EMBRACING CITIES COMPLEXITY

CITIES ARECOMPLEX

AGENT BASED HETEROGENEOUS DYNAMIC

FEEDBACK ORGANIZATION EMERGENCE

CITIES AREORGANIC

Living systems are open self-organizing life forms that interact with their environment.

These systems are maintained by flows of information, energy and matter.

EDGAR MORIN MARGARET MEAD FRANCISCO VARELA

5 STEPS FOR A CITY ANALYSIS

STEP 1SYSTEMIC ANALYSIS

BIOSPHERE

Ecosystems

Communyties

Species

OrganismOrgan systems

Organs

Tissus

Cells

Organells

Molecules

Atomes

BIOMESNESTED

COLLABORATIVE PROCESSES TO « CREATE A MEMBRANE »

MUMBAI

SHANGHAI

STEP 1 - SYSTEMIC APPROACH YOUR CITY :

EMBR

ACIN

G CI

TIES

COM

PLEX

ITY

STEP 2PATTERN, SINGULARITY

& PURPOSE

PATTERNS

SINGULARITY

SINGULARITY

PURPOSE : REVEAL WHAT IS ALIVE !

DAR ES SALAAM

STEP 2 - PATTERN, SINGULARITY & PURPOSEYOUR CITY :

ELEMENTS PATTERN SINGULARITY PURPOSE

EMBR

ACIN

G CI

TIES

COM

PLEX

ITY

STEP 3LIFE CYCLE

Pioneer Phase

(initiation)

Intermediatephase

Intermediatephase

Climax (maturity)

Crisis

BUILDING RESILIENCE OF THE TRANSFORMED SYSTEM

PREPARING FOR CHANGE

CREATING A WINDOW OF

OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE FRONT L

OOP

INCREMENTAL

BACK LOOPRADICAL

HOLLING ET AL 2004

DETROIT

STEP 3 - LIFE CYCLE PHASE YOUR CITY :

ELEMENTS PHASE

EMBR

ACIN

G CI

TIES

COM

PLEX

ITY

BUILDING RESILIENCE OF THE TRANSFORMED SYSTEM PREPARING FOR CHANGE

CREATING A WINDOW OF

OPPORTUNITY FOR CHANGE

FRONT LOOP

INCREMENTAL

BACK LOOPRADICAL

STEP 4CONNEXIONS,TENSIONS AND INCONSISTENCIES

The fundamental characteristic of a complexsystem is that it exhibits emergent properties :

Local Interaction rules between simple agents give rise to global behaviors

FRANKFURT

INCONSISTENCIES

MONTREAL

STEP 4 - CONNEXIONS, TENSIONS AND INCONSISTENCIESYOUR CITY :

EMBR

ACIN

G CI

TIES

COM

PLEX

ITY

STEP 5DESIRABLE FUTURE

TREND DISRUPTIONCOLLAPSE DESIRABLE

TURN YOUR DREAMS INTO A

STRATEGY

PARIS

CONCLUSION

Singularity

Internal connexion

Eternal connexion

Purpose

FRONT LOOP

INCREMENTAL

BACK LOOPRADICAL