The eighth edition of COAsocial Reads, an online discussion event organized by the Council of Architecture will introduce key themes from the book Unified Architectural Theory: Form, Language, Complexity—a Companion to Christopher Alexander's "The Phenomenon of Life: the Nature of Order" and an accompanying lecture course available online.

Titled Form, Language, Complexity: Unified Architectural Theory, the course – offered free-of-cost – introduces new results that are shaping how buildings are to be conceived from now and in the future. Contemporary topics entering the architecture profession from mathematics and the sciences include biophilia, form languages, fractals, neuroscience, and design patterns. This course is designed to provide students with the theoretical foundation necessary to succeed in future architectural and design practice, it was first taught at the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2012 and 2021.

Summary: 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 both humanity and nature. 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. 

Discussants: Dr. Nikos Salingaros, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Dr. Michael Mehaffy, researcher and educator.

Host: Habeeb Khan, President, Council of Architecture, and Director, PIADS Nagpur and LTIADS, Mumbai.

Further reading:

Dr. Nikos A. Salingaros is a Professor of Mathematics and Architecture at the University of Texas at San Antonio. An internationally recognized Architectural Theorist and Urbanist, he was visiting professor of Architecture at Delft University of Technology, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Querétaro, Mexico, and Università di Roma III. He has directed and advised twenty Masters and Ph.D. theses in architecture and urbanism. Salingaros holds a doctorate in Mathematical Physics from Stony Brook University, New York. He has published eight books and over 150 articles in several languages. He collaborated with the visionary architect Christopher Alexander in editing the four-volume The Nature of Order. Salingaros won the 2019 Stockholm Cultural Award for Architecture and shared the 2018 Clem Labine Traditional Building Award with Michael Mehaffy. 

Michael W. Mehaffy, Ph.D., is a researcher, author, educator, planner, designer and builder, who has held appointments in architecture, planning, and philosophy at seven graduate institutions in six countries. He is on the editorial boards of four international journals of urban planning and design. He has consulted governments, businesses, and NGOs, most recently to UN-Habitat in the development of the New Urban Agenda. He is currently conducting research at the Centre for the Future of Places, KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. He holds a Ph.D. in architecture and urban design from the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands. 

Habeeb Khan is the director of Priyadarshini Institute of Architecture and Design Studies, Nagpur; and Lokmanya Tilak Institute of Architecture and Design Studies, Mumbai. He currently serves as the president of the Council of Architecture, in India.