Repository | Book | Chapter

This ethno-biographical account centres around a designer's curiosity about complexity theories. It explores the common ground between 30 years of practice in planning and landscape architecture, and system theory in all its expressions in this period. The paper sketches out the use and misuse of systems theory, dissipative structures and the notion of uncertainty, complexity theories and finally of the new thermodynamics. The author's changing view on nature, nature conservation and nature development as a planner and a landscape architect is a subtext throughout. He makes observations on the recurring problems faced by planners and designers that use analogies from other disciplines and sciences to conceptualize design strategies. Ross Ashby's law of the requisite variety, for instance, was adopted by Dutch national planning in the 1970s and brought the whole planning machine to a grinding halt by the sheer complexity of the org-ware trying to mimic the complexity of society. The argument leads to the conclusion, supported by examples, that very complex problems can be tackled by applying simple rules. Examples range from the occupation of the Dutch countryside by newcomers and alternative ways for the effective taxing of CO₂ to developmental simulation in silico for delta cities. Complexity theories have a lot to offer to the field. Alongside the "Santa-Fe" school of natural science oriented complexity theory, the European school of Social Complexity theory as epitomized by Edgar Morin seems promising for solving planning and design problems. "Predict and Control" can and must be exchanged for a far more flexible way of planning. We can put our trust in, and work with, the self-organizational energy in society and nature without becoming noncommittal. Simple rules can indeed give rise to rich results and an emerging order. Moreover, systems thinking could very well prove to be the strong countervailing force against the prevailing reductionism; we need to re-establish the role of design as the synthesizing activity in these complex processes.

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-24544-2_16

Full citation: