We are on the threshold of a new way of thinking about, learning, and practicing architecture. Ready to abandon design based on often-irrelevant images for a more meaningful paradigm, we find answers in combining timeless truths with recent scientific results. These explain how architecture can re-attach itself to nature.
Unified Architectural Theory re-invents architecture by uncovering its forgotten languages. Organized in 44 sections, this book contains lecture notes and readings from a course based on Christopher Alexander’s The Nature of Order, Book 1, and using Salingaros’ A Theory of Architecture.
It chronicles research results that can change our built environment for the better. Unified Architectural Theory is an innovative approach to the basis of architecture, permitting individual students and architects to assert their creativity in pursuing adaptive and sustainable design.
Ch # Online |
Ch # in Book |
Week |
Page |
Translations |
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Introduction |
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1 |
PREFACE |
11 |
ES | PT | ZH | |||
8. A |
2 |
A Biological Understanding of Architecture (Extract from an essay in Katarxis No. 3, September 2004.) |
15 |
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Part One: The Course Lectures and Readings |
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3 |
Introduction to the Course |
18 |
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1. |
4 |
1st |
The Structure of Architectural Theories |
21 |
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2. A+B |
5 |
Architectural Theory, Parts 1, 2 (Extracts from Anti-‐Architecture and Deconstruction (Umbau-‐Verlag, Solingen, 2008)1 |
26 |
ES | PT | ZH | ||
6 |
Integrated Science and The Coming Century of The Environment (Edward O. Wilson, Science, Volume 279, No. 5359 (27 March 1998), pages 2048-‐2049) |
34 |
citation |
ES |
PT | ZH | ||
3. |
7 |
2nd |
Form Languages and Their Vocabulary |
40 |
ES | PT | ||
4. |
8, 37-39 |
3rd |
Complexity of Form Languages, With Checklist |
45 |
ES | PT | ||
9 |
Kolmogorov-Chaitin Complexity (Meandering Through Mathematics, 23 September 2012) |
51 |
citation |
|||||
5. |
10 |
Against Ecophobia and Towards a Human Habitat (Nikos A. Salingaros & Kenneth G. Masden, Philadelphia Society, 8 October 2011.) |
56 |
ES | ||||
6. |
11 |
4th |
Degree of Complexity Measures a Form Language's Adaptivity |
63 |
||||
12 |
Building Civil Cities (Léon Krier, Traditional Building, 2005) |
68 |
citation |
|||||
7. |
13 |
Politics, Philosophy, and Critical Regionalism (Nikos A. Salingaros & Kenneth G. Masden, Philadelphia Society, 8 October 2011) |
75 |
|||||
9. A+B |
14 |
5th |
Human Physiology and Evidence-Based Design, Parts 1, 22 |
81 |
||||
15 |
Evidence-Based Design (Michael W. Mehaffy & Nikos A. Salingaros, Metropolis, 14 November 2011) |
86 |
citation |
|||||
10. |
16 |
6th |
Biophilia: Our Evolved Kinship to Biological Forms |
93 |
||||
17 |
Biophelia (Michael W. Mehaffy & Nikos A. Salingaros, Metropolis, 29 November 2011) |
99 |
citation |
|||||
18 |
Extract from “Neuroscience, the Natural Environment, and Building Design” (Nikos A. Salingaros & Kenneth G. Masden, Chapter 5 of Biophilic Design: the Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life, edited by Stephen R. Kellert, Judith Heerwagen, and Martin Mador (John Wiley, New York, 2008)) |
106 |
||||||
11. |
19 |
7th |
Christopher Alexander's 15 Fundamental Properties |
125 |
||||
20 |
8th |
Fractals and hierarchical scaling |
131 |
|||||
21 |
9th |
Organized complexity and a model that estimates life in architecture |
136 |
|||||
22 |
10th |
Wholeness and geometrical coherence |
142 |
|||||
23 |
The Transformation of Wholes (Michael W. Mehaffy & Nikos A. Salingaros, Metropolis, 13 April 2012) |
147 |
citation |
|||||
24 |
11th |
Recursion and stress reduction through fractals |
156 |
|||||
25 |
Scaling and Fractals (Michael W. Mehaffy & Nikos A. Salingaros, Metropolis, 28 May 2012) |
161 |
citation |
|||||
26 |
Fractal Art and Architecture Reduce Physiological Stress (JBU—Journal of Biourbanism, No. 3, March 2013) |
170 |
citation |
|||||
12. |
27 |
12th |
Ornament And Human Intelligence |
191 |
||||
28 |
Intelligence and the Information Environment (Michael W. Mehaffy & Nikos A. Salingaros, Metropolis, 25 February 2012) |
196 |
citation |
|||||
29 |
13th |
Architecture itself as a biological system |
203 |
|||||
30 |
Complex Adaptive Systems (Michael W. Mehaffy & Nikos A. Salingaros, Metropolis, 6 August 2012) |
208 |
citation |
|||||
31 |
Architecture: Biological Form and Artificial Intelligence (Nikos A. Salingaros & Kenneth G. Masden, The Structurist, No. 45/46 (2006), pages 54-61) |
217 |
||||||
13. |
32 |
14th |
Natural And Unnatural Form Languages |
231 |
||||
33 |
The 1982 Alexander-Eisenman Debate (Christopher Alexander & Peter Eisenman, Katarxis No. 3, September 2004) |
236 |
citation |
|||||
34 |
Some Sober Reflections on the Nature of Architecture in Our Time (Christopher Alexander, Katarxis No. 3, September 2004) |
250 |
citation |
|||||
35 |
CONCLUSION |
261 |
||||||
Part Two: Course Organization and Projects |
||||||||
36 |
Discovering Theory from Measurements |
264 |
||||||
37 |
First Class Project: Documenting a form language and estimating its complexity. The Kolmogorov- Chaitin complexity of each form language correlates to an estimate of its regional adaptation |
267 |
||||||
38 |
Form Language Checklist |
269 |
||||||
39 |
Architectural Regionalism Correlates with Design Complexity: Architectural Regionalism Correlates with Design Complexity |
271 |
||||||
40 |
Second Class Project: Evaluation and classification of form languages according to their geographical and human adaptations |
274 |
||||||
41 |
Quantitative Measures for Regionalism and Complexity: Numerical estimates according to their regional/global and natural/unnatural characteristics provide a more sophisticated model that correlates regionalism with design complexity |
276 |
||||||
42 |
Notes for students on the framework of this course |
281 |
||||||
43 |
COURSE SYLLABUS |
284 |
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44 |
POSTSCRIPT |
288 |
||||||
INDEX |
291 |