A Complex-Network Perspective on Alexander’s Wholeness
نویسنده
چکیده
The wholeness, conceived and developed by Christopher Alexander, is what exists to some degree or other in space and matter, and can be described by precise mathematical language. However, it remains mysterious and hard to grasp. This paper develops a complex network perspective on the wholeness to better understand the nature of order or beauty, and apply it into sustainable design. I bring together a set of complexity-science subjects such as complex networks, fractal geometry, and in particular underlying scaling hierarchy derived by head/tail breaks, in order to make Alexander’s profound thoughts more accessible to design practitioners and complexity-science researchers. Through several case studies (some of which Alexander studied), I demonstrate that the complex-network perspective helps reduce the mystery of wholeness and brings new insights to Alexander’s thoughts on the concept of wholeness or objective beauty in fine structures. The complex-network perspective enables us to see things in their wholeness, and better see how the kind of structural beauty emerges from local actions guided by the 15 fundamental properties, such as levels of details, strong centers, and boundaries.
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