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The author uses The Great Mosque of Cordoba as an example of a structure that has been modified and changed over time, yet that still has a clear sense of wholeness and coherence; “Independent elements are combined additively to form an indeterminate whole”. Allen explains how the local (architectural) relationships within the mosque have remained fixed, which allows for addition and reiteration (“the local syntax is fixed”). The parts are not fragments of a larger whole, but simply parts. Allen then uses St. Peters in Rome as an example of a Western building that has been grown incrementally over time. However a significant difference is that this type of growth “tends towards compositional closure”, as opposed to a gradual addition of similar parts (in the case of the Great Mosque of Cordoba). Another difference between these two structures is that one is highly processional and axial, while the other is quite democratic and non-axial in its architecture.
Minimalism emerged during the mid-sixties as a result of frustration with cubism. This type of minimalism sought to “empty the artwork of its figurative or decorative character in order to foreground its architectural condition. Instead of the meaning being placed on the object (as was done traditionally), the meaning was found in the spatial field between the viewer and the object, that in many ways was dynamic within itself. Postminimalism is a variation of minimalism, and is characteristically materially diverse and improper. Postminimalism is marked by a greater degree of informality and hesitation.
Artificial intelligence theorist Craig Reynolds created a computer program to simulate the flocking behavior of birds. He programmed these birds (“boids”) to follow three simple rules: maintain a minimum distance from subjects in its environment, to match the velocities with other boids in the neighborhood, and to move toward the perceived center of mass of boids in its neighborhood. Amazingly, given just these three simple rules, the boids were able to consistently form coherent flocks. This reveals how local rules, indirectly associated with one another, can form a coherent entity and whole. “Flock behavior tends towards roughly similar configurations, not as a fixed type, but as the cumulative result of localized behavior patterns”.
Human crowds, although seemingly comparable in nature to bird flocks, present a different dynamic. Humans are motivated by more complex desires, and interact in more unpredictable patterns. Therefore a broader criteria must be used to characterize the behavior of crowds. Elias Canetti proposed the differentiation between open and closed crowds, rhythmic and stagnating crowds, slow crowds and quick crowds. He also reveals how crowds have four primary attributes; it always wants to grow, it desires equality, it loves density, and it needs direction. “Crowds and swarms operate at the edge of control”. Composer Iannis Xenakis developed a compositional technique used to predict “the characteristic distribution of vast numbers of events”.
Classical architecture is governed by precise rules of axiality, symmetry, and hierarchy, and is in a strong historical connection with Western institutions. Examples of this are the library, museum, and concert hall, which all uphold classical order and are rigidly hierarchical. However the nature of these buildings, consisting of a clear arrangement of dependency between parts, limits the compositional shifts that these institutions are able to achieve. “European art since cubism has been a history of permuting relationships around the general premise that relationships should remain critical”. In order to reshape our political and social institutions, we must think about the relationship between parts differently, and develop the institution within a directed field condition, connected to the city or landscape.
