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A complex-network perspective on Alexander’s wholeness

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  • Jiang, Bin

Abstract

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 somehow mysterious and elusive, and therefore hard to grasp. This paper develops a complex network perspective on the wholeness to better understand the nature of order or beauty for 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 — a classification scheme and a visualization tool for data with a heavy-tailed distribution, 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 that exists in fine and deep structure. The complex-network perspective enables us to see things in their wholeness, and to better understand how the kind of structural beauty emerges from local actions guided by the 15 fundamental properties, and in particular by differentiation and adaptation processes. The wholeness goes beyond current complex network theory towards design or creation of living structures.

Suggested Citation

  • Jiang, Bin, 2016. "A complex-network perspective on Alexander’s wholeness," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 463(C), pages 475-484.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:463:y:2016:i:c:p:475-484
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2016.07.038
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jiang, Bin & Ma, Ding, 2015. "Defining least community as a homogeneous group in complex networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 428(C), pages 154-160.
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    Cited by:

    1. Boeing, Geoff, 2018. "Measuring the Complexity of Urban Form and Design," SocArXiv bxhrz, Center for Open Science.
    2. Bin Jiang, 2019. "A Recursive Definition of Goodness of Space for Bridging the Concepts of Space and Place for Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-13, July.
    3. Zaheer Allam & Simon Elias Bibri & Didier Chabaud & Carlos Moreno, 2022. "The Theoretical, Practical, and Technological Foundations of the 15-Minute City Model: Proximity and Its Environmental, Social and Economic Benefits for Sustainability," Post-Print hal-03997394, HAL.
    4. Zaheer Allam & Simon Elias Bibri & Didier Chabaud & Carlos Moreno, 2022. "The Theoretical, Practical, and Technological Foundations of the 15-Minute City Model: Proximity and Its Environmental, Social and Economic Benefits for Sustainability," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-20, August.
    5. Fangjie Cao & Yun Qiu & Qianxin Wang & Yan Zou, 2022. "Urban Form and Function Optimization for Reducing Carbon Emissions Based on Crowd-Sourced Spatio-Temporal Data," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-17, August.

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