
I. Cruzado A.H. Hendrickx
University of Peurto Rico-Mayazuez Free University of Brussels
Puerto Rico Belgium
W. Czyczula I. Hideaki
Krakow University of Technology Nagoya University
Poland Japan
M. Davis S.E. Jorgensen
Temple University The University of Phanneceutical
USA Science
Denmark
K. Dorow
Pacific Northwest National D. Kaliampakos
Laboratory National Technical University of
USA Athens
Greece
C. Dowlen
South Bank University H. Kawashima
UK The University of Tokyo
Japan
D. Emmanouloudis
Technical Educational Institute of B.A. Kazimee
Kavala Washington State University
Greece USA
D. Kirkland M.E Platzer
Nicholas Grimshaw & P~~ Naval Postgraduate School
UIC USA
A Lebgdev V. Popov
Moscow State University Wessex Institute of Technology
Russia UK
D. Lewis AD. Rey
1Mi#is&iPpiState Univmity McGill University
USA Canada
N. Marchetthi H. Sozer
University of Siena Illinois Institute of Technology
Italy USA
J.F. Martin-Duque A. Teodosio
Universidad Complutme Pontificia Univ. Catolica de Minas
Spain Gerais
Brazil
M.B. Neace
Mercer University W. Timmermans
USA Green World Research
The Netherlands
R Olsen
Cmp Dresser & McKee Inc. R van Duin
USA Delft University of Technology
The Netherlands
MS. Pa10
The Finnish Forestry Research G Walters
Instiab University of Exeter
Finland UK
J. Park
Seoul University
Korea
City out of Chaos
Urban Self-organization and Sustainability
Cover: View of Colle Val D'Elsa (detail) by Giotgio Pulselli from the series "All'Ombra
di Arnolfo" 2007 (private collection of E m Tiezzi and Nadia Marchettini).
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Contents
Foreword
Prologue
1 Entropy and time
The city immersed in time
From a space to a time culture
Entropy and the arrow of time
Dissipative structures
2 Space and time
Idrisi
Energy guzzling, dissipative cities
Two speeds of technology and nature
A map of time
3 Order out of chaos
Oscillating reactions
How organization comes out of chaos
From cells to tropical storms
Climate
4 Networks
Suspended cities
The web of life
Return to the Aristotelian city
Regional systems and networks
Time is real and space is relative?
5 Flows and stocks
Lymph
A model of flows from source to sink
Withdrawal of resources
Scheme of a city
6 Good government
The effects of good government
Measuring flows: Odum's emergy
The energy hierarchy
The urban region
Cities and the geography of flows: the case of Siena
Another emergy landscape: the case of Cagliari
7 Mobile geographies
Eye traces
The invisible sphere
Organizational units
Urban landscape ecology
Telecommunications and mobile geographies
Study of a vast area: the case of Pescara and adjacent
Adriatic coast
Study of a metropolitan area: the case of Milan
The art of cartography
8 Indeterminacy
Escher's stairs
The cube
Emergence of novelty
More flexible tools
9 Chaos and design
MAXXI
A new system of measurement for architecture
Conservation and restoration
Green architecture and town planning
Raw earth
Aesthetics of complexity
Epilogue
A prosperous view
Acknowledgments
Index
Foreword
Paolo Portoghesi
Rome, 2008
Pro1ogue
The title of this book, City out of Qzaos, pays homage to Ilya Prigogine.
Order out of chaos is an expression coined by the father of evolutionary
physics, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1977) to express a key
concept of complexity theory. For scholars of chaos, it is an idiom loaded
with meaning distilled in a handful of bits. Indeed, it condenses a vast
scientific theory which has enormous implications for contemporary
thought
O r h out of chaos implies an event, a novelty emerging from a
circumstance, from a combination of facts in a favourable context, from
a choice, a collision or a chance encounter. Atom form a molecule.
Molecules form cells. Organisms form an ecosystem. Persons form a
society. Words express a thought.
Evolutionary physics is the science of emergence of novelty, the
narrative elements of nature, the formation of living structures and their
evolution in a dynamic and variable world. The city, immersed in this
dynamic world, is the subject of our research. To our eyes, the city is
a living organism, a system that breathes, feeds, takes on an identity
and communicates. We believe that certain theories of evolutionary
thermodynamics, environmental physical chemistry, and ecology,
elaborated in order to understand biological and living systems, can be
extended to the study of social and urban systems and can provide new
elements for interpreting their function. The concepts of dissipative
structure, complexity, and self-organization have in our opinion such
pertinence to the complex world and current problems as to change our
City out of chaos
3l%go@e, I., From a Spe to a Time Culture. Foreword in: Tkzzi, E. The End of Time.
WIT Press: Southamptun, 2003.
Entropy a% time 9
The second law is proof of passing time and increadng entropy, like
the sand flowing in an hour-glass, an inexorable cosmic clock that
drives one-way evolution of the universe? Total universal entropy
is greater at any time than it was the instant before. Dissipation due
to irreversible propagation of heat is an evolutionary component
that not only measures the passing of time but also indicates the
irreversible direction of evolution of the universe and of all isolated
systems, towards a flat, uniform state, devoid of differences and
exchanges. This state is defined equilibrium. To have a more intuitive
idea of this relentless process, we can imagine a common thermal
exchange between a hot source and a cold sink, such as a body
immersed in a cooler liquid. We know experimentally that heat flows
spontaneously for as lmg as the body and the liquid are at different
temperatures. Heraclitus said it in his own way, announcing modern
thermodynamics: 'Cold things warm up and hot things cool down.'
The finalstate of themodynanic equilibrium is when temperature is
uniform; in the absence of a thermal gradient, there will be no further
exchange of energy between the body and the liquid. Thus we may
well ask whether the future is given8
The hypothesis that the future is predetermined is belied by the
history of biological evolution that moves in the opposite direction to
thermodynamic equili'brium. Biological systems seem to contradict the
second principle of thernodynamics. They develop in the opposite
direction, towards lower entropy and away from equilibrium, as
witnessed by the appearance of @io)diversity, distinct (eco)systems,
organization, and information. Although the universe has a unique
'style' towards loss of identity and of order, towards indifferentiation
and disorder, clearly the life of living organisms involves creation
of order and information in the form of molecules, organisms,
7 Tiezzi, E., L'Equilibrio. I Dhrsi Aspetti di un Unico Concetto. Cum: Napoli, 1995.
8 Prigogine, I., Is future Given?World Scientific:River Edge, NJ,#XXJ.
ecosystems, societies, and other organized structures. Today, observing
these complex relations between entropy and biological evolution, we
know that in nature! within the limits imposed by the second principle,
there are many opportunities for systems to evolve and that in any case
it is possible to observe that these processes occur in a coherent way,
never in contradiction with thermodynamic laws.
I&o AokP observed and measured changes in entropy in a living
system. He revealed variations in entropy in a man and a woman from
birth to old age. He found that the entropy of an individual varies in
the course of a &time. Entropy decreases during development up to
1618 years of age (Aoki found that women develop earlier and more
intensely). Entropy achieves a minimum and remains constant in the
intermediate phase of life, increasing progressively in old age. Other
stu&eslo in which entropy production was calculated in the different
stages of development of an ecosystem, such as a lake, a marine
environment, or an agricultural or forest system, showed similar
results, with variations occurring in annual cycles.
Ordered complex structures, like a person, an organism, an
ecosystem, or a city (as we shall see), are systems that can achieve and
maintain low levels of entropy in time.This aptitude was described by
Nicolis and Prigoginell by the so-called principle of minimum erzhpy.
Living system tend towards minimum entropy staks, eluding
thermodynamic equiliirium and staying as far as possible from it. The
condition for life, growth, and development of organisms depends on
continuous exchange with the surrounding environment.
l l X 3 k w m ~ 1 1 2 n ~ o f e n ~ .
Prigoghe's work on the h e o n of ardered ~~in pen
dissipative systems led to a two-tern definition of entropy:
'5 Tiezzi, E., Steps Towards an Evolutionary Physics. WIT Press: Southampton, 2007.
16 Capra, F., The Web of Lifi. Anchor: New York, 19%.
Space and time
Prigogjne, I., 7% End of Certainty: Time, Chaos and the New Laws of Nature. Free Press:
New York, 1997.
City out of chaos
6Morin,E., Le vie d e b complessit8. In G. Bocchi & M.Ceruti (a cura di). La s$& della
Cmpkssitd. Feltrinelli: Milano, 1995.
City out of chaos
7 Daly, H.E., Steady State Economics: The Economics of Biopkysical Equilibrium and Moral
Growth. W.H.Freeman: San Francisco, CA, 1977.
8 M y , H.E.,Toward some operational prindples of sustainable development.Ecofogical
Economics, 2, pp. 16,1990.
Space and time 25
9Tie* E., The End of T i m . WIT Press: Soutkampton, 2003; Tiezzi, E., Tempi Ston'ci,
Tempi Biologici (1st e d ) .Garamti: Milano, 1984.
City out of chaos
A map of time.
i'.
In this deformed map of the world, two velocities are evident: the
velocity of the swollen northern hemisphere with the affluent western
world (USA and Europe) and the vast populations of the east (especially
India and China) in contrast to the thin wasted south, particularly most
of Africa.This is the map of time as we see ittoday,justas Idrisisaw
the world deformed according to travelling time in the days of the
Palennitan court of Roger 11. The map of today is a little different from
yesterdafs map. How different it will be tomorrow depends on the
speed of our lives and on the choices we make.
14UNEP, WCMC & WWF., Living Plmet Repwt. World Wildlife Fund Editor, 2006,
Order out of chaos
Oscillating reactions
Observing the beautiful circles that form on the surface of the solution
when the BZ reaction occurs, one of the invisible cities of Calvino
comes to mind, a city in which tiny entities form continuously and
grow inside each other in widening circles.
Olinda is certainly not the only city that grozm in concentric circles, like
free trunks which each year rzdd one more ring. [...I old wah
expand bearing the old quarters with them, enlarged, but maintaining
their proportr'ons on a broader horizon at the edges of the city; they
s u m n d the slightly newer quarters, which also g e m up on the
margins and became thinner to IprakE! room jbr still more mcent ones
pessingjhm inside; and so, on and on, to the heart ofthe city, a totally
new Olinda which, in its reduced dimensions retains thefirhtres and the
floul of lymph of the first Olinda and of all the Olindas that haw
blossomed m from the other; and wihin this krrrermost circle there are
already blossoming - though it is hard to discern them - the next
0lin.h and those that will gww after it.
Order out of chaos 33
1 Nicolis, G.& Prigogine, I., Exploring Complexity. An Introduction. Piper: Munich, 1987.
34 City out of chos
(
Katrina T&i& d w w W Bkw m1- in Il* m,
fxxqwuhg ithe
debertRdvm*.m*tron-ht
b&mm 23 and 30 August suddenly 101weredsea s& WnperaRlres.
T h e N ~ A ~ ~ o ~ , ' H ~ w l n B m ~ l o J r t h e
hegt~af~oclean,so&eweslniscooledots~hrxrricanepasses.'
The energy extracted powers the winds.
Figure 8: Sea surface temper* showing low temperatures left by the passage
of cyclone Katrina from 23 to 30 August 2005. Gray color of the sea
indicates high sea surface temperature. The sequence of images of
the clouds is superimposed on the sea to show cyclone position. After
passage of We cyclone, white patches of sea are visible, indicaiing
local low temperature. Temperatures were dekdd by AMSR-E
instnunents of the Aqua satellite; cloud images were recorded by
GOES12 satellite (link for video:http://svs.pfc~pv/goto?3222).
Or&t 'out of chaos
rigure 3: I ~ d a l on
l me ocean from 23 to 30 August 2005 during passage
of cyclone Katrina. Data based on Tropical Rainfall Measuring
Mission (TRMM) Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis (link for
video: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?3221).
City out of chaos
Climate
Between 1961 and 2003, world sea levels have risen by about
1.8 mm/year. This rate accelerated to 3.1 mm/year in the period
1993-2003. The total rise amounts to 17 cm due to an increase in the
mean temperature of the oceans down to depths of about 3000 m and
is estimated to reach 19-58 cm by 2100.
Meteorological observations have shown long-term trends in
precipitation from 1900 to 2005 in large areas ofthe planet: increasing
rainfd in eastem North and South America and northern and central
Asia, increased drought in the Sahel, Medimanean, southan Africa,
and parts of southern Ash.The frequency of intense rain has generally
increased. The M e d i m m a n is one of the mas most sLw3ep11ble to
such trends.
In 2004, an mprecedented series of cyclones struck Florida and
ten tropical storms devastated Japan (the prwious record was six). This
prompted Kerry Emamel? climatologist at the Massachusetts Institube
of Technolow, to do a retrospective quantification of cyclone force,
combining parameters such as duration and intensity. He found that
since the seventies, the power dissipated by cyclones has more than
doubled in the north Atlantic and increased by up to 75%in the Pacific.
In both cases a clear correspondence with increase in sea surface
temperature was evident, and in general with the overall temperature
of the troposphere. This seems to confirm the hypothesis of an
increasing trend According to Emanuel,' 'Global mod& of climate
show a potential substantial increase in intensity with inaeasing man-
made global warnring, leading to a prediction of progressive increase in
intensity of cyclones with respect to the present.' At the same time,
Kevin TrrnberthP meteorologist at the National Center for Atmospheric
Research ( N W ) , obmmd that the mean increase in sea surface
Emamel, KA, haeasing destructiveness oftropical cyclones over the past 30 years.
Nature, 436"pp. 886-688, M105.
7Emanuel, KA., The dependence of hunicane intensity on climate. N a f u ~32~ 6,
pp.483-485,1987.
'Tredxrth, K, Uncertainty in huiricanes and global warming. Scienoe, 308,
pp. 1753-1754,2005.
City out of chaos
Suspended cities
If you choose to believe me, good. Now I will tell how Octavia, the
spider-web city, is made. [...] This is the fbundation of the city: a net
which serves as passage and support. All the rest, instead of rising up,
is hung below: rope ladders, hammocks,houses made like sacks, clothes
hngers, terraces like gondolas, skins of water, gas jets, spits, baskets
on strings, dumbwaiters, showers, trapezes and rings fbr children's
games, cab& cars, chandeliers, pots with trailing plants.
Suspended over the abyss, the life of Octavia's inhabitants is less
uncertain than in other cities. They know the net will last only so long,
In this invisible city there is everything. There are houses, resources
such as water and gas, communications, mechanized structures, plants,
and games. All is connected and suspended from a web. Perhaps
Ottavia exists and is a unique city that lives hanging from a tough
spider web, or perhaps not. What is certain is that all cities resemble
Wvia in some way: they are all intent on remaining suspended, on
hanging on to the fabric of the web and on weaving new webs. We
believe that the global web that sustains the cities of the world has a
consistency, even though it is invisible like Calvino's cities. We cannot
see it but we know that every day we hang on it. We do not h o w who
wove the web or what it is attached to or how it is made. We do not
know its loading capacity, though we know a limit exists.
City out of chaos
' Capra, F., The Web of Lijk Anchor: New York, 19%.
The single elements do not decide the overall profile on the basis
of a common plan. The behavior of single elements can wen be
individualistic and egoistic, as sustained by NicoW in his law of least
resistance, according to which every constituent strives for its own
welfare and for maximum benefit from minimum expenditure of
energy. The interations between constituents of the system, which are
neither isolated nor free, trigger a process of progressive mutual
adaptation; each individual performs actions and reactions in b e with
actions and reactions of other individuals. This process, generated by
the cooperation and competition of the constituents, each intent on
pursuing its own interests, does not cease until an organization
that guarantees harmonious and non-conflictual interaction between
individuals is achieved with respect to stimulation from outside.
For a more intuitive description of this cooperation between
constituents, Prigogine and Stengers used their famous example of
the termite hill built by a population of thousands of termites.
Although construction is not guided by a director of works, it
culminates in a structure that may have different forms but is
always solid, functional, and coherent. The work of termites is not
so distant from processes observed in a human community. The
example of the interaction of thousands of specimens that build a
termite hill is clearly a simplification that leads to a question: is
there analogy between biological and social systems?
In a lecture organized by the Italian Institute of Bioarchitedue in
the Salone del Cinquecento, Palazzo Vecchio, florence, Fritjof Capra
observed:
Even social life can be considered in terms of networks. However,
in this case the processes are not chemical but processes of
communication. Living networks in human communities are networks
of communication. Like biological networks, social networks are
self-generating, but most of what they produce is not material. Each
ideas that will unfold in the pages of this book. Let us therefore make a
jump from theory to practice and try to find a key for an elaboration of
the concepts of complexity, self-organization, and chaos in regional
disciplines such as urban studies and town planning. What novelties can
we expect from an approach based on thesepresuppositim?
According to Marcello Cini,3 the culture of mechanism has so far
played a major role as interpretative model of cities and their growth in
modern town plammg. 'The world view of this culture sees a mosaic of
more or less complicated interdependent parts, each of which can be
analyzed for its own sake in t e r n of its constituents and the forces that
hold them together, irrespective of context or environment'.
In this extremely reductive picture, cities consist of many easily
identified pieces, for example the ones we see on land-use charts,
divided into homogeneous functional areas with exact borders. We
can therefore reject the analytical reductionist view of Descartes in
favor of the systemic holistic view of Pascal in the field of regional
sciences, as was done for evolutionary sciences.
This involves proposing a distinction that has always been quite
clear in history, between two concepts of land, sustaining one or the
other of two opposites, as noted by Franco Farinelli.4 He first mentions
a definition of city attributed to Aristotle: 'Cities were born to preserve
life; they exist so that men can live well,' then he adds:
Until the end of the 16th anhtry, this concept held sway. l3e treatise
that gaae rise to modem theory of cities, Gimanm Botm's On the
causes ofthe size ofcities (1598)begins: 'City means a grouping ofmen,
brought together in order to live well' [...] But in the 18th century, the
idea of city was transfimd: it no longer meant humans but things:
houses [...I The definition of city became the one we know, the
llluminist &$nition in the Encyclope'die:a ' p u p of houses arranged
along streets and surrounded by a common element, a wall around
districts, streets, public squares and other buildings.' [...I Read this
'Krier, L.,The reconstruction of the European city. Leon Krier: Drawings, &chives
dlArchitedureModem: Brussels, 1980.
Networks
1 FAO, Global Forest Resources Assessment. Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations: Rome,2005.
City out of chaos
2 United Nations, World Urbanization Pmspects: The 2005 M s i o n . United Nations: New
York, 2006.
3 Haub, C.,2007World Population Data Sheet. Population Reference Bureau: Washington
Dc,2007.
Flows and stocks 59
Figure 10: Poster by G. Revel1 and M. Willey (Studio 8) for the RAN project
At this rate (www.ran.org).
4E@F, City Limits: A Resource Flow and Ecological Footprint Analysis of Greater London. Best
Foot Forward Ltck London,2002
City out of chaos
Withdrawal of retmurcee
7 Odum, H.T., Systems Ecology. Wiley: New Yo& 1983; Odua, I-LT.,Ecolo~urland
General Systems. Introduction to Systems Ecology. Colorado University Fress: Niwot, CO,
1994.
8 Odun, H.T., Emergy and biogeochemid cycles. Ecological Physical Chemistry, ed. C .
Rossi and E. Tiezzi, Elsevier:Amsterdam, 1991.
City out of chaos
dN
V= N x k 4 x Q , hence -=-k4 xNxQ,
dt
wme me flow of resources captured by the system is:
V, = N x k , k7
x Q , where -<1
k4
Therefore,
non-renewable resources (QN) that will become depleted (N)? Let the
present time be indicated by the time interval At in which the ability to
capture renewable resources is still extremiely low and non-renewable
rmmees, especially fossil fuels,are still largely used. The diagrams show
the nust probable trend which is difficult to deny. Use of non-renewable
resources continues to increase and sooner or later reaches a maximum
followed by rapid decline. Use of renewable resources increases within
the limits conceded by kchnology and environmentalconditions.
In another diagram (Fig. l4),Odum represented the combined use of
renewable and non-renewable resources. This is an interpretation of an
integrated energy production system based on different sources.Broadly,
let us postulate that stock QR + N indicates a building, a city, or an urban
system that uses different technologies, active and passive, to obtajr~
energy to grow and power itself. For example, in the case of a building,
energy for heating and ventilation comes from renewable m c e s such -
as direct sunli&t throu& windows or roofs and various systems of
-
passive ventilation and from non-renewable sources such as oil,
methane, and electricity (thermoeledric generation).
The efficiency of the system of resource withdrawal and retention
depends on how much of QR is invested in the process. Thus:
dQR+"- p, + vl - 4
-- where ( = k,,x QRia
dt
This scheme has planning value, not only because it is theoretically
possible to choose how much energy and of what type (renewable or
not) to use in an integrated system, but above all because in future this
choice can start a 'virtuous circle' of progressive replacement of non-
renewable by renewable resources.
9The trend of the quantity of resources f and N available has been superimposed on
curves and QN that indicate withdrawal of resources in relation to efficiency in
capturing or exploiting them, although the two vertical axes have different scales (for
example the flow of renewable energy is m y orders of magnitude greater than the
energy that can be captured).In other words, the diagram shows a qualitative trend that
does not match the units of the ordinate.
Figure 14: Diagram of a system exploiting renewable and non-renewable
resources.
Scheme of a city
"Odwa, H.T., EnvImnnent, power and sodety. Wiley New Ywk, 19n;Odum,
H.T.,Enn'mmental Accounting: Emergy and Envirunmantal Deciswn Making. Wiley: New
York, 19%
City out of chaos
In the energy diagram, the large rectangle defines the borders of a vast
r e g i d sy- an 'urban region.' The many relations between internal
and external parts of the system are classified with respect to these
borders. Macrosectors (rounded rectangles and smaller rectangles) are
shown as subsystems with their own speafic processes: agriculture
and forest systems are described as primary transformation processes;
Rows and stocks
'Thales leaned against the balustrade of the ship and watched his
home Ionia and Miletus fade into the distance. The ship was sailing
for Egypt.' Thus began the Egyptian experience of the mathematician
Thales in the story by Denis Guedj? faithful to Plutarch's Septem
Driven by the Etesii that blao during the dog ahjs of summer, the ship
mssed the Mediterranean directly. The coast of Egypt came into view
and the ship sailed into Lake M o t i s , where Thales embarked up the
Nile in a felucca. Ajkr several days of sailing and many stops in the
vatious cities along the river, hefinally beheld the pyramid of Cheops on
its vast plateau. [...] Thales disembarked. The closer he got to the
pyramid, the slower his pace, as the sheer mass of the monument
slowed his advance. Finally he stopped and sat daun,vanquished. A
#l&h of inlterminate age came up to him. [...] This pyramid was built
by the pharaoh C h e s tofirce humans to admit their wretchedness. The
constnrction had to exceed all norms in order to ovenohelm us better:
the more gigantic it was, the smaller we mould appear. [...]The pharaoh
and his architects wanted tof01ce us to admit that there is no common
denominator between us and the pyramid. 1...] Though built by human
h 4 the m u m e n t had eluded human knowledge fir two tkousrmd
years. W W h a the pharaoh had in mind, it was inapossibb to measure
the height of the pyyawziff. It was the most visible building in the
inhabited world and the only epre that m l d not be measured. lk&s
took up the challenge. [...]He mtemp2ated the pyramid@ a long time
and decided that he mded an ally equal to the adversruy. S h l y his
gaze shifledjkm his own body to his s h a h and back, befire shiftng to
2IMdi, EM., htianoni, S., Mar&tthi, N. & Tie& E., % Road to Suskrinllbsh'ty:
GDP and Future Generations.WIT Press: Southampton, XU%.
City out of clzaos
we can do to raduce unsustainability. Since the conctlpt of sustaimbility
is complex and not diredly mewrable, many indicators are needed to
r r s s howfir we b e to go to reach thfs goal.
Wdum, H.T., Energy ecology and economics. Royal Swedish Academy of Science.
Awbio, 2(6), pp. 220-227,1973.
Brown, M.T., Odum, H.T. & Jsrgensen,S.E., Energy hierarchy and transformity in the
univene. Ecological Modelling, 178, pp. 17-28,2004.
8 Tiezzi, E., Bastianoni, S. Br Marchetblni, N., Environmental cmt and steady state: The
problem of the adiabaticity in the emergy value. Ecological Modelling, 90, pp. 3337,1996.
Good government 81
per unit mass. In either case, emergy per unit (generic) is an intensive
quantity, a characteristic of a good that 'represents the position that a
forcing factor occupies in the hierarchical network of the earth's
biospheref in Odum's words?
It is also evident that emergy per unit is the result of a calculation
that not only depends on the initial and final states of a process (as in
the case of a state function such as energy) but is affected above all by
the various phases of the process. For example, different methods
I of generating electricity have different transformities depending on
the technology used (photovoltaic, wind, hydroelectric, thermoelectric
from biomass, natural gas, and other fuels).
Through an emergy per unit (EU) value, all types of input, whether
in mass (g) or energy units (kwh)can be measured operatively in
emergy terms, that is, on a common basis. By definition, the emergy
Emk of an output flow k of a process is:
n
Em, = z ~ nx EUi
,
where Eni is the effective energy content of the ith input and EU, is the
emergy per unit of the ith input. The emergy per unit of inputs is in
turn derived from a previous process. The last process in the chain,
flow s, is direct irradiation of solar energy En, where the emergy per
unitisl.
Em, = En, 3 EU, = 1 PI
Emergy measures all the solar energy that generates a flow. Once the
set of values of emergy per unit of the different flows or products
originating directly from solar energy is known, it is possible to assess
the indirect solar energy of other processes for which the inputs are
known. Emergy per unit of a final product k, obtained by Equation 1,
can also be calculated once all the steps have been computed.
City out of chaos
EU, = ~m,/En,
= (2En,x EU,)/En,
where Enk is the effective energy content of product or flow k.
The combination of extensive quantities (energy or mass) with
emergy per unit, an intensive quantity, is an operation that brings
quantitative and qualitative aspecb together. Besides the quantity of
resource involved in a process, also the quality of the process matters.
This aspect of emergy assessment is in line with a basic premise, a
spec&catim necessary to tackle the problem of measuring sustainability,
namely that INstainability is an 'extensive problem.' On this topic, F.M.
Pulselli and coauthors1a write
In 1865, the economist William Stan@ J m n s observed a sharp increase
in coal consumption aftev Watt's impmuemmts to Newcornen's steam
engine. This phenomenon is knoum as Jerxms's pradox. Many thuught
that more efficient engines zaarld curb coal consumption, but total
consumption increased despite the reduction in coal requirements pu
unit. By making the steam engine more efficient, Watt helped to spread its
use throughout the country. Since the industrial process was more
economical,firms carM increase production without extm cost. Economy
of use led to extensive consumption. In everyday lij2 we often encounter
this paradox: machines are increasingly powerfirl, computers increase
in speed to suppo~our work, but alas, the qumztity of work continues
to grow! [...I In thermodynamics, there are intensl've and extensizte
quantities. Intensive quantities such as tempmature, M t y and pressure
are not a@&d by the size of the system [. ..I. E x h i v e quantities such
as mass, volume and energy depend on the size of the system [...I.
Thermodynamically, sustm'nability is an extensive concept becam it
depends on the total, limited milability of resources and on a finite
system's capacity to a c q t w t e s and contaminants. Imp-t of
intensiene pmametm (eficiency, CO2 per unit pmduct or p em)is not
sufficient to r e h a unsustainability. The improvement in efficiency has to
be accompanied by a parallel decrease in total consumption, with a
consequent decrease in wastes.
Cities consume many resources and draw from different external sources
since there are very few natural resources within urban systems due
to lack of space, especially in cities with high population densities and
hmogeneous urban fabric. Thus if we consider the analogy between
urban systems and biological organisms introduced in Chapter 02, cities
can be thought of as having a metabolism. To understand how they
function it is fundamental to consider the role of natural ecosystems
outside the city limits. Cities cannot be autonomous in any way, if
autonomy means independence and isolation from their surroundings,
except in the sense proposed by Edgar Morin (Chapter 02) of autonomy
based on dependence.
In a definition of Raymond Delavigne?* the city organism has many
of the features of ecosystemsl but on its own and out of its broader
1
context, can only be an incomplete ecosystem. In his words:
i In reality, the town, the agglomeration, or the conurbation is nothing
J
"The results d the SPln Em project were published in a special issue d the Journal of
Enoimmental Aht~agement(86,2008).
City out of chaos
Bagliani, M., Galli, A, Niccolucd, V. & Marchettini, N., Ecological footprint analysis
14
applied to a s u b n a t i d area: the case of the Province of Siem (Italy). Journal of
Endmnmental Management, 86, pp. 354-364,2008.
Good government 87
Figure 18: Map of inteneity of mergy flows in the province of Siena ana ~ t s
36 municipalities.
'6Pulaelli, RM., Rustici, M. & Marchettini, N., An integrated framework for regional
5
studies: Emergy based spatial analysis of the Province of Cagliari. Environmental
Monituring and Assessment, 133, pp. 1-13,2007.
Good gbvernment
The total emergy input of province was 5.72 x 10" sej. Fig. 20
-! shows the same map but with emergy contour lines, a sort of emergy
4
c!
landscape. It indicates three main areas with high intensity emergy
f input containing nodes with very high values. The Eirst extends around
3
5
the Gulf of C a g h where 37%of the emergy used in the province was
concentrated. The city of Cagliari alone (center and inland extension)
received a flow of 1.23 x 1022 sej, about 22% of the total. The high
A emergy area included industrial areas to the east and west that coincide
Y with a sprawling conurbation. The second area, on the west coast,
, absorbed 28% of the emergy of the province. It includes the industrial
'S
City out of chaos
Eye traces
Mnijkstation ofthe powers that configure the city has shifidfiom the
cluItrmrdly visible to the im'sible; that is, the dfy is not rmiewd
2ikmgh c c ~ m p r o m ~gravity,
~, $mif or &l, as mu& as it is
thmugh dempphics and economic perjbmzaw. I.. .] no b g e r is the
d)y visualized or composed as much as it is empirically computed
These are the very plwmmma that introdwe a new key for
inkqmthg city agmbation. By reading form that change in a set of
&tiom that rmefy and Wendy, of cofnm-es that adapt in time,
dtb become unhooked from their &tic configuratim and become Eke
~~ h actin, developing and modiying their i b w t k m and
activating aew processes in a dynamic network.
About thisnew perspective, Bateyq writes:
Dynamics has become sip@carrtlymore important than structures in
pmiding the essential drioers 1...I. The idea that systems can be
eqbined in static kwns nour seems nonsensical [...]. Dynamics of
mrse represents the key to all of this. As archibctsr and planners and
urban theorists, we delight in approaching the city in terms of its
morphology but morphology is rtot enough. It must be unpadced and
the only way to unpack it is t h u g h dpamics.
With Hendricks in mind, attention in urban studies shifts from
the constructed form (like the page format of a newspaper) to its
interactionsMth the living organisms that exploit it (eye traces).
Organizational units
3KooUaas' R, Boeri, S., Kwinter, S.,Tazi, N.& Obrist, H.U., Mutations. Actar, Art en
Reve Centre d'Architecture: Bordeaux, 2000.
"w, M., Less i s ilhore, more is differmt Complexity, morphology, cities, and
emergence.Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design,272). pp. 166-168,2000.
Mobile geographies
8 Jantsch,E., Design for Evolution: Self-Organizati and Planning in the Li$ of Human
Systems. Gearge BrazjUer: New Yo& 1975.
9TurnerI M.G., Landscape ecology:The effectof pattern rm process. Ann. Rev. E d . Sysf,
20, pp. 171-197,1989;Turner,M.,Gardner, G.RH. & CYNa RV., Landscape Ecology in
Tkoy and Pram'm: Pattern and Process. Springer: New York, 2001.
'we snall apply this approach, generally used to study ecosystems
and fauna populations, to the study of urban systems and society. In
practical terms, we observe h a t humans in an urban system need
operational (spatial and temporal) dimensions for proper functioning:
for working, eating, entertaining relationships, having fun, loving.
This was expressed by Farina and Elelgran~~~ for organisms in
ecosysteas:
For every function it perfbrms - like searching fir Jbad, mating,
defknding tewitmy, migrating and roosting - an oqanism repifis an
operational space with wolagieul &ra&'stics to achkve the best
perjimnance.
Even in this simplified version of landscape ecology, the study nethods
are in some ways coherent with IWgDginers theories on complex
systems and self-organization. To understand the organization of a
s~xstemin the perspective of J?rigogine, space should not only be
interpreted geometrically but in the Aristotelian sense, modeled by the
functions that occur within it (Chapter 03).
The notion of landscape implies an overall view including space
and time, as expressed by Prigogine. Zev Navehll defines landscape
from a landscape-ecology point of view as 'a concrete, space-time
defined ordered whole human system.' He adds12
Complex network interactions (between living organisms/people and
their mn-living physical context) m n o t be m m p r h d e d merely by
analysis, but only @ synthesis within the context of the organization
of the whole.
he theme of overall organization or organizational unity, already
mentioned, is always a basic node of this transition.
Mobile phones and wireless systems have spread rapidly since the
1990s. Since then, information is exchanged in a completely different
way and the manner of interacting, moving, and using public and
private urban space has changed. These systems have reformulated
many procedures and facilitated activities that once required offices
and physical connection to the phone network. Increased freedom of
movement without loss of contact and connection has made it
possible to exploit urban space in a more elastic manner.
13Alberti, M., Marzluff, J.M., Shulenberger, E., Bradley, G., Ryan, C. Br Zumbrunnen, C.,
Integrating humam into ecology: Opporhdty and drallenges for studying urban
ecosystems. BioScience, 53(12), pp. 1169-1179,2003.
Mobile geogfaphies
Figure 22: Plan of a radio base (center) and its cells with their different
orientation, power, and distance of signal propagation.
Once the form of the cells and their distribution on the ground had been
recomtmcted, telephone tr&c data was processed for each antenna
which recorded the number of calls made by users. This information
was routinely recorded by telephone operators at intervals of one hour.
Mobile geographies 105
15 Ratti, C., PulseIli, RM., Willitzms, S. & Frenchman, D., Mobile landscapes: using
location data from cell phones for urban analysis. Environment and Plmtning B: Planning
and Design, 33(5), pp. 727-748,2006.
City out of cham
somehow hid the secret of city life. We allowed ourselves this illusion
for a few minutes.
16Pulselli, RM. & Romano, P., Dinmnlche della MiMitd U h . S&& del Sisitnnn
h4etruplifano di Pescma e della Zona Costiera. Cogeatre: Pescara,2008.
City out of chaos
The f a d s were told even more explicitly by projecting the series of maps
in rapid succession, as if they were images of a moving object shot at
regular intervals. These dynamic maps made it possible to observe the
overall corifiguration of the population in the metropolitan system
and reveal their habits. The general organization of the regional system
emerged at a glance as the intensity of the geodemographic profile
varied over the 24 hours of a day.
In the case of Pescara, intensity varied in a regular manner, repeating
every 24 hous during the week with variations on weekends. In the 24-h
sequence of a spring weekday (someframes are shown in Fig. 25),we see
an acceleration of activity in the early morning that shows how the city
starb up. Activity continues increasing to a m a x h m around 10 am,
remahbg relatively constant until 7 or 8 p.m. The re& of the evening
shows a slowing of activity as the city winds down for the night.
. ,
The monitoring results delineated phenomena coherent with the
morphological and urban profile of the region. The patterns expressed
by intensity of activity revealed much frequented areas corresponding
to nodes of the metropolitan system and poles of attraction. In the
overall picture, areas with high intensity coincided with the main
centers and urban areas between towns.These transverse areas largely
mirrored the two valleys of the rivers Pescara and Tavo. A longitudinal
axis with high frequentation also mirrored the 40 km of coast. By
contrast, an absence of any sigruficant activity was observed in inland
mountain areas. Fig. 27 shows a diagram of the geodernographic
configuration of the overall regional system.
About 1,800,000 calls were recorded in the study area, 1,862,401
on a spring weekday and 1,787,661 (4% fewer) on a summer weekday.
The 24h data was also grouped by area to observe the percentage
distribution of activity in the various parts of the study area. Quantitative
analysis confirmed what had been deduced from the maps. In three
seasons of the year, about 70% of activity was concentrated in the coastal
belt with intensity maxima and along the two valleys.
In summer, there was a further increase in intensity in coastal
localities and a reduction in the center of Pescara and along the two
valleys. Indeed, on a spring weekday, 50% of activity of the whole
area was concentrated in a narrow coastal belt. This rose to 65% in
summer. In this strip of land, the number of calls increased from
City wt of c h s
Figure 29: 24-h activity patterns recorded on a spring weekday (top) and a
summer weekday (bottom).
17 A variation of -0.6 indicates that the summer figure is reduced by six-tenths with
respect to the spring figure (where there were 10,000 people there are 4000); similarly, a
variation of 0.9 indicates that the summer figure increased by nine-tenths, ie., almost
double (where there were 10,000 persons there are now 19,000).
"JPdselli, RM., Romano, P., Ratti C., and Tiezzi, E., Computing urban mobile
landscape through monitoring population density based on cell-phone chatting.
international ] m a 1 of Design 6 Nature and Ecodynamics, 3(2), pp. la-134,2008; Pulselli,
RM., Romano, P., Ratti, C., and Tie& E., The ecology of the urban landscape and the
chemistry of the aty. Abitare la Terra, 16, pp. 3045,2006.
114 City out of chaos
Figure 31: Series of maps of radio base activity in the metropolitan area of
Milan: spring weekday from morning to night.
I
Figure 32: Milan, 2 May 2004. Soccer match at the stadium (circle upper left
in the first three images) and celebration of the shield in the center
(drcle in fourth image).
~ i n p i g i ~ . ~ ~ s e q z a e t ~ c e s ~ p r ~ o n a ~ h
rapid wmsdm, cmW0tls xncw- emerged in which day followed
nightand~folbweciday.L l s i n a ~ d o n o . ~ i n ~ ~ , 1 9
ew~c~da~gddynanrici~.Wewauldrsrdbesurp~
toseegoneofh~p~inamwum
hmcase,Wiswhath+.ANavYmkdty~+wias
h m a t * M ~ d ~ A r t h m ~ t i m ~
N e w Y~ T a J k ~ ~ b y ~ ~ e ~ ~ L a b .
co* m y iypm of irlhmlation ~~
cQnnecticmg between
New York d the rest of the plane&&.siafls between dty di&W&
a n d w i & ~ d ~ ~ d c ~ t s , ~ d ~
ommhghfhe~Edjn&cgllrsedaday~hz&r~M.
Om way of ~ e3 l"
e s en.
w
these pbo- was k, process data on
inf~nraationexhaqp via l i b web, considering the &n of bits
trans- In the words of Cmlo &titi,* direcbr of SEMSb1e
City Lab:
Considering the flow of bits at a planetary level is like looking at a
river @om a distance; it is not about tracing individual particles but
about s u q n g the entire stream. The seeming simplicity of [...] data
format conceals some very complex dynamics that exist behueen Nau
York and cities around the world. To reveal these complexities, we
decided to create two difirent types of visualizations. The flrst one
nims to show New York's global connections to the international
network of cities - a kind of 'globalization in real time'. The second
type of visualization zooms inside New York City's jive boroughs and
erplmes hopv gbbal connections wry in difirent nefgkbourhoods a -
kind of 'globalizationfrom the bottom'.
"Magnat& A , Marchettini, N., &tori, S, R@ C,,Roasi, F., Rustici, M., Spalla, 0.&
Tiezzi, E., C h W waves and pattern hnatim in the l I 2 - d i p ~ t o y l - s n ~ y ~ 9
phosphocholine/water lamellar system J. Am. Chem. Soc., 126, pp. 11406-11407,~;
MarchetW, N., Rlsturi, S., Rossi, F. 6r Rustid, M., An experimental model for
mi&cldng &logical systems: The Babv-** reactfcw in lipid membrms.
Inw& Journal of Ecodynanzics~1(1), pp. 55-63,#X)6.
Ratti, C., New Ywk talk exdwqe. New York Tdk Exchange, eds. F.M.Rojas, C. Celdesi
V M , K K & C.Raiti, SAP Press: New York, 2008.
Figure 33: An image of the project Nau York Talk Exchange: connection of
New York with the rest of the world via WEB.
21 Ratti, C., New York talk exchange. N m York Talk Exchange, eds. F.M.
Rojas, C. Celdesi
Vderi, K Kloeckl & C. Ratti, SAP Press: New York, 2008.
City art of chaos
1 This chapter is the work of Riccardo Maria Puklli and Federico Maria Pulselli,
supervised by Esrzo Tiezzi. Parts were taken directly from Chapter VI of Pulseli,F.M.,
Bastiammi, S., Marchettini, N. & Tiezzi, E., % Road to Sustainability - GDP and Future
Generations. WIT Press: Southampton, 2008. In that case, reference to the film 7% Cube
illustrated our reflections on the economic system.
City cmt of chaos
The Cube
The first of the seven guests of the Cube is sliced up into many small
dice. In a flash. In the span of a few frames. Viewers are just allowed a
City out of c k o s
Emergence of novelty
The spectator is absorbed by the plot but feels little sympathy for
the fate of the characters; rather, he tries to find the solution and to
understand why the characters became trapped in the Cube. No
answer is offered but there is much food for thought.
City out of chaos
The external observer asks who built the Cube and why? A
plausible conclusion could be to name the designer, a cynic who
exercises power in an arbitmy way. (Let us ignore Martians!) This
howeva would be a pointless conspiracy, a conha&ction of terms.
Another e x p b t i o n springs from sharper reasoning and fine logic.
When one of the characters comes to the dramatic realization that he
was one of the designers of a section of the Cube, an important due is
revealed. What is the Cube? The Cube is the result of many unrelated
prwsses, small pieces commissioned by an unknown society and
conceived by specialists who do not know each other, the overall
design, or the find result of their work.
Who built the Cube? A possible answer is arerybady and nobody. In
other w d , the process of formation of the Cube could be a m p l a
process that was activated, ran its cause, and concluded auton~m>usly
by a fatal ccrmbination of choices and h c e . The characters would
therefore be the unfortunate victims of an independent system larger
than thsslselw.
The process of c o ~ c t i o nof the Cube that we are discussing
dmulates the evolution of a complex system having uncontrolled
0ut~ome6and m y nat be science fidion. The co~wsrudionof a Cube is
nat an unlikely or improbable event in real life. The honest work of the
eqgimer imgriscrned in the Cube (irony of fate!) with the other charactars
due to his high spedizati~n,does not n e c d y mean that he knows
the final aim of the product, whether it be a children's hospital or a war
machine (or a cubic prison). His work is merely to exercise his sp&
skills to perfechon. Direct communication between the parts of the
process is not required. Certain parts of the process nay have interacted
and become a spontaneous process or system by a series of expedients
and favorablechmmtances.
This is possible, especially when the inmediate task of the parts is to
find out haw to receive an input from the system, make a transformation
and get the system to make an output, at the same time making a profit.
This description is familiar in modern economics. The mechanism,
uneontroIled by any observer with an overan view of the system, is a
possible demiption of the merely utilihrkm cause that gemrates
monsters, such as the Cube. It is not the sleep of reason but the dreams of
reason that create monstem.4
To demonstrate this, we have to use a specific science that sustains
that the system-process exists and can take a recognizable form
different from the identity of any of its parts. This comepnt was clearly
expressed by Pascal, 'The whole is more than the sum of its parts,' taken
up by Ludwig von B e r t d d f y ? Prigogine and others, and forms a basis
of modern chaos and complex system theory (Chapter 03).
Such systems enjoy properties that cannut be predicted from
reductive observation of their components. The whole system must be
observed in order to apprehend its behavior, because every part of
the system depends on the others by direct and indirect connections.
The presence of irreducible systems is coherent with Gadel's theorem,
which states that it is impossible to give a detailed, complete, and
comprehensible description of the world. Most natural system
are izreducible, which places strong restrictions on the intrinsic
reductionism of science. According to GOdells thmrem, the properties
of order and mergence cannot be observed or known from h i d e the
system, only by an external obsmr.6
In a complex systemI inberxtions between pats are aften highly
spdalizxd and may trigger effects on a large scale, even those due
to local phenomena. The more complex and characterized by
interdependence of its parts ( o h highly specialized) a system is, the
more librely it is that effects, which may be due to local phenomena,
are felt on a large scale.
Collective behavior with new properties, that elude the control and
understanding of individuals, may emerge as an effect of interactions
7 Cited in Tie* E. & Cassigoli, R,I Vmti e la Rotta. Dinlogo sulla Terra nel XXZ Secolo.
Polistampa, Harence 2000.
8 Cini, M.,%awe Naturdi e Cultura Ecologica. (Ed) Tiezzi, E., Emlogin e ... Laterza,
Roma-Bari 1995.
Chaos and design
Figure 36: Ertergy +rn diagram of the construction, maintenance, and use
d a building.
of this quantity, the walls, ground floor, foundations, and roof took
20%and the other floors and internal work and finishing 35%.
The percentage of emergy attributed to materials was also calculated
and expressed per cubic meter of building. Every material has a spedfic
emergy (in @/kg), an intrinsic quantity that expresses its 'environmental
werghf (Chapter 06). For example2 1 kg of cement has an emergy of
3.04 x 1012 st$ the same weights of concrebe, aluminum, bricks, and wood
have emergies of 1.81x 1012sej, 213 x 1012 sej, 3.68 x 1012sej, and 2.4 x 1012
sej, respectively. The quantity of materials used for consbzrction is
d e r essential aspect for emergy analysis, since sustainability analysis
is based on extensive quantities (Chapter 06). In the case of modem
builchgs, the most widely used mattxial is concrete. In a cubic meter of
building, there b about 260 kg of concrete, 76 kg of bricks/tiles, 21 kg
of mortar, 11kg of plaster, 10 kg of stone,8 kg of steeland about 10 kg of
other materials. The concrete amounts k, 4.8 x 1014 sej/m3 (about 45%
of the total), bricks/tiles 2.8 x 1014sej/m3 (about 26%),mortar and plaster
1.1x 1 0 4 sej/m3 (about lo%),steel 5.5 x 1013 sej/m3 (5%),stone 6.3 x 1013
sej/m3 (6%),and paint 29 x 1013 sej/m3 (3%).Human work accounts for
2.2 x 1013sej/m3 (about 2%),land use 4.7 x 1012 sej/d (0.5%), and setting
up the building site 3.6 x 1012 sej/m3 (0.4%).
These estimates regarding processes that have to do with houses
and living, and specifreally the various phases and components of
cafzstntction, were not done for their own sake. Emergy assessfnent
shows the relations M e e n human activity and nature, quan-g use
of environmental resoUTCeS, and revealing the weight of the different
phases of the process and the various elements of the systen Emergy
assessment extended to the subsequent phases of maintenance and use of
buildings has also shown that the ernergy equivalent of resources used
per year is 15.3 x 1016 sej and 6.76 x 1016 sej, respectively. In the overall
balance, the a d of living in buildings is sustained by an emergy flow of
3Bastianon&S., Galli, A., Pulse& RM. & Niccolucci, V., Environmental and economic
evaluation of natural capital appropriation through building construction:Practical case
study in the Italian context Ambio, 36(7), pp. 559-565,2007.
City out of chaos
11 Pastoghesi, P.,Editorial- Let's talk about the Earth. Ahitare la Tern, 180,#)(#.
Chaos and design
Raw earth
--
12Pulselli, RM., Forlani, M.C., DiPaolo, E., Marchettini, N. & Tiezd, E., Living on earth
unbaked earth horzges and dtites. Abitare la Terra, 180, pp. 6-13,2007.
City out of chaos
Aesthetics of complexity
Figure 38: The atrium of the Guggenheim museum in New York (1959) and
Bilbao (1997).
Figure 40: Strange attractor of Lorenz and the Virtual Guggenheim Museum
- Asymptote Studio (1999).
Chaos and design 147
Returning to Bilbao: like MAXXI, Gehry's museum, a sort of open
dissipahe organjsm, s eed ?i&GleB Efinteractim with the city and
the rest of the world, theoretical lines traced from different origins,
near and remote. Its titanium skin is like a shell that resists and adapts
under the action of mysterious forces, a c o m ~ t i o nof tensions and
compressim due to variations in pressure, speed, acceleration, and
capacity. The form of the Guggenheim is dictated not so much by statics
as by the laws of fluid dynamics. They am the flows of energy and
information that strike the project site, varying in intensity, brushing
the surfaces, and fonning them These flows, that materhh in Hadid's
project, are present here indirectly, as invisible forces that model the
form, as wind against a sail distends it, creating a convex surface. The
design follows the criteria that govern the dynamics of winds and sea
currents, and that trigge~self-organization in Mnard cells and tropical
storms (Chapter 03).
The forms of Gehry's architecture, and generally that of the
'deconstructiyists' who were so controversial in the 1990s, are
probably a mere exercise of style. They can probably be interpreted as
empty virtuosity or contrived scenography. Paolo Porro@esil4 defines
this architecture as a collection of 'oblique, captivating, ambiguous
m o n m m , architects' renunciation of all mponsibiIity except
towards thenzselves d their o m work, advertisements of a power
that no longer needs symbolic representations lxlt only exaltation of
its M t e d freedom of action.'
It is interesting to rise to the provocation and emmine the
possibility of finding a link between what Portoghesi calls 'singers
of obliquiw and the science of complex self-organizing system. We
do not know what the architects had in mind, but some considerations
are possible.
A first observation regards the way in which the G-
was designed, how the form was composed, the ideation process. The
Is Two are: Lotus 104. El* Milan, 2000; Abitm la Tern, l(1). Ganged: Rome,2OOl.
16 Geluy,F.,quoted m Lotus 104. E k t a Milan, 2000.
' 7 Jmgensen, S.E., Fath, B.D.,Bastianoni, S., Marques, J.C., Muller, F., Nielsen, S.N.,
Patten, B.C., Tiezzi, E. & Ulanowicz, R.E.,A N w Ecology. Systems Perspec*. Elsevier:
Amsterdam, 2007.
18 Tiezzi, E.,17re Essence of Time.WIT Press: Southampton, 2003.
Chaos and design
20Purini, F., Nwita attese da qualche tempo. Lotus 104, pp. 60-67,2000.
n Giovannini, J., Gehry's reign in Spain. Architecture, 86(l2),pp. 64-77,1997.
Chaos and design 151
DNA, ignoring the role of biodiversity and hence part of the epipetic
histroxy of biological evolution.,
We have disntssed c& aspects of the museum in Bilbao,
especially the theory behind the language of Gehry. These aspects make
the Gu&genheim an interesting urban case and a pretext for finding
other signs of complexity and self-organization in urban systems. We
are of course aware how exceptional deconstrudivist architectme is,
and that it only has sense as unique and isolated cases. Application
of these composition techniques is a parenthesis in the history of
construction that certainly does not meet total agreement. Here we will
not discuss architecturalvalidity but only make a comment on aesthetic
value, on the genesis of form, endeavoring to recognize a value that is
more artistic than technical, and somehow inspired by the laws of
chaos. It seems the same art that Paul Klee taught at the Bauhaus in
Weinar, when he was seeking a parallel between the genesis of nature
and that of a work of art.
In any case, we agree with Portoghesi'sz reflections on the
implications of the various disciplines of chaos theory (Lorenz's
'butterfly effect'):
As a symbol of a new way of seeing and thinking, it certainly gave the
death blow to one of the most stubborn myths of the century, that of
the machine model of all physical phenomena and all rational
behaviour, a myth to which even artistic creation was submitted [...I
l*he consequences of the unexpected familiarity that science acquired
with complex and chaotic phenomena can be seen almost everywhere
in the most diverse disciplines and the delay with which they began to
manifist in architecture is a symptom of the isolation produced by the
excessive cult of autonomy that architects continue to practise.
By seeking a theory of form of these architect artistsI we have
endeavored to find support for our systemic view of the complex, self-
organizing city. We thought we glimpsed the hazy outlineI or in some
cases clear signsl of chaos, complexity, dissipative structures, far-from-
City out of chaos
equilibrium systems, albeit in a di&rent light. The fact remaim that the
theory of complex systems is an essential transition for devdopmg a
new sensibility for themes canc-g the city and its evolutionary
nature and for perceiving its aesthetic value. We are convinced that 'to
avoid losing beauty, [...] architecture and town planning should bear in
mind the complexity of relations and evolutionary thne as basic values
of building aesth&ics.'P
A prosperous view
Those who arriue at %kla can see little of the city, beyond the plank
jbces, the sackcloth screens, the scafildings, the metid armatures, the
wooden catwalks hanging from ropes or supported by sawhorses, the
la&rs, the trestles. I ask you, W y is Tkkla's construction taking
such a long time?" inhabitants continue hoisting sacks, Z m ' n g
leaded strings, moving long brushes up and dourn, as they answer:
'So that its destnrction cannat begin'. A d if asked whether they fear
that, once the scafildings are r e m e d , the city may begin to mumble
and fall to pieces, they add hastily, in a whisper, 'Not only the city'.
Thd& is a a@paised between c m W o n and destruction. The
downhill side is the road taken by energy. Altbugh energy! remains
congfant (&st law of therm.odynamics), it fbws into cold sinks from
which it can never reemage (second law of thennod-). This is
an bev;ersible road, a cam+ry diredion, the r m why entropy
inmmeaFwhy Tlwkla aumblas d why we all grow old. This direction
takesall systems tavards thermodynanic equilibrium or chaos.
The upward direction leads to where order pmails over chaos; it is
the road against entropic degradation taken by the kmg systems of our
universe.These systems let energy flow thraugh&em and the work it d w
generates surprising,beautiful, - r
o stnrcaues in a great variety of
fonrrs. Thus photosynthesis captuna energy from the sun and closea the
fir& link of the chain of life; thus all creahues prosper: communities of
organism in natural eamptmm, lnunan civilization and its cities.
City out of chaos
I
ii
organization, fluctuations and feedback are some of the concepts considered by the authors
in their treatment of complex system$ such as dimate, society, economies and cities.
This book is speafically concerned w~thc~tiesThe aim of the authors 1s to promote a
new operatwe approach to the study of urban systems through an integrated, systemic
vlew of their components and relations with the outside Evolutronary science opens new
development prospects for citles in the framework of susta~na~hty.
Readers will find discuss~onson monltonng techniques, environment
susta~nabil~tyindlcatws, ways of representing cities through systems
measurement of flows and stocks, mob~legeographies and dynamlc mapping
The authors, an architect and a physlcal chemlst, draw examples fmm literature,
contemporary art, osullat~?gchemlcal react~ons,architecture, inviable cites, imaginary
characters, snow flakes an'd humc s The book represents a meetmg of science,
technology, arts and philosopP- .- a ie hoped wtll produce something new