What's the thing

we’ll realize here

and now

that

the future

will thank us for?

- SIMON NORRIS

What If, Could Be

An Historical Fable of the Future

Richard Saul Wurman

1976

What If, Could Be

An Historical Fable of the Future

Richard Saul Wurman

1976

From The Surprising Math of Cities and Corporations, Dr. Geoffrey West (2011)

From The Surprising Math of Cities and Corporations, Dr. Geoffrey West (2011)

(whole is greater than sum of its doubling by 15%)

From The Surprising Math of Cities and Corporations, Dr. Geoffrey West (2011)

FINITE-TIME

SINGULARITY

TIME

Adapted from Scale, Dr. Geoffrey West (2016)

TIME

SINGULARITY

Adapted from Scale, Dr. Geoffrey West (2016)

INNOVATION

SINGULARITY

TIME

Adapted from Scale, Dr. Geoffrey West (2016)

InformationArchitectureof This Mess

CARTESIAN

MODEL OF SPACE

“It Depends”

The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace

Margaret Wertheim

1999

On the level playing field of Cartesian cosmology we are nowhere special

because the very definition of relativistic space guarantees that there is no place special to be

One use is as good as another, one life is as good as another –if the price is right.

This is the industrial doctrine of the interchangeability of parts, and we apply it to places, to creatures, and to our fellow humans as if it were the law of the world.

Bringing It to the Table - On Farming and Food

Wendell Barry

2009

ARRANGEMENT

OPTIMIZED FOR

UNBOUNDED

SUPERLINEAR

GROWTH

FOREVER

CARTESIAN

MODEL OF SPACE

“It Depends”

InformationArchitectureof This Mess

COMPLIMENTARY

METHODS

AND PRACTICES

InformationArchitectureof This Mess

CARTESIAN

MODEL OF SPACE

“It Depends”

ARRANGEMENT

OPTIMIZED FOR

UNBOUNDED

SUPERLINEAR

GROWTH

FOREVER

What's the thing

we’ll realize here

and now

that

the future

will thank us for?

- SIMON NORRIS

Oblique Strategies

Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt

1975

axiom

1. A proposition which is regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true.

2. A universally establishedprinciple or law that is nota necessary truth.

FormFollowsFunction

Zig-Zag Chair

Gerrit Rietveld

1934

YANYU FFF

Niels Bohr

1932

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement.

But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth

From The Surprising Math of Cities and Corporations, Dr. Geoffrey West (2011)

From The Surprising Math of Cities and Corporations, Dr. Geoffrey West (2011)

From The Surprising Math of Cities and Corporations, Dr. Geoffrey West (2011)

VALUE IS INHERENT

NOT “IT DEPENDS”

InformationArchitectureof The OppositeParadigm

All space and matter, organic or inorganic,

has some degree of life in it, and the

matter/space is more alive or less alive

according to its structure and arrangement.

The Nature Of Order - Book 1

Christopher Alexander

2002

Fountain

Marcel Duchamp

1917

Order isPrior to

Function

Julian Street Inn - Shelter for the Homeless Mentally Ill

Christopher Alexander

1990

Need is a ham

sandwich.

Function is the

movement of our

bowels.

- Richard Saul Wurman - Louis Kahn

“So that’s what I’m really getting at is

the existence of a level of thought or a

level of reality where order in space is

such a deep phenomenon that it’s

capable of generating all our activities

as architects or as builders and that

function, ornament, and what have you

will all come into play as byproducts of

that level of observation and thought.”

ARRANGEMENT

OPTIMIZED FOR

BOUNDED,

SUBLINEAR

GROWTH

VALUE IS INHERENT

NOT “IT DEPENDS”

InformationArchitectureof The OppositeParadigm

A city is more than a place in space, it is a drama in time

Patrick Geddes

via @grescoe

COMPLIMENTARY

METHODS

AND PRACTICES

ARRANGEMENT

OPTIMIZED FOR

BOUNDED,

SUBLINEAR

GROWTH

VALUE IS INHERENT

NOT “IT DEPENDS”

InformationArchitectureof The OppositeParadigm

YouAnd Your UserAre One

The Nature Of Order - Book 1

Christopher Alexander

2002

I believe it is

in the nature

of matter,

that it is

soaked through

with self

YouAnd Your UserAnd The Thing You’re MakingAre One

Inherent value

is empirically

testable

through a

“mirror of self”

FACEYOURSELF

VALUE IS INHERENT

NOT “IT DEPENDS”

COMPLIMENTARY

METHODS

AND PRACTICES

ARRANGEMENT

OPTIMIZED FOR

BOUNDED,

SUBLINEAR

GROWTH

InformationArchitectureof The OppositeParadigm

Long Strange Trip

Amer Bar-Lev

2017

What would it be like

to live in a mental world

where one’s reasons

for making something

functionally

and one’s reasons

for making something

a certain shape,

or in a certain

ornamental way

are actually coming

from precisely

the same place

in you –

precisely

the same place.

- Christopher Alexander

PLEASEYOURSELF