architectural theory syllabus

8/20/2019 Architectural Theory Syllabus

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11/3/15, 7:22 PMNikos A. Salingaros: Architectural Theory

Page 1 of 3http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/archtheory.html

Unified Architectural Theory, a course by

Nikos A. Salingaros.

The book arising out of this course is "Unified Architectural Theory: Form, Language,Complexity", US edition, Sustasis Foundation, 2013 HERE International edition, Vajra

Publications HERE . To facilitate students around the world, chapters are offered free online in English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Urdu HERE. This is a companion to Christopher

Alexander's "The Phenomenon of Life: The Nature of Order, Book 1". My revised and updated lecture notes are included in the book together with all of the class readings (but excluding thechapters from our two texts). It also includes a decription of our two projects and the model for

computing architectural Life and Regionalism. Download the FLYER.

ARCHITECTURE & THOUGHT: ARCHITECTURAL THEORY, ARC 3433/6973, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO, FALL SEMESTER 2012

All the sections listed below in the syllabus are contained in the textbook: links are given wherethose are available online. Original material from this course is covered by Creative CommonsLicense Attribution–ShareAlike, CC BY-SA Nikos A. Salingaros, 2012.

TEXTS:

Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of t he Universe, Book 1 -- The Phenomenon of Life [Hardcover] (Center for Environmental

Structure, 2001). ISBN-10: 0972652914.

Nikos A. Salingaros, A Theory of Architecture [Paperback] (Umbau-Verlag, 2007). ISBN-10:3937954074. New printing with Index, 2014 HERE and HERE. Also available in Chinese and inPersian.

By the end of the semester, students will be expected to have read and absorbed all of Alexander's book, and Chapters 1 to 7 & 11 of my book (those are directly relevant to The

Nature of Order).

All other readings are either available freely on the Web, or are provided to the students in pdf

form. I plan to put up my lecture notes online.

SYLLABUS: We covered approximately one section per week.

INTRODUCTION.

LECTURE NOTES WEEK 1.

1. The structure of a scientific theory. Requirements for a mode of thought to be a theory forarchitecture. Discourses and modes of thought that are not theories.

Readings: Alexander, Prologue & Chapter 1. Salingaros, "Architectural Theory" extracts from AAAD (also in Chinese, French, Italian, and Russian). E. O. Wilson, " Integrated Science and theComing Century of the Environment ", Science, Volume 279, No. 5359 (March 27 1998), pages2048-2049.


2. Form Languages. Vocabulary of forms and tectonics, and their combinatorial properties.Richness of a form language, and measures of its complexity.

Readings: Alexander, Chapter 2. Alexander, sampler from " A Pattern Language". Salingaros,Chapter 11.

http://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/aplsample/aplsample.htmhttp://www.sciencemag.org/content/279/5359/2048.fullhttp://www.archdaily.com/429404/unified-architectural-theory-chapter-1/http://www.adinebook.com/gp/product/6009018246/ref=sr_2_1000_1/164-7411557-1412297https://store.collectivecopies.com/store/show/601http://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Order-Phenomenon-Environmental/dp/0972652914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345555232&sr=8-1&keywords=alexander+nature+of+orderhttp://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Order-Phenomenon-Environmental/dp/0972652914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345555232&sr=8-1&keywords=alexander+nature+of+orderhttp://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Order-Phenomenon-Environmental/dp/0972652914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345555232&sr=8-1&keywords=alexander+nature+of+orderhttp://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Order-Phenomenon-Environmental/dp/0972652914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345555232&sr=8-1&keywords=alexander+nature+of+orderhttp://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Order-Phenomenon-Environmental/dp/0972652914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345555232&sr=8-1&keywords=alexander+nature+of+orderhttp://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Order-Phenomenon-Environmental/dp/0972652914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345555232&sr=8-1&keywords=alexander+nature+of+orderhttp://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Order-Phenomenon-Environmental/dp/0972652914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345555232&sr=8-1&keywords=alexander+nature+of+orderhttp://www.patternlanguage.com/apl/aplsample/aplsample.htmhttp://www.sciencemag.org/content/279/5359/2048.fullhttp://www.archdaily.com/429404/unified-architectural-theory-chapter-1/http://www.adinebook.com/gp/product/6009018246/ref=sr_2_1000_1/164-7411557-1412297http://www.amazon.cn/%e5%bb%ba%e7%ad%91%e8%ae%ba%e8%af%ad-%e5%b0%bc%e7%a7%91%e6%96%af%c2%b7A%c2%b7-%e8%90%a8%e6%9e%97%e5%8a%a0%e7%bd%97%e6%96%af/dp/B003306IKU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381174780&sr=8-1&keywords=%E5%BB%BA%E7%AD%91%E8%AE%BA%E8%AF%ADhttp://www.vajrabookshop.com/more_info.php?category_cd=39&product_cd=1743&MODE=CARThttps://store.collectivecopies.com/store/show/601http://www.amazon.com/Theory-Architecture-Nikos-A-Salingaros/dp/3937954074/ref=la_B006RH9SIK_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1345555259&sr=1-3http://www.amazon.com/The-Nature-Order-Phenomenon-Environmental/dp/0972652914/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345555232&sr=8-1&keywords=alexander+nature+of+orderhttp://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/UAT-description.pdfhttp://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/UAT-online.htmlhttp://www.vajrabookshop.com/more_info.php?category_cd=39&product_cd=1730&MODE=CARThttps://store.collectivecopies.com/store/show/ofc1


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3. Different examples of Form Languages. Classical, historical, regional, etc. Industrial-era formlanguages. Form languages of famous architects. Three Laws of Structural Order.

Readings: Salingaros, Chapter 1 (also in Spanish

). Salingaros, "Kolmogorov-ChaitinComplexity". Salingaros & Masden, "Against Ecophobia".

Begin first project: Each student will choose and document one particular formlanguage, will then design an example using that form language, and will present it

in class. Please download the "Form Language Checklist" as a guide. We will drawlots to give the order of choice for each student, so that each student covers adifferent form language.


4. Comparison among different form languages. Degree of complexity as a measure of theiradaptivity. Regionalism as adaptation to locality. Regional versus global: a practical dimension

for classifying form languages. Philosophical justifications for form languages.

Readings: Alexander, Chapter 7. Leon Krier, " Building Civil Cities". Salingaros & Masden,

"Politics, Philosophy, Critical Theory".

Continue first project: Students will present their form language and their buildingdesigned using it, in class. Compute the Kolmogorov-Chaitin complexity of your

form language by using the word count of your completed checklist. Also estimatethe regional adaptation on a scale of 0 to 10 (higher for better adaptation). Theclass will then plot these values together in a scatter plot to look for any correlation.


5. Adaptivity of a form language to human life. Human physiology and psychology. A direct anduseful test: Alexander's 'Mirror of the Self'. Evidence-based design.

Readings: Alexander, Chapters 8 & 9. Mehaffy & Salingaros, " Evidence-Based Design".


6. Biophilia: our evolved kinship to the structure of biological forms. The nourishment humanbeings experience from natural forms. Hospital design and healing environments.

Readings: Alexander, Chapter 10. Mehaffy & Salingaros, " Biophilia". Salingaros & Masden,extract from pages 61-70 of "Neuroscience, the Natural Environment, and Building Design",

which is Chapter 5 of: Biophilic Design: the Theory, Science and Practice of Bringing Buildingsto Life, edited by Stephen R. Kellert, Judith Heerwagen, and Martin Mador (John Wiley, NewYork, 2008), pages 59-83.


7. Geometrical basis for natural forms. Alexander's 15 Fundamental Properties, and how theylead to the phenomenon of life.

Readings: Alexander, Chapter 5.


8. Scientific background for the Fifteen Fundamental Properties. Fractals and hierarchicalscaling. The logarithmic constant as average scaling ratio.

Readings: Alexander, Chapter 6. Salingaros, Chapters 2 & 3.


9. Organized complexity. A model to estimate life in architecture. Computation of architectural

http://www.metropolismag.com/Point-of-View/November-2011/Frontiers-of-Design-Science-Biophilia/http://www.metropolismag.com/Point-of-View/November-2011/Frontiers-of-Design-Science-Evidence-based-Design/http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/KRIER/Leon-civilcities.htmlhttp://meandering-through-mathematics.blogspot.com/2012/09/measuring-complexity.htmlhttp://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/Laws-spanish.html


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temperature and architectural harmony. Experiments that correlate the theoretical predictionswith perceived degree of life in buildings.

Readings: Alexander, Appendix 6. Salingaros, Chapter 5.


10. Adaptive recursion as a means of achieving geometrical coherence. The field of centers andwholeness. Complex adaptive systems as transformations.

Readings: Alexander, Chapters 3 & 4 and Appendix 3. Mehaffy & Salingaros, "Science for Designers: The Transformation of Wholes".

Begin second project: "Quantitative Measures for Regionalism and Complexity".The class will undertake a classification of different form languages according to

their natural/unnatural and regional/global characteristics. Please download the"Project-Classification" description.


11. Recursion and fractals. Different scales in a design, and how they are connected to eachother. How fractals reduce stress.

Readings: Mehaffy & Salingaros, "Scaling and Fractals". Salingaros, Chapters 6 & 7. R. P.Taylor, " Reduction of Physiological Stress Using Fractal Art and Architecture", Leonardo,Volume 39, No. 3 (June 2006), pages 245-251.

Continue second project: Students will evaluate their form language for general use,and present their analysis in class. Compute the architectural temperature T and

architectural harmony H , to obtain another ordered pair of values (T, H) for each form language. We will plot these points in one graph for the entire class, and look for correlations.


12. Theory of Ornament. Ornament and human intelligence. A model of stress in minimalistenvironments based on the analogy with human pathologies.

Readings: Alexander, Chapter 11. Mehaffy and Salingaros, " Intelligence and the Information Environment ". Salingaros, Chapter 4.


13. Architecture itself as a biological system. Organizational lessons from biology and roboticswe can apply to design.

Readings: Mehaffy & Salingaros, "Complex Adaptive Systems". Salingaros & Masden," Architecture: Biological Form and Artificial Intelligence".


14. Classification of Form Languages: natural languages and unnatural languages. Differentconceptions of what architecture is, and what direction it should evolve towards.

Readings: Alexander, Conclusion. The 1982 Alexander-Eisenman Debate. Alexander, "SomeSober Reflections on the Nature of Architecture in Our Time", Katarxis No. 3, September 2004.

END OF COURSE.

HOME PAGE
http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/http://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_%20Sober_Relections.htmhttp://www.katarxis3.com/Alexander_Eisenman_Debate.htmhttp://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/arch-biologicalform.htmlhttp://www.metropolismag.com/Point-of-View/August-2012/Science-for-Designers-Complex-Adaptive-Systems/http://www.metropolismag.com/Point-of-View/February-2012/Science-for-Designers-Intelligence-and-the-Information-Environment/http://materialscience.uoregon.edu/taylor/human_response/Response(leonardo).pdfhttp://www.metropolismag.com/Point-of-View/May-2012/Science-for-Designers-Scaling-and-Fractals/http://www.metropolismag.com/Point-of-View/April-2012/Science-for-Designers-The-Transformation-of-Wholes/

architectural theory syllabus

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