Reversible: Test design decisions using models; “trial and error”; if it doesn’t work, un-do it.

Another deep problem here, revealing the inadequacy of present-day design training: how does a practitioner judge whether a design “works” or not before it’s built? The only means of doing so is to use criteria of coherence and mutual adaptivity (or “co-adaptivity”), not abstract or formal (static) design. Otherwise, an architect has no means of judging if an individual design step has indeed led closer to an adaptive solution. As far as actually undoing a step because it leads away from wholeness, however, that is anathema to current image-based design thinking!

  • Salingaros, Nikos A., and Michael W. Mehaffy. "Ch 20. Alexander’s  Wholeness‐Generating  Technology" In Design for a Living Planet: Settlement, Science, & the Human Future. Design for a Living Planet: Settlement, Science, & the Human Future. Levellers/Sustasis Press and Vajra Publications, 2015. Digital Library

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