The Autopoiesis of Architecture

Author Patrik Schumacher offers innovative treatment that enriches architectural theory with a coordinated arsenal of concepts facilitating both detailed analysis and insightful comparisons with other domains, such as art, science and politics. He explores how the various modes of communication comprising architecture depend upon each other, combine, and form a unique subsystem of society that co-evolves with other important autopoietic subsystems like art, science, politics and the economy.

The first of two volumes that together present a comprehensive account of architecture's autopoiesis, this book elaborates the theory of architecture?s autopoeisis in 8 parts, 50 sections and 200 chapters. Each of the 50 sections poses a thesis drawing a central message from the insights articulated within the respective section. The 200 chapters are gathering and sorting the accumulated intelligence of the discipline according to the new conceptual framework adopted, in order to catalyze and elaborate the new formulations and insights that are then encapsulated in the theses. However, while the theoretical work in the text of the chapters relies on the rigorous build up of a new theoretical language, the theses are written in ordinary language ? with the theoretical concepts placed in brackets. The full list of the 50 theses affords a convenient summary printed as appendix at the end of the book.

The second volume completes the analysis of the discourse and further proposes a new agenda for contemporary architecture in response to the challenges and opportunities that confront architectural design within the context of current societal and technological developments.

Patrik Schumacher is partner at Zaha Hadid Architects and founding director of the Design Research Laboratory (DRL) at the Architectural Association (AA) in London. He studied philosophy and architecture in Bonn, London and Stuttgart, where he received his architectural Diploma in 1990. In 1996 he founded the AADRL with Brett Steele, and continues to serve as one of its directors. In 1999 he completed his PhD at the Institute for Cultural Science, Klagenfurt University. Patrik Schumacher joined Zaha Hadid in 1988. Since then Zaha Hadid Architects has expanded from a small studio to a global firm employing over 300 architects. Patrik Schumacher's career continues to integrate practice and theory. His contribution to the discourse of contemporary architecture is also evident in his prior writings, such as Digital Hadid, 2004, as well as in his curatorial work for exhibitions, such as Latent Utopias, Graz, 2002. His essays are available on www.patrikschumacher.com.