The Autopoiesis of Architecture, Volume II (ePub)

This is the second part of a major theoretical work by Patrik
Schumacher, which outlines how the discipline of architecture
should be understood as its own distinct system of
communication. Autopoeisis comes from the Greek and
means literally self-production; it was first adopted in biology in
the 1970s to describe the essential characteristics of life as a
circular self-organizing system and has since been transposed into
a theory of social systems. This new approach offers architecture
an arsenal of general comparative concepts. It allows architecture
to be understood as a distinct discipline, which can be analyzed in
elaborate detail while at the same time offering insightful
comparisons with other subject areas, such as art, science and
political discourse. On the basis of such comparisons the book
insists on the necessity of disciplinary autonomy and argues for a
sharp demarcation of design from both art and engineering.
Schumacher accordingly argues controversially that design as a
discipline has its own sui generis intelligence - with
its own internal logic, reach and limitations.

Whereas the first volume provides the theoretical groundwork for
Schumacher's ideas - focusing on architecture as an
autopoeitic system, with its own theory, history, medium and its
unique societal function - the second volume addresses the
specific, contemporary challenges and tasks that architecture
faces. It formulates these tasks, looking specifically at how
architecture is seeking to organize and articulate the complexity
of post-fordist network society. The volume explicitly addresses
how current architecture can upgrade its design methodology in the
face of an increasingly demanding task environment, characterized
by both complexity and novelty. Architecture's specific role
within contemporary society is explained and its relationship to
politics is clarified. Finally, the new, global style of
Parametricism is introduced and theoretically grounded.