Urban Development as a Guided Self-Organisation Process

Abstract

The analysis of complex systems, viewed as thermodynamic systems far from equilibrium, shows that any spontaneous evolutive process (self-organisation process) can be described as a succession of unexpected jumps from a given structure into a new, unpredictable one. It is also recognised that, when dealing with the evolution of complex systems, prediction is possible so long as the structure of the system remains unchanged: any structural change creates a new system to which predictions built up for the old one are no longer valid. But does this apply to the complex city system? In principle, yes, but in practice the evolution of a city follows a different pattern since the process is subject to continuous pressure consisting of actions aiming to drive the evolution towards a pre-defined model. It is rare that something really new and unpredictable changes the structure of a city. What usually takes place is an imitative process with some minor variations. In general, the development of the city is an adaptive process: models already working elsewhere are adapted to a specific urban environment. Sometimes, but rarely, new subsystem models are imagined by some long-sighted and creative politician or decision-maker.