Self-Organizing Cities

Abstract

Self-organization, that is to say, the phenomena by which a system self-organizes its internal structure independent of external causes, is a fundamental property, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, of open and complex systems. Such systems exhibit also phenomena of nonlinearity, instability, fractal structures and chaos — phenomena which are intimately related to the general sensation of life and urbanism at the end of the 20th century. On the other hand, self-organization is a formal theory. It is, in fact, a general umbrella for several theoretical approaches which, while agreeing on general principles, differ in their treatment of such systems, in the emphasis they give to the various processes and properties, and in the subject matters they refer to. In this chapter I discuss some of those theories and methodologies of self-organization which were applied to the domain of cities and urbanism. The discussion proceeds under the title of seven categories of cities which are related to general theories or specific methodologies: dissipative cities, synergetic cities, chaotic cities, fractal cities, cellular automata cities, sand-pile cities, and FACS & IRN cities. The discussion of each category of cities starts with a short introduction to the general principles of the approach and then elaborates its self-organizing city. However, before starting with the self-organizing cities let us say a few introductory words about self-organization as a general theory.