Above all, this book is an invitation. An invitation to discover a new way of seeing and thinking about the world, which in turn entails a new way of seeing and thinking about architecture. Drawing on complexity science and Edgar Morin’s complex thought, David Obon opens the door to knowledge that transcends disciplinary boundaries. It is a form of knowledge capable of recognizing the multidimensionality of our discipline—a knowledge that does not simplify, but rather reconnects, articulates, and clarifies. It is a knowledge that speaks to us of order and disorder, but above all, of creation. These insights have germinated across multiple disciplines to construct a new emerging paradigm: the paradigm of complexity.
Using the new concepts that articulate this paradigm, the author weaves an extraordinary narrative that reveals the profound relationships (systemic relationships) between architecture and the various levels of vital organization: from the cell to the modern network society. It is, therefore, a radical theoretical synthesis. Radical, not in the extremist sense of the term, but radical because it concerns the very root (radix)—the true foundations—of architecture.
These pages also serve as an antidote to one of the often-perverse characteristics of our modern, specialized society: the fragmentation and compartmentalization of knowledge. Faced with an increasingly complex reality, we need, now more than ever, to build integrative visions that help us guide and clarify our ways of thinking and acting. This is the challenge we face here, as complexity is inexhaustible. We hope, therefore, that the reader accepts this invitation as a challenge.
