Introduction to Biourbanism. Epistemology for a new Architecture, by Antonio Caperna

Società Internazionale di
Biourbanistica
“Introduzione alla Biourbanistica”
Open PISM
Antonio Caperna – WWW.BIOURBANISM.ORG

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Antonio Caperna, PhD
INTRODUZIONE ALLA
BIOURBANISTICA
Fondamenti epistemologici per un
nuovo modello di urbanistica

Antonio Caperna, PhD
His actual research (conducted in cooperation with Eleni Tracada, Head
of Built Environment Research Group at University of Derby, UK, and
Prof. Nikos Salingaros, Faculty of Mathematics at University of Texas at
San Antonio, USA) deals with ICT and Cities and application of the last
scientific development, such as fractals, complexity theory, evolutionary
biology and physics for a human‐oriented architecture and urbanism.
He is expert at the Portuguese Agency for Assessment and Accreditation
of Higher Education - A3ES, Head of the International Society of
Biourbanism, Associated Editor of International Journal of E-
Planning Research (IJEPR), member of scientific council of Space and
FORM ,co-editor of Journal of Biourbanism, and member of several
professional bodies.
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Key words
biourbanism, homology, evolutionary
biology, architecture, urbanism, biophilic
design, morphogenetic process, dynamic
complex systems, life sciences.
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“The Universe is built on a plan the profound
symmetry of which is somehow present in the
inner structure of our intellect”
Paul Valery
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A New Epistemology
(complexity, emergence, self-organization, … )
Life Science, Architecture and Urban
Environment
network science, patterns, codes, morphogenesis, wholeness
Dal biologico al neurofisiologico
fractals, art, cognitive process,
Biophilic Design
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ORDER, NATURE AND
SCIENCE DURING
DETERMINISTIC ERA
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Mechanistic
picture of the
world
Pendulum of the world's creation, designed by
Passant motion carried by Roques, bronzes François-
Thomas Germain, presented on a pedestal Bellangé
(1834) 1754, 1834
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The Cartesian-Newtonian paradigm contends that the
physical world is made up of basic entities with distinct
properties distinguishing one element from another.
Isolating and reducing the physical world to is most basic
entities, its separate parts, provides us with completely
knowable, predictable, and therefore controllable physical
universe. . .
.The Cartesian-Newtonian paradigm contends that the physical
universe is governed by immutable laws and therefore is
determined and predictable, like an enormous machine. In
principle, knowledge of the world could be complete in all its
details. (De Jong)
Open PISM

The science of the last 150 years has profoundly shaped our
culture and our civilization
This has changed:
 Our Knowledge
 how we look at ourselves
 how we think and feel,
 how we view our social and political institutions,
 the findings of science have intentionally separated the
process of forming mechanical models of physics from the
process of feeling
Open PISM

The Cartesian method show
aprioristic reduction and
aprioristic analysis
(Descartes, 1637, pp. 20-21).
analysing complex things into
simple constituents (its parts)
understood a system in terms of
its isolated parts
Phenomena can be reduced to
simple cause & effect relationships
governed by linear laws
relationships are not important
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Descartes’ mind-matter ontological
dualism.
Mind and matter are separated
substances.
This means that they have an
independent existence and the
difference between the two is
infinite
(see Descartes, 1642; Heidegger, 1962;
Fuenmayor, 1985).
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Atoms
World as mechanism explained by science
CARTESIAN ONTOLOGICAL "MIND-MATTER" DUALISM
DISCONNECTEDNESS
“I” and “value” out of our picture of the world
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A Global paradigm
and its consequence
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In the last decades architecture has ripped
urban core and sociality
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Zoning has enclose our cities (civitates) with
alien bodies
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Globalization has create an Hyperreal architecture
where people is a “piece of spectacle”
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LIFE SYSTEM
30% of the world’s energy consumption
is used by the transport sector;
People spend 10% of their time in
transport
Mobility is critical for the functioning of
our society
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A year's carbon dioxide emissions from New York City: 54,349,650 one-tonne sphere
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Unregulated economic globalization without concern for social and environmental
consequences
More inequality between humans than any pt in history
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The purpose of The
Limits to Growth was
not to make specific
predictions, but to
explore how
exponential growth
interacts with finite
resources.
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Health costs of air and water pollution in China amount to about 4.3 percent
of its GDP.
By adding the non-health impacts of pollution, which are estimated to be about
1.5 percent of GDP, the total cost of air and water pollution in China is about
5.8 percent of GDP (circa $ 400 billions)
Source.
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/EXTEAPREGTOPENVIRONMENT/0,,
contentMDK:21252897~pagePK:34004173~piPK:34003707~theSitePK:502886,00.html
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SAME PARADIGM
FOR A DIFFERENT SKIN
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Post-industrial economics rose up, and got oriented towards another kind of
techno-city, relying on advancements in communication and information
technology
Konza Technology City (Kenya)
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Hyperreality describes an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a
simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced post-modern societies.
Hyperreality is seen as a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are
seamlessly blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where
one ends and the other begins
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images of beautiful products and fashion models (as beautiful as
unreal, in their desirability, frozen perfection, and eternal juvenility),
dominate the senses and imagination in almost every urban environment
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“... top-down process ....
It substitutes
- places with non-places
- space with hyper-space, and
- connections and scales with
information flows and mere
degrees of interface ....
City with anti-city
(Source: Caperna, Serafini, biourbanism as
new framework ..... In GIS and Smart cities,
2014)
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Our current socio-economical, and
ecological regime (PARADIGM) and its set
of interconnected worldviews,
institutions, and technologies all support
the goal of unlimited growth of material
production and consumption as a proxy
for quality of life.
Open PISM

L’approccio
biourbanistico tenta
di riconnette
territorio, società ed
economia, fornendo
un nuovo modello di
sostenibilità
strutturale, ovvero
incentrata sulle
esigenze degli esseri
umani concreti, di un
tangibile benessere
sociale, economico,
fisico e psicologico.
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Can we built an urban environments able
to support human well-being?
How?
Why do just certain works of art,
artifacts, buildings, public space have
particularly
feeling / life / well being?
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essential problems of architecture
1. value, that cannot be separated from the main task of serving
functional needs
2. issue of context — a building grows out of, and must complement, the
place where it appears.
3. issue of design and creation - processes capable of generating unity.
4. issue of human feeling: no building can be considered if it does not
connect, somehow, to human feeling as an objective matter.
5. issue of ecological and sustainable and biological connection to the
land.
6. issue of social agreement regarding decision making in regards to a
complex system
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We believe that
architectural (urban) design
can be founded on scientific principles
that are analogous to structural laws in
theoretical physics and biology
Open PISM

The last scientific developments of the past decade, such
as fractals, complexity theory, evolutionary biology, and
artificial intelligence give us an idea of how human
beings interact with their environment.
EVIDENCES
organisms, computer programs, buildings, neighborhoods,
and cities share the same general rules governing a
complex hierarchical system.
All matter (biological as well as inanimate) organizes
itself into coherent structures.
The human mind has evolved in order to adapt to
complex patterns in the natural world, so the patterns
we perceive around us influence our internal function as
human beings.
Open PISM

Biourbanism goal:
a new human-oriented architecture
that combine the best qualities of
traditional architecture with the
latest technological and scientific
advances.
Open PISM

Biourbanism scientific ground
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The science of the last 150 years has profoundly shaped our culture
and our civilization changing:
 Our Knowledge
 how we look at ourselves
 how we think and feel,
 how we view our social and political institutions,
the findings of science have intentionally separated the process of
forming mechanical models of physics from the process of feeling
Kuhn used the duck-rabbit optical
illusion to demonstrate the way in
which a paradigm shift could cause
one to see the same information in an
entirely different way.
Open PISM

The reform in thinking is a key anthropological and
historical problem. This implies a mental revolution
of considerably greater proportions than the
Copernican revolution.
Never before in the history of humanity have the
responsibilities of thinking weighed so crushingly on
us.
(E. Morin)
Open PISM

The Meaning of a Systems Approach
A "systems approach" means to "approach" or
"see" things (or phenomena) as systems
A system is
"a group of interrelated, interdependent, or interacting
elements forming a collective unity" (Collins English Dictionary, 1979, p.
1475)
"a complex whole" (The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1976, p. 1174).
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«Nothing happens in
isolation»
Barabasi, 2002
«life consists of a network
of relationships in which
we interact»
(Capra, 1997:14)
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Metabolic Network
Nodes: chemicals (substrates)
Links: bio-chemical reactions
Neuronal Network
“The construction and structure of graphs or networks is the key to
understanding the complex world around us” (Barabási)
Open PISM

Every complex system has a
hierarchical structure; i.e.,
different processes are occurring
on different scales or levels.
Connections exist both on the
same levels, and across levels
(Mesarovic, Macko et al., 1970).
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OPTIMAL FORM
SCALING LAW
PATTERNS AND CODES
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THE LAWS OF FORM
In addition (and often substitution of) to natural selection mathematical
and physical and chemical laws explain the spontaneous self-
organization and emergence of optimal form and functions in nature
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The Parthenon in Athens: its facade is said to be circumscribed by golden rectangles,
although some scholars argue this is a coincidence.
Photograph: Katerina Mavrona/EPA
GOLDEN RATIO
According to Adrian Bejan, professor of mechanical engineering at Duke
University, in Durham, North Carolina, the human eye is capable of
interpreting an image featuring the golden ratio faster than any other
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Bejan shows that these shapes
emerge as part of an
evolutionary phenomenon
that facilitates the flow of
information from the plane to
the brain, in accordance with
the constructal law of
generation and evolution of
design in nature.
Open PISM

allometry, also called
biological scaling, in
biology, the change in
organisms in relation to
proportional changes in
body size.
An example of allometry can be
seen in mammals. Ranging
from the mouse to the
elephant, as the body gets
larger, in general, hearts beat
more slowly, brains get bigger,
bones get proportionally
shorter and thinner, and life
spans lengthen.
Open PISM

Allometry happen in fractal structure and this law are
ubiquitous in nature.
In “Scaling laws in cognitive sciences” scholars have
demonstrate that the scaling laws pervade neural, behavioral
and linguistic activities suggesting the existence of processes
or patterns that are repeated across scales of analysis.
“Scaling laws in cognitive sciences” (Kello, C. T., Brown, G. D. A., Ferrer-i-Cancho, R.,
Holden, G., Linkenkaer-Hansen, K., Rhodes, T. & Van Orden, G. C., 2010),
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Scaling crime, income, etc. with city population
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morphogenesis in biology: the way that organisms grow and
transform into endless beautiful and varied shapes
adaptive morphogenesis
Process proceed from the
transformation of
patterns of previous
configurations.
They adapt to the
environment and to each
other as they transform
their shape
Open PISM

Sustainable ecosystems use patterns
adaptive morphogenesis
Open PISM

fractals in typical
Ethiopian village
architecture
… organisms, computer programs, buildings, neighbourhoods, and
cities share the same general rules governing a complex
hierarchical system.
MORPHOGENETIC PROCESS
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MORPHOGENETIC ADAPTATION IN
SPONTANEOUS CITY
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PRIMITIVE
VILLAGES ON
PROMONTORIES
FROM PRIMITIVE
VILLAGES TO
MEDIEVAL TOWNS:
ORGANIC
ADAPTATION TO
THE NATURAL
OROGRAPHY
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Tuscania
Pitigliano
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Nepi
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Orvieto
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Artena
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SERMONETA
MORPHOLOGICAL GROWTH

Introduction to Biourbanism. Epistemology for a new Architecture, by Antonio Caperna

Mathematically a Pattern arise from:
- a way to understanding and possibly control a
complex system;
Each "pattern" represents a rule governing one
working piece of a complex system
- create a system structurally coherent
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Pattern...
… is a careful description of a perennial solution to a
recurring problem within a building context, describing
one of the configurations which brings life to a building.
Alexander et al, 1977
ACTIVITY POCKETS
The life of a public square
forms naturally around its edge.
If the edge fails, then the space
never becomes lively
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Patterns become a language
… is a network of patterns that call upon
one another.
Patterns help us remember insights and
knowledge about design and can be used
in combination to create solutions.
Alexander et al, 1977
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"language" combines
the nodes together
into an organizational
framework
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BIOPHILIC DESIGN
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BIOPHILIC DESIGN IN PRACTICE
NATURALISTIC
DIMENSION
Patterns
15 geometrical
properties
STRUCTURAL
CRITERIA
COGNITIVE
CRITERIA
Scaling law
Fractal syntax
network
Source: Caperna A., Biourbanism Principles
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naturalistic dimension of biophilic design, defined as
shapes and forms in the built environment that directly,
indirectly, or symbolically reflect the inherent human
affinity for nature.
The components of human
settlement (building–human–
nature)
Source. “Biophilic and
Bioclimatic Architecture”
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• Contact with nature has been
linked to cognitive functioning
on tasks requiring concentration
and memory.
• Healthy childhood maturation
and development has been
correlated with contact with
natural features and settings.
• The human brain responds
functionally to sensory patterns
and cues emanating from the
natural environment.
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BIOPHILIC DESIGN
STRUCTURAL CRITERIA
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Human sensory systems have evolved to
respond to natural geometries of fractals,
colours, scaling, symmetries
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Fundamental natural forms
(biomimetic models, fractals,
natural progressions of scale,
rhythm, proportion, repetition,
symmetry, gradients)
Siena. Aerial view
Lucignano. Aerial view
Local natural materials
(connect the site to the building
and interior spaces)
Open PISM

The pedestrian networks of medieval Rome have a fractal
structure, extending into the buildings and even the rich
ornamental details of the buildings themselves. These “place
networks” offer pedestrians a dense and overlapping set of
choices of movement, views, and other enriching experiences
(Drawings/Photos: Michael Mehaffy).
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Plan of a non-fractal contemporary
city.
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Scaling over four stages in a Doric cornice.
Koch curve and Gothic column compared.
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BIOPHILIC DESIGN
COGNITIVE CRITERIA
“PATTERNS, CODES AND GEOMETRICAL
PROPERTIES”
Open PISM

POSITIVE SPACE
In coherent systems every bit of space is coherent, well
shaped; and the space between coherent bits of space are
also coherent and well-shaped.
Positive space in the cell
structure of wood issue
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Refers to Gestalt psychology
 Ties into the basis of human perception
 Convexity plays a major role in defining an
object or a space (area or volume)
 Mathematical plus psychological reasons
 Strongly applicable to the spaces we
inhabit
 Threat felt from objects sticking out
Open PISM

POSITIVE SPACE
People feel comfortable in spaces which are "Positive" and use these
spaces;
people feel relatively uncomfortable in spaces which are "negative" and
such spaces tend to remain unused.
PHISICAL DEFINITION OF THE EDGES OF URBAN SEQUENCES (STREETS AND
PIAZZAS);
HUMAN COMFORT; SENSE OF CONFINEMENT;
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An outdoor space is positive when
it has a distinct and definite shape
 it has been shaped over the time by people
 it has therefore taken a definite, cared for shape with
meaning and purpose
 Every bit of space is very intensely useful
 There is NO leftover waste space which in not useful
Open PISM

POSITIVE SPACE
Another way of defining the difference between "Positive" and
"negative" outdoor spaces is by their degree of enclosure
and their degree of convexity.
space is non-convex, when
some lines joining two points lie
at least partly outside the space
space is convex when a line
joining any two points inside
the space itself lies totally
inside the space.
Open PISM

POSITIVE SPACE
degree of enclosure
Positive spaces are partly enclosed and the "virtual" area
which seems to exist is convex.
Negative spaces are so poorly defined that you cannot really
tell where their boundaries arc, and to the extent that you can
tell, the shapes are non-convex.
Open PISM

POSITIVE SPACE
Camillo Sitte, in City Planning According to Artistic
Principles shows that the successful spaces - those
which are greatly used and enjoyed - have two
properties:
- partly enclosed;
- they are open to one another, so that each one
leads into the next.
Open PISM

POSITIVE SPACE
enclosure goes back to our most primitive instincts
Open PISM

POSITIVE SPACE
partly enclosed
Transform this . . . . . . to this.
And when an existing open space
is too enclosed, it may be possible
to break a hole through the
building to open the space up.
Open PISM

PHISICAL DEFINITION OF THE EDGES OF URBAN SEQUENCES (STREETS AND PIAZZAS);
HUMAN COMFORT; SENSE OF CONFINEMENT;

CONCLUSION
i. When environments are built by biourbanism approach
(complexity + biological roots) they will of their own accord
become sustainable.
ii. Adopt incremental and bottom-up strategy
iii. Good form-based on “genetic codes” can generate healthy
environments (geometry, patterns  biomimicry)
iv. Urban community is a consequence of a successful public
space
v. Small-scale funding introduces a bottom-up component of
development to balance the usual top-down process
vi. building to enhance the life of sites
vii. Re-configure road structure for optimum pedestrian
connectivity
viii. Create mixed-use urban centers
Open PISM

References
• S. Serafini, «L’architettura come salute psicobiologica quotidiana: morfogenesi e biofilia», Atti del I
Convegno Internazionale su Psiche e Architettura, Roma-Siracusa, 2009-2010, Franco Angeli: Milano, in
stampa.
• A. Caperna, S. Serafini, «Biourbanism as a new framework for smart cities studies», in: M. Vinod Kumar
(ed.), Geographic Information System for Smart Cities, Copal Publishing Group: Ghaziabad/London, 2013.
• A. Caperna, S. Serafini, «Biourbanistica come nuovo modello epistemologico», in: A. Caperna, A.
Giangrande, P. Mirabelli, E. Mortola (eds.), Partecipazione e ICT: per una città vivibile, Gangemi: Roma,
2013.
• A. Caperna, S. Serafini, «Biourbanism as new epistemological perspective between Science, Design and
Nature», in: Ahmed Z. Khan (ed.), Architecture and Sustainability: Critical Perspectives. Generating
sustainability concepts from an architectural perspective. Sint-Lucas Architecture Press (Brussels) (Forth
printing)
• Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order, 4 volumes, Berkeley, CA: Center for Environmental Structure,
2001-2005.
• Antonio Caperna, Biourbanism Principles: Design foStephen R. Kellert and Edward O. Wilson, Editors, The
Biophilia Hypothesis, Washington, DC: Island Press, 1993.
• r a Human Built Environment, Rome, 2012.
• Stephen R. Kellert, Judith Heerwagen and Martin Mador, Editors, Biophilic Design: the Theory, Science and
Practice of Bringing Buildings to Life, New York: John Wiley, 2008.
• Edgar Morin, La Méthode I: La Nature de la Nature, Paris: Seuil, 1977.
• Nikos Salingaros, Twelve Lectures on Architecture. Algorithmic Sustainable Design, Solingen: Umbau
Verlag, 2010.
• Nikos Salingaros, Antonio Caperna, Michael Mehaffy, Geeta Mehta, Federico Mena-Quintero, Agatino Rizzo,
Stefano Serafini and Emanuele Strano, “A Definition of P2P (Peer-To‐Peer) Urbanism”, AboutUsWiki, the
P2P Foundation, DorfWiki, Peer to Peer Urbanism (September 2010). Presented by Nikos Salingaros at the
International Commons Conference, Heinrich Böll Foundation, Berlin, 1 November 2010.
Open PISM

BIOURBANISM AS NEW
EPISTEMOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE….
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OK, but… what is Biourbanism?
The first definition of the term “biourbanism” has been given in
2010 by the philosopher and psychologist Stefano Serafini (ISB),
the bio-statistician and expert in complexity theory Alessandro
Giuliani (Italian NIH), the architects Antonio Caperna and Alessia
Cerqua (Roma Tre University), and the mathematician and urban
theorist Nikos A. Salingaros (University of Texas at San Antonio)
Source: www.biourbanism.org/biourbanism-definition/.
Open PISM

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 individual’s
evolution, and thus fail to enhance life in any way.
The morphology of urban structure follows its own intrinsic set of rules, analogous to the
rules determining biological growth and function. These rules arise from the process of self-
organization combined and balanced with direct intervention: two competing mechanisms of bottom-
up versus top-down design of urban fabric. Living urban regions complement and continue nature by
extending rules for biological growth. But just bringing nature into city centers is superficial, an “image
approach to planning” that reveals a basic lack of understanding of urban morphology. In fact, rural and
urban typologies follow very different rules and cannot be mixed. Most cities throughout history were
largely spontaneous, with interventions implemented later in an effort to organize a situation that had
grown into unmanageable complexity. Intelligent urbanists discover the rules for spontaneous urban
growth from watching a city evolve and from studying historical urban fabric. Only with the arrogance
and iconoclasm of the twentieth century did humankind empower “unintelligent experts” who were
ignorant of organic urbanism to plan our cities, with disastrous results.
Open PISM

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; and
(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.).
Open PISM

Biourbanism adds to such a scientific trend the connection to life
sciences, and their new model grounded on the direct role of chemical–
physical rules in designing the living systems. Concepts like biological
periodicity, self-evolution, laws of form, Constructal law, and
systemic integration can be very helpful to understand how cities
grow, unfold, and live.
In particular, the systemic study of the morphogenetic processes –
introduced by Lewis Wolpert at the beginning of the 1960s – allows us to
understand and facilitate the vitalising connections within the system,
and thus those between man and the environment, operating at different
levels on the geometry of space.
Different researches have proved the structural homology on which those
connections are based, noticing the experimental bases of the tributes
coming from the Gestalttheorie, the Tartu-Moscow-School, and the
generative grammar (e.g. the discovery of shared structures in
language, cognitive processes, brain) .

Introduction to Biourbanism. Epistemology for a new Architecture, by Antonio Caperna

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