index

Complexity outline

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Weekly market (Urbino, Italy)

Parking lot (Charlottesville, Virginia)

  1. Places can be complex or simplified.
  2. Complexity provides a useful criterion for evaluating contemporary places
    1. complexity and simplicity  
    2. complex and simple intensities 
    3. structural and lived complexity 
    4. non-linear complexity
    5. complex roles and tragedies 
    6. complexity in places and in information theory 
    7. complexity and built intricacy 
    8. complexity does not demand surprise 
    9. complexity and crowded rich places
    10. complexity in discontinuity 
  3. Why we should welcome and increase complexity
    1. complexity is a positive intensity that enriches our inhabitation of places. It also enhances our self-awareness about the way we create and maintain the structures and norms of places.
    2. complexity increases the chances of being more aware of injustices and inequities
    3. some degree of complexity is unavoidable in places
    4. complexity suggests strategies for dealing with oversimplified places 
  4. There are other evaluations related to but not the same as complexity
    1. thick and thin places
    2. dense and diluted places
    3. comparing these terms with complexity