The Autopoiesis of Architecture: A New Framework for Architecture, volume 1

✍ Scribed by Patrik S. Schumacher

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 481
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Take a theoretical approach to architecture with The Autopoiesis of Architecture, which presents the topic as a discipline with its own unique logic. Architecture's conception of itself is addressed as well as its development within wider contemporary society.Author Patrik Schumacher offers innovative treatment that enriches architectural theory with a coordinated arsenal of concepts facilitating both detailed analysis and insightful comparisons with other domains, such as art, science and politics. He explores how the various modes of communication comprising architecture depend upon each other, combine, and form a unique subsystem of society that co-evolves with other important autopoietic subsystems like art, science, politics and the economy.The first of two volumes that together present a comprehensive account of architecture's autopoiesis, this book elaborates the theory of architecture?s autopoeisis in 8 parts, 50 sections and 200 chapters. Each of the 50 sections poses a thesis drawing a central message from the insights articulated within the respective section. The 200 chapters are gathering and sorting the accumulated intelligence of the discipline according to the new conceptual framework adopted, in order to catalyze and elaborate the new formulations and insights that are then encapsulated in the theses. However, while the theoretical work in the text of the chapters relies on the rigorous build up of a new theoretical language, the theses are written in ordinary language ? with the theoretical concepts placed in brackets. The full list of the 50 theses affords a convenient summary printed as appendix at the end of the book.The second volume completes the analysis of the discourse and further proposes a new agenda for contemporary architecture in response to the challenges and opportunities that confront architectural design within the context of current societal and technological developments.

✦ Table of Contents

The Autopoiesis of Architecture......Page 1
Contents......Page 7
Preface......Page 13
0.1 Architecture as a System of Communications......Page 19
0.2 A Unified Theory of Architecture......Page 22
0.3 Functional vs Causal Explanations......Page 32
0.4 The Quest for Comprehensiveness......Page 35
0.5 The Premises Imported from Social Systems Theory......Page 37
0.6 Architecture’s Place within Society......Page 43
1.1 The Unity of Architecture......Page 47
1.1.1 Architectural System-formation and Self-regulation......Page 48
1.2 The Evolution of Architecture......Page 50
1.2.1 Architectural Theory as Mechanism of Selection......Page 51
1.3 The Necessity of Theory......Page 53
1.3.1 The Function of Architectural Theory......Page 54
1.3.2 Types of Theories......Page 57
1.3.3 The Necessity to Reflect Architecture’s Societal raison d’être......Page 65
1.3.4 Super-theories......Page 72
1.3.5 The Theory of Architectural Autopoiesis as Domain-specific Super-theory......Page 76
1.3.6 From Deconstruction to the Programme of Critical Theory......Page 80
2 The Historical Emergence of Architecture......Page 89
2.1.1 Inside-descriptions vs Outside-descriptions......Page 90
2.1.2 Function Systems......Page 92
2.1.3 The Historical Crystallization of Architecture......Page 95
2.2.1 Autonomization: The Origin of the Discipline in the Italian Renaissance......Page 99
2.2.2 The Refoundation of the Discipline as Modern Architecture......Page 105
2.2.3 The Exclusive Competency and Universal Scope of Modern Architecture......Page 107
2.2.4 The Liberation from Traditional Formal Constraints......Page 109
2.2.5 The Switch from Edifice to Space......Page 111
2.3 Avant-garde vs Mainstream......Page 113
2.3.1 A Prerequisite for Evolution......Page 115
2.3.2 The Autonomy of the Avant-garde......Page 117
2.3.3 Communications between Avant-garde and Mainstream......Page 120
2.3.4 The Reciprocal Dependency between Avant-garde and Mainstream......Page 125
2.3.5 The Time Structure of the Avant-garde Process: Cumulative vs Revolutionary Periods......Page 128
2.3.6 Concrete Exemplars vs Abstract Principles......Page 133
2.3.7 Revolution and Philosophy......Page 138
2.3.8 Latent Utopias vs the Utopian Ambitions of the Historical Avant-garde......Page 141
2.3.9 Retroactive Manifestos......Page 147
2.4 Architectural Research......Page 150
2.4.1 Architectural Research as Avant-garde Design Research......Page 151
2.4.2 Architecture Schools as Laboratories......Page 156
2.5 The Necessity of Demarcation......Page 162
2.5.1 The Differentiation of Art and Architecture......Page 164
2.5.2 The Differentiation of Science and Architecture......Page 173
2.5.3 The Differentiation of Architecture and Engineering......Page 178
2.5.4 The Rationality of Demarcation......Page 181
2.5.5 The Specificity of Architecture within the Design Disciplines......Page 184
3 Architecture as Autopoietic System – Operations, Structures and Processes......Page 189
3.1.1 Niklas Luhmann’s Theory of Modern Society......Page 195
3.1.2 Third Order Observation......Page 200
3.1.3 Codes and Media......Page 201
3.1.4 The Concept of Social Autopoiesis......Page 202
3.2 The Autonomy of Architecture......Page 206
3.2.1 Openness through Closure......Page 208
3.2.2 Irritations......Page 211
3.2.3 Communication Structures......Page 8
3.3 The Elemental Operation of Architecture......Page 215
3.3.1 Design Decisions......Page 217
3.3.2 Network-dependency of Elemental Operations......Page 218
3.3.3 Design Decisions and External Demands......Page 220
3.4 The Lead-distinction within Architecture and the Design Disciplines......Page 222
3.4.1 The Primacy of Distinctions......Page 223
3.4.2 Form vs Function as the Lead-distinction within the Design Disciplines......Page 225
3.4.3 The Double Reference of the Design Disciplines......Page 227
3.5 The Codification of Architecture......Page 233
3.5.1 Binary Codes......Page 235
3.5.2 Utility and Beauty as the Double Code of Architecture......Page 237
3.5.3 Polycontexturality......Page 242
3.5.4 The Unique Double Code of Architecture as Demarcation Device......Page 244
3.5.5 The Double Code of Architecture and the Triple Code of Avant-garde Architecture......Page 246
3.5.6 Discursive Oscillation: Coping with an Expanding Universe of Possibility......Page 251
3.5.7 Abstraction and Openness......Page 256
3.6.1 The Concept of Style(s)......Page 259
3.6.2 The Rationality of Style(s)......Page 272
3.6.3 Styles as the Necessary Programmes of Architecture......Page 274
3.6.4 Styles Regulate Form and Function......Page 276
3.6.5 Reluctant Styles......Page 279
3.6.6 The Inescapability of the Formal A Priori......Page 281
3.6.7 The Double Contingency of Style Formation......Page 285
3.6.8 Stylistic Awareness as Second Order Observation......Page 289
3.6.9 Progress as Progression of Styles......Page 291
3.7 Styles as Research Programmes......Page 295
3.7.1 The Creativity of Styles/Research Programmes......Page 297
3.7.2 The Tenacity of Styles/Research Programmes......Page 298
3.7.3 The Structure of Styles/Research Programmes: Autonomy, Hard Core, Heuristics......Page 301
3.7.4 The Great Historical Styles: Hard Core and Heuristics......Page 305
3.7.5 Problem Domain and Solution Space as Sources of Stylistic Innovation......Page 308
3.7.6 Paradigmatic Mainline and Speculative Extrapolation......Page 311
3.7.7 Progressive vs Degenerate Styles/Research Programmes......Page 312
3.7.8 Methodological Tolerance......Page 315
3.8 The Rationality of Aesthetic Values......Page 318
3.8.1 The Historical Transformation of Aesthetic Values......Page 320
3.8.2 Aesthetic Values and the Code of Beauty......Page 323
3.8.3 The Mystery of Beauty......Page 324
3.8.4 Formal A Priori, Idiom and Aesthetic Values......Page 326
3.8.5 The Necessity of Aesthetic Revolutions......Page 328
3.8.6 Aesthetic Values: Designers vs Users......Page 331
3.9 The Double-nexus of Architectural Communications: Themes vs Projects......Page 333
3.9.1 The Unity of the Difference between Themes and Projects......Page 334
3.9.2 The Difference between Themes and Projects......Page 335
3.9.3 The Interaction between Themes and Projects......Page 336
4 The Medium of Architecture......Page 341
4.1 Medium and Form......Page 342
4.1.1 Symbolically Generalized Media of Communication......Page 344
4.1.2 The Medium as Revealing and Concealing......Page 348
4.1.3 The Medium as Universe of Possibilities......Page 349
4.1.4 Medium and Manner......Page 351
4.1.5 The Standard Medium of Architecture......Page 353
4.1.6 Recursive Self-reference......Page 356
4.2.1 Diff´erance: The Productive Vagueness of the Medium......Page 360
4.2.2 The Diagram......Page 364
4.2.3 Specious vs Point-like Time: The Time Structure of the Architectural Project......Page 373
5 The Societal Function of Architecture......Page 381
5.1 Architecture as Societal Function System......Page 382
5.1.1 Function vs Service......Page 383
5.1.2 Function Systems and the Functional Exigencies of Society......Page 385
5.1.3 Framing as Societal Function of Architecture......Page 389
5.1.4 The Definition of the Situation as Precondition of Social Interaction......Page 394
5.1.5 Framing Double Contingency......Page 396
5.1.6 Double Contingency Radicalized......Page 401
5.1.7 The relationship between Art and Architecture in terms of their Societal Function......Page 407
5.2 Innovation as Crucial Aspect of Architecture’s Societal Function......Page 409
5.2.1 The Burden and Risk of Permanent Innovation......Page 410
5.2.2 The Innovative Capacity of Architecture’s Operations and Structures......Page 412
5.2.3 Variation, Redundancy and Adaptive Pertinence......Page 414
5.3.1 The Power of Abstraction......Page 416
5.3.2 The history of Architectural Innovations......Page 420
5.3.3 Conceptual Manoeuvres......Page 426
5.4 Key Innovations: Place, Space, Field......Page 429
5.4.1 The Emergence of Architectural Space......Page 431
5.4.2 The Hegemony of Architectural Space......Page 435
5.4.3 The Transcendence of Architectural Space......Page 437
5.4.4 From Space to Field......Page 439
Concluding Remarks......Page 453
Appendix 1: Comparative Matrix of Societal Function Systems......Page 455
Appendix 2: Theses 1–24......Page 459
References......Page 463
Index......Page 471
Picture Credits......Page 481