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A Theory of Architecture Part 2: The AdaptiveDesign Method

Asyou mayhave seen, ArchDaily has been publishing UNIFIED ARCHITECTURAL

THEORY, by the urbanist and controversial theorist Nikos A. Salingaros, in serial form.

However, in order to explaincertain concepts in greater detail, we have decided to pause

this serialization and publish three excerpts from another of Salingaros books: A THEORY

OF ARCHITECTURE. The previous excerptexplained the difference between Pattern

Language and Form Language.The following excerpt will establish how these languages

can combine to form the Adaptive Design Method.

Proposition: An adaptive design method arises out of a complementary pair consisting of a

pattern language and a form language.

I have indicated very briefly what a pattern language and a form language are; we still need

to understand what an adaptive design method refers to. Out of many contemporary

approaches to design, there are very few that result in structures and environments that are

adapted both to physical human use, as well as to human sensibilities. In the past, the

opposite was true. Human use is straightforward to understand: the physical dimensions

and geometry have to accommodate the human body and its movement.

By accommodating human sensibilities, I mean that environments should make human

beings feel at ease; make them feel psychologically comfortable so that persons can carry

out whatever functions they have to unselfconsciously, without being disturbed by the built

environment in any way. This imposes a strong constraint on the design process to adapt to

the many factors (both known and unknown) that will influence the user on many levels,

including emotion. An adaptive design method should accommodate all these criteria, and

this Chapter shows how this may be accomplished.

A major source of confusion is that a design method could adapt to a style, but not to human

use and sense of wellbeing. For example, it might adapt to (conform to) a set of

predetermined geometrical prototypes, such as cubes and rectangular slabs. It takes on that

particular form language. Minimalist modernism has a clearly-defined geometrical goal; i.e.,

its peculiar crystalline form language. It is successful on its own terms while at the sametime ignoring, or not trying to accommodate, human patterns of use and the sensory

Image of Torre David in Venezuela, an unfinished skyscraper thathas become a

(modified/adapted) slum settlement. "The human need to make a building adapt throughorm, surface, and ornament is innate. Everyday people who own and build their own homes

definitely apply a pattern language (albeit unknowingly) because they want their dwellings to

be as comfortable as possible. Here we have an adaptive design method, which, were it not

for the miserable conditions of life represented by the overcrowded slums of the world, is an

excellent example for architecture schools to study". Image Iwan Baan

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response to built form and surface. This is the reason why minimalist modernism is

incompatible with Alexanders Pattern Language. In this Chapter, I will use the term

adaptive to refer strictly to fitting the built environment to human beings, and not to

abstract ideas or geometries.

Since there exist an infinite number of patterns that can contribute to a pattern language,

and an infinite number of form languages, there are of course an infinite number of adaptive

design methods that combine two languages. Each adaptive design method is unique. The

crucial point is that there are also an infinite number of design methods that act against

adaptive design by producing structures which are not suitable to human needs. In the

absence of an accepted term for design that ignores human needs, I will call such actions

non-adaptive design.

Post-industrial design is not fundamentally adaptive. Its form language (or rather, set of

related form languages) produces structures that are often hostile to human sensibilities.

Studies by environmental psychologists have confirmed physiological reactions such as the

onset of anxiety and signals of body stress in such environments. I want to look for systemic

causes of this non-adaptivity. For reasons already discussed in Chapter 6, minimalism

effectively precludes the use of patterns, both visual and Alexandrine patterns. That means

that patterns of human activity cannot be accommodated within its design canon, thus

characterizing it as non-adaptive. To proudly proclaim such a design method as functional

is a mockery of the term, but it is admittedly a remarkably effective propaganda ploy that

helps in its proliferation.

Architectural form languages survive because they often acquire non-architectural meaning,

after which they can ignore the need to be adaptive to human needs. In that case, a form

language is no longer part of an adaptive design method; it becomes split from its

complementary pattern language. Instead of expressing an adaptive tectonic culture, the

form language becomes a set of visual symbols that operate under the guise of moral

principles (and thus become emotionally loaded). Using that form language then becomes

an end in itself, detached from human life. This architecture has little to do with buildings

that accommodate human beings, or with tectonics, but is a statement using a formal visual

vocabulary. Such an architecture has its own purpose, disguised with moral precepts that

together define a completely different world-view for those who accept them.

An adaptive design method requires the union of a pattern language with a form language.

If either the pattern language or the form language is flawed, then the design method will fail

to create adaptive structures. For example, high-rise towers set in vast open spaces satisfy

neither a viable form language nor a pattern language they are iconic design failures that

get repeated because architects make a lot of money building them. One may claim to

employ a pattern language together with a primitive form language to create structures

barely suitable for human habitation and use, such as contemporary buildings that try to use

Alexandrine patterns. Those buildings may partially satisfy some functional patterns, but the

more they stick exclusively to a minimalist or high-tech form language, they more they will

feel dead and alienating, so that their users are uncomfortable.

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Two instances of partial success come to mind. In the mixed example of central Tel Aviv, an

early modernist form language is tied to a traditional European urban pattern language, as

laid out by Sir Patrick Geddes, with successful results. The buildings do not connect so

much on an architectural scale, yet they do connect well on the urban scale to create a

lively environment. Other illustrative examples with mixed success include dwellings built by

alternative counterculture architects soon after the Pattern Language appeared. They

satisfy all the patterns, but they look somewhat chaotic and unbalanced far from

satisfying Alexanders original intent of ordered geometrical coherence. The reason is that

their builders had no form language to draw upon. These buildings were built within a

culture that did not wish to refer to any tradition, and did not have the capacity to create a

new form language (the multicolored psychedelic art of that culture was never applied to

architecture in a way that would help the geometry).

In the opposite instance, one can use antipatterns together with a form language to damage

both built and natural environments. Twentieth-century buildings were built using a distorted

version of the Classical form language that are inhuman either because of scale,

megalomania, or the desire to intimidate. They may look nice from a distance, but are

hostile in actual use. This is a characteristic of Fascist architecture.

Some modernist architects were also very fond of employing parts of a form language of

rich, detailed materials, but to intentionally create alien forms. The surfaces are adaptive in

these cases, but the geometry is not (sending a mixed message of attractive materials in a

hostile setting). Another failed example is found in recent traditional-looking mansions

isolated in American suburbia. They use a form language (that happens to be irrelevant to

the site) but no urban pattern language, so those buildings remain disconnected. They have

a great image, but no functionality on the urban scale. It is only the correct pairing of pattern

language with form language that results in an adaptive design.

The architecture of squatter settlements is an interesting case of genuinely adaptive

application. Those slum dwellers use a form language that is determined by available scrap

materials to build their own houses. Residents are preoccupied with basic survival, and

have no wish to copy elements of a form language that was generated outside their

immediate circumstances. There are simply no resources available to make an architectural

statement, although ornament and surface decoration appear on the most modest

structures because they are felt to be essential. The human need to make a building adapt

through form, surface, and ornament is innate. Everyday people who own and build their

own homes definitely apply a pattern language (albeit unknowingly) because they want their

dwellings to be as comfortable as possible. Here we have an adaptive design method,

which, were it not for the miserable conditions of life represented by the overcrowded slums

of the world, is an excellent example for architecture schools to study.

Nikos Salingaros
http://www.archdaily.com/491122/a-theory-of-architecture-part-2-the-adaptive-design-method/53344a2dc07a808489000177-a-theory-of-architecture-part-2-the-adaptive-design-method-photo


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Cite:

Nikos Salingaros. "A Theory of Architecture Part 2: The Adaptive Design Method" 30 Mar 2014 . ArchDaily.

Accessed 3 Nov 2 015.

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As the above examples make clear, an adaptive design method provides the means of

creation, but not the product. It gives one the framework and tools for creative expression. It

still requires a talented architect or sensitive non-architect to use the language to design a

building. Working with a complete, richly-expressive language makes that task

immeasurably easier. Great architects can use an existing form language in an innovative

manner to create new architectural expressions, or they can invent their own form language.

(A pattern language, however, cannot be invented: it has to be discovered). A primitive form

language severely reduces architectural expression. With a flawed form language, new or

old, even the greatest architect has trouble making something useful and adaptive.

Nikos A. Salingaros, A Theory of Architecture (see this books Wikipedia entry) is now

available in an international edition HEREwith shipping to anywhere in the world. Readers

in the US can choose between the new printing with Index HEREand the original printing,

which is selling at half price HERE. Translation into Chinese HERE, and Persian HERE.
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