INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY OF

BIOURBANISM
A global Research Network
www.biourbanism.org info@biourbanism.org www.biourbanistica.org

Biourbanism
Definition prepared by the Biourbanism Task Force consisting of Antonio Caperna, Alessia Cerqua, Alessandro Giuliani, Nikos A. Salingaros, Stefano Serafini

Biourbanism focuses on the urban organism, considering it as a hypercomplex system, according to its internal and external dynamics and their mutual interactions. The urban body is composed of several interconnected layers of dynamic structure, all influencing each other in a non-linear manner. This interaction results in emergent properties, which are not predictable except through a dynamical analysis of the connected whole. This approach therefore links Biourbanism to the Life Sciences, and to Integrated Systems Sciences like Statistical Mechanics, Thermodynamics, Operations Research, and Ecology in an essential manner. The similarity of approaches lies not only in the common methodology, but also in the content of the results (hence the prefix Bio), because the city represents the living environment of the human species. Biourbanism recognizes optimal forms defined at different scales (from the purely physiological up to the ecological levels) which, through morphogenetic processes, guarantee an optimum of systemic efficiency and for the quality of life of the inhabitants. A design that does not follow these laws produces anti-natural, hostile environments, which do not fit into an individuals evolution, and thus fail to enhance life in any way. Biourbanism acts in the real world by applying a participative and helping methodology. It verifies results inter-subjectively (as people express their physical and emotional wellbeing through feedback) as well as objectively (via experimental measures of physiological, social, and economic reactions). The aim of Biourbanism is to make a scientific contribution towards: (i) the development and implementation of the premises of Deep Ecology (Bateson) on social-environmental grounds; (ii) the identification and actualization of environmental enhancement according to the natural needs of human beings and the ecosystem in which they live; (iii) managing the transition of the fossil fuel economy towards a new organizational model of civilization; (iv) deepening the organic interaction between cultural and physical factors in urban reality (as, for example, the geometry of social action, fluxes and networks study, etc.).

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INTERNATIONALSOCIETYOFBIOURBANISM

SOCIETA INTERNAZIONALE DI

BIOURBANISTICA
A global Research Network
www.biourbanism.org info@biourbanism.org www.biourbanistica.org

Biourbanistica
Antonio Caperna, Alessia Cerqua, Alessandro Giuliani, Nikos A. Salngaros, Stefano Serafini

La Biourbanistica ha per oggetto lo studio dellorganismo urbano, inteso come sistema ipercomplesso, lanalisi delle dinamiche interne e quelle con il suo intorno (territorio), nonch le relazioni che sussistono tra dette componenti. La Biourbanistica considera il corpo urbano come costituito da una molteplicit di livelli interconnessi che si influenzano vicendevolmente in modo non-lineare. Tale caratteristica induce lemergere di propriet complessive non prevedibili attraverso lo studio delle singole parti, ma solo dallanalisi dinamica dellintero. Questo atteggiamento conoscitivo accomuna la Biourbanistica alle scienze della vita e, pi in generale, a tutte quelle scienze che nel XXI secolo si occupano di sistemi integrati, come la meccanica statistica, la termodinamica, la ricerca operativa e lecologia. La similitudine non solo metodologica ma anche nei contenuti (da cui il prefisso Bio) essendo le citt lambiente di vita della specie umana. Da qui il riconoscimento di forme ottimali rilevabili a diverse scale di definizione (dalla fisiologia fino al livello ecologico) che, attraverso processi morfogenetici, garantiscono loptimum in termini di efficienza sistemica e di qualit di vita degli abitanti. Una progettazione che non obbedisca a queste leggi destinata a creare ambienti antinaturali, ostili allevoluzione degli individui e al rafforzamento della vita, nelle sue molteplici declinazioni. La Biourbanistica agisce sul mondo reale attraverso una metodologia partecipativomaieutica, con verifica intersoggettiva (ovvero il benessere percepito e comunicato dagli abitanti) e oggettiva (ovvero le misurazioni sperimentali di indici fisiologici, sociali, economici). Obiettivo della Biourbanistica quello di fornire un contributo scientifico che concorra: (i) allo sviluppo e allattuazione delle premesse dellEcologia profonda (Bateson) sul piano socio-ambientale; (ii) alla rilevazione e attuazione delle potenzialit di miglioramento dellambiente rispetto ai bisogni di natura degli esseri umani che vi vivono e del loro ecosistema; (iii) a gestire la transizione dalleconomia dellenergia fossile a un nuovo modello organizzativo della civilt; (iv) ad approfondire in particolare lorganica interazione di fattori culturali e fisici nella realt urbanistica (sociogeometria, studio dei flussi e delle reti, ecc.).
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INTERNATIONALSOCIETYOFBIOURBANISM

References / Bibliografia [1] [2]

Nikos Salingaros, Twelve Lectures on Architecture. Algorithmic Sustainable Design, Solingen: Umbau Verlag, 2010. Nikos Salingaros, Antonio Caperna, Michael Mehaffy, Geeta Mehta, Federico MenaQuintero, Agatino Rizzo, Stefano Serafini, Emanuele Strano, A Definition of P2P (PeerTo Peer) Urbanism, AboutUsWiki, the P2P Foundation, DorfWiki, Peer to Peer Urbanism (September 2010). Presented by Nikos Salingaros at the International Commons Conference, Heinrich Bll Foundation, Berlin, 1st November 2010. Milena De Matteis, Stefano Serafini (eds.), Progettare la citt a misura duomo. Lalternativa ecologica del Gruppo Salngaros: una citt pi bella e pi giusta, Rome: SIBU, 2010. Stephen Marshall, Cities, Design & Evolution, London: Routledge, 2008. Peter Newman Tima Beatley, Heather Boyer, Resilient Cities. Responding to Peak Oil and Climate Change, Washington: Island Press, 2009. Joseph P. Zbilut, Alessandro Giuliani, Simplicity. The Latent Order of Complexity, New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2007. Sergio Porta, Paolo Crucitti, Vito Latora, The network analysis of urban streets: a primal approach, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 33 (2006), pp. 705-725. Juval Portugali (ed.), Complex Artificial Environments. Simulation, Cognition and VR in the Study and Planning of Cities, Berlin - Heidelberg - New York: Springer, 2006. Michael Batty, Cities and Complexity: understanding cities with cellular automata, agentbase models, and fractals, Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2005. Structure, 2002-2005.

[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

[10] Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order, 4 vol., Berkeley, CA: Center for Environmental [11] Juval Portugali, Self-Organization and the City, Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 2000. [12] Grant Hildebrand, Origins of architectural pleasure, Berkeley, CA: University of California
Press, 1999.

[13] Stephen R. Kellert, Edward O. Wilson (eds.), The Biophilia Hypotesis, Washington: Island
Press, 1993.

[14] Ren Thom, Esquisse dune Smiophysique, Paris: InterEditions, 1991. [15] Antonio Lima-de-Faria, Evolution without Selection. Form and Function by Autoevolution,
London New York Amsterdam: Elsevier Science, 1988.

[16] Gregory Bateson, Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (Advances in Systems Theory,
Complexity, and the Human Sciences), Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, 1979.

[17] Conrad H. Waddington, Tools for Thought, London: Jonathan Cape Ltd., 1977. [18] Edgar Morin, La Mthode I: La Nature de la Nature, Paris: Seuil, 1977. [19] Ludwig von Bertalanffy, General System Theory, New York: George Braziller, 1968.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ INTERNATIONALSOCIETYOFBIOURBANISM