Complexity Timeline by Jose Cruz, Jr

COMPLEXITY Responding to Demands

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I think the next century will be the century of complexity.â&#x20AC;? -Stephen Hawking

Defining Complexity Buildings, cities and societies become more complex as they attempt to solve problems. Archeologist Joseph Tainter wrote in his book, The Collapse of Complex Societies, complexity consists of two components: structural differentiation and organization. The first, structural differentiation, refers to the development of various categories of inputs: social roles, institutions, information, settlements, occupations, technologies, etc. Organization refers to the framework of constraint that dictates the behavior of these various categories so that they work systemically. However, the elaboration of structure and increased organization comes at a cost an expensive one. A collapse of a complex system, then, is ultimately due to insufficient or excess amounts of complexity - not necessarily due to complexity itself but rather from incurring higher costs merely maintain a particular level of complexity. If a society (city or building) experiences diminishing returns from their investment into complexity then this system will certainly fail. The Roman Empire experienced this. The society arrived at a point in which the cost of maintaining the status quo of their complex infrastructural and economic models was no longer worth bearing. Thus, a steady simplification of their complex systems lead to their eventual dissemination as an empire.

Mulberry Street, c. 1900

“The irony of complexity is that it simplifies.” - Joseph A. Tainter

The Emergence of Complexity An increase in populations results in exponential demand in basic needs: food, shelter, transportation and an overall awareness of well-being. This demand then obliges the exploitation of our human, natural and technological resources in order to aid in the effort of sustaining a systemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s survival. Thus, as a system grows so, too, do the basic needs and problems. As a result, even more

resources are dispatched to respond to a growing network of various social, political, infrastructural and economic demands. Theoretically, then, complexity is an inevitable consequence of organization and differentiation that will continue to develop so long as there are demands to address.

The Dutch Broadway, 1660 Map Lower Manhattan

The Commissioner’s Grid, 1907 Map Lower Manhattan

If you look at the topography of the island of Manhattan today, that topography is a topography in which the forces of economics, culture and human intent have trumped the forces of geology. - David Deutsch, The Beginning of Infinity

Responding to Complexity Developing cities are breeding grounds for complexity, having to address urban issues everyday. From congested vehicular traffic to the health of workers inside buildings, cities incubate higher levels of complexity everyday by responding with carefully placed traffic lights and updated health codes, for example. Since the Dutch colonization of Manhattan in the 1600’s, the island has 6

drastically evolved due to the pressures of accommodating a much larger population, an increase in mercantilism and oscillating political discourse. By 1811, New York City had developed what some call as the single most important document that has defined the city’s development, The Commissioner’s Grid. This street plan was a major infrastructural undertaking that, till this day, organizes

all of the activity, transportation and real estate growth in the largest city in the United States. Like New York, cities all of over the world are being pressured to continuously add new levels of structure to an ever-growing chain of demands.

The Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cities Diagram of Street Layouts

Recognizing Complexity To recognize complexity is to first understand that there are endless amounts of forces, both physical and metaphysical, within a system, organism or city that demand attention. Thus, through the careful study and implementation of organizational strategies, an entity can properly respond to these forces. Architecture and urbanism, for example, design and build environments that alter our 8

usage and perception of city space. Political persuasion and social conditioning are, in contrast, non-physical forces that nonethless influence the manner in which entities behave and network. Regardless, this elaboration of infrastructures and increase in organization comes at a price - an expensive one.

Moscow Urban Sprowl Lee Jang Sub

Los Angeles Highway Intersection

Subway Systems of the World Diagrams of Underground Transportation Systems

Herald Square

Picturesque American 1909, Harry Grant Dart

How You May Live and Travel in the City of 1950 1925, Popular Science

Complexity vs. Complicated The development of increasingly interconnected cities has resulted in a singularity that proliferates this culture into the future. That is, because we live in complex societies we imagine that the future can only be even more tantalizing. Perhaps, here, we into the temptation of confusing complexity with â&#x20AC;&#x153;complicatedâ&#x20AC;?. A complicated society, as some of the pictures above envision, is 14

one in which confusion retards performance and disorganization presides over organization and structural variation. What we should not see, therefore, in images attempting to predict the future is the exacerbation of the familiar - more roads, more cars, more people, bigger buildings. This vision is simply unsustainable. We, as participants in complex and networked societies, must realize that

to continuously grow, we must always question every assumption we hold to be true of our understanding of complexity. Keeping in mind, again, that complexity is simplifies and organizes.

Lower Manhattan Expressway 1960â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, Paul Rudolph

Asian City of Tomorrow 1998, Image from SMLXL

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World Trade Center: Narrative of Circulation, Transportation and Program 2013, Jose Cruz

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World Trade Center: Narrative of Circulation, Transportation and Program (Detail) 2013, Jose Cruz

If a society experiences diminishing returns from their investment into complexity then this system will begin to collapse.

Collapse A collapse of a complex system, then, is ultimately due to insufficient or excess amounts of complexity - not necessarily due to complexity itself but rather from incurring higher costs merely maintain a particular level of complexity.

Cruz, Jose. COMPLEXITY