Abstract
Taking as a starting point the research hypothesis that the urban body can be described as a configuration of related elements on which qualitative and quantitative features are inscribed, the complexity of the relationships of the elements of the urban body is examined through their network configuration. With the consideration of the urban body as network configuration, two distinctive property groups arise. One group includes the properties resulting from the autopoietic network function and the internal self-regulatory capacity to reflect the relative position of an element in the whole system through quantified expressions (variables) of the elements' properties. The second group includes properties which arise from the intentional research-design process.The research initially focuses on the autopoietic processes, which directly derive from the network function and they highlight the internal dynamics of the urban body, while they produce the parts and different components of th ...
Taking as a starting point the research hypothesis that the urban body can be described as a configuration of related elements on which qualitative and quantitative features are inscribed, the complexity of the relationships of the elements of the urban body is examined through their network configuration. With the consideration of the urban body as network configuration, two distinctive property groups arise. One group includes the properties resulting from the autopoietic network function and the internal self-regulatory capacity to reflect the relative position of an element in the whole system through quantified expressions (variables) of the elements' properties. The second group includes properties which arise from the intentional research-design process.The research initially focuses on the autopoietic processes, which directly derive from the network function and they highlight the internal dynamics of the urban body, while they produce the parts and different components of the urban body. These are quantified expressions of the relationships between the system's minimum units, variables deriving from the network's articulations and engagements.Correlation of pairs and sets of properties was applied per network node, in order to explore similarities between properties and generate respective groupings. This was achieved by application of a similarity function on all variables/properties of the urban body minimum units. The autopoietic properties appear as a set of values, allowing for the application of a clustering methodology of objects and their characteristics, on the basis of similarities finding methodologies and by implementing distance / correlation functions (distance function, correlation coefficient) and linkage rules. The same methodology is applied to characteristics resulting from the intentional design process. With the combined use of scatter diagrams and the similarity function, broader features and sliding groupings of the minimum units are generated, according to the determination of the minimum similarity value.As the urban body and the environment change simultaneously, changes in the broader economic-social-political environment may be reflected as changes in the composition of the urban body, as well as quantified changes, both of the autopoietic properties of the minimum units of the system, as well as of the properties arising from the intentional design process (economic, social and other characteristics). The interaction of the urban body with the environment is considered a process of simultaneous change of•its composition (number of items, their correlation),•the quantitative expressions of the system's elements properties, •and the clusters resulting from the application of the similarity function, using a combination of data which arise from •the autopoietic function of the system, •as well as from the intentional research - design process.The combined use of the network logic with the empirical perception of the complexity of the urban body, allows for the understanding and the design management of the urban body, taking into consideration the plurality of meanings it carries through its configurative history, through its intentional design process and through the transformations which occure during its interaction with the environment. The research proposes the adoption of a way of dealing with the complexity of the urban body which accepts the cross-reference (διαναφορικότητα) -the conceptual and quantitative system - environment sliding and operates under a sliding definition, both of the urban body, and of the similarities of its elements and their properties.A tool describing the urban body as a network configuration is introduced, where the complexity of the urban body qualities becomes interpretable and manageable through the discipline of the Graph and Network Theory.
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