We will publish the book by Nikos Salingaros, Unified Theory Architectural, in a series of installments, making it digitally, available for students and architects worldwide. The next chapter develops on the phenomenon of "life" in buildings introduced in Chapter 3, and also introduces a simple test that can be used to determine the degree of "life" in a structure. If you missed them, be sure to read the previous installments here
approach the architecture of the new perspective of consistency organized -. What Christopher Alexander calls "totality" - unifies many phenomena. Traditional distinctions between the ornament and function, between buildings and ecology, and between beauty and utilitarian structure are blurred. We can look for "life" in artifacts and structures, which explains our experience of them.
Later in this course, we will count the characteristics and metrics that contribute to our sense of "life" in an object. These measurements show that the phenomenon of life is not idiosyncratic, but is to a very large extent, shared by all people.
There is a problem that we "like" something. These are not the same as the perceived degree of life. After all, even the most monstrous, inhuman building was added enough by both the architect and the customer who ordered it. We also know that the advertising trillion dollar industry exists primarily to manipulate our opinions on what we like.
The perception of "life" in objects is instead a profound connection between the observer or user, and the object. It has an intuitive physiological interdependence, we can choose to ignore, but probably can not change
Alexander lists the characteristics of this emotional connection to artifacts and structures.
- We feel a sense of food for them.
- If we participate in actually doing, we also feel that sense of food.
- When we can identify this connection and distinguish the taste influenced the media, then we find that we agree with many other people.
- This is not only an aesthetic judgment, but something that is superimposed on deeper aspects of culture and life.
- The connection can be tested empirically, and not a mere matter of opinion.
Judging the relative degree of positive connection we experience personally us and one of the two objects is easy. It is based on a psychological trick to give us the result. The forces trick our brain to calculate the organized complexity of the two objects in a comparative, not absolute, so.
"Self mirror" test Alexander asked which of two objects that experience I give a better image of myself. We must imagine all of our personality, our strengths and weaknesses, our humanity, our emotions, our potential and our life experiences as somehow encoded in the structure of these two objects. so, which of the two objects is a more accurate representation of myself?
Alexander found that over 80% of people choose one of the objects of the pair who also presented the highest degree of life, calculated by other objective measures. therefore, we may waive any of these calculations and just ask this one question about the mirroring of our self. the correlation is enough to to a very high useful - but not foolproof. - test
This test managed to draw us away from preferences and opinions we have learned from the outside, but do not match necessarily what comes from deep within our being. It cuts through idiosyncratic ideas and perhaps biased on beauty shoot us that we connect honestly.
unfortunately, it is true that our taste was manipulated to make out of us a perfect consumer fashion and industrial goods. Using the "self mirror" test repeatedly not only makes us more competent in its application, but also helps to free us from the opinion, pictures, and ideology. It makes us more clever in perception of the living structure.
Let's turn the topic around and wonder how, in a world that is already in contact with the structure of life through culture and education, people could be disconnected from their feelings. How can it be denied an intuitive talent for recognizing the "life" and to the first men ignore and forget completely? the method is to divert attention, and use false authority to stop us rebuild vital links and cognitive maps.
There are two completely different conceptions of a shared experience of the world. the first product we use our perceptual systems to form a vision of honest and direct world. Since our biology is shared with other humans, our experiences are shared to a large extent. The second scenario is when an entire population buys into a false worldview. In this case, what is shared is not the truth, but it exists only as an image.
If we are indeed trapped inside an unreal world, reinforced as it is shared with others, these tools can help us out. Another way to describe the "self mirror" test is to feel how an object or a specific environment affects our humanity Ask yourself. "Is my own sense of increasing or decreasing humanity by being exposed to this particular structure ? "Here, we can forget our mechanical civilization and only use our intuition, our internal emotional states
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" self mirror "test chooses which reminds us of nature, such as hierarchies of making the natural scale, complexity organized natural materials, and other geometrical features that make an object to feel more "alive". When we connect to an environment because we feel part and comfortable, we can make our lives and functions with more fun and less stress. This feeling of well-being does not consciously register.
Often we experience a high degree of life from objects and buildings with imperfections. - semi-ruined buildings, antique items with damaged parts, etc. This does not diminish their appeal tourists travel a long way to see and experience the ruins, and collectors buy antique carpets with holes.
using the "self mirror" test gives us an essential tool for the implementation of evidence based design. There are two aspects to this methodology. The first was obtained in a medical setting, and measure the effects of structures and built environments on human health. It is difficult to compare alternative design choice based on their healing potential - hard data faster healing patients in specific environments. Starting with the design of the hospital, the design based on evidence is now being applied to other parameters, more general. The second aspect relating to the use of feedback, will be discussed in detail in Chapter 9B in this series.
Order the international edition of theory of the unified architecture here, and. edition by US
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- Christopher Alexander The phenomenon of life , chapter 8, "the mirror of Self" and chapter 9, "beyond Descartes: a new form of scientific observation" ( the nature of the order book 1, Center for environmental Structure, Berkeley, CA, 01).
- Michael Mehaffy & Nikos Salingaros Design for a Living Planet (sustasis Press, Portland, Oregon, 2015).
- Nikos Salingaros theory of the unified architecture: Form, language, complexity. A Companion to Christopher Alexander "The Phenomenon of Life: The Nature of Order, Book 1" (sustasis Press, Portland, Oregon, 2013)
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