My Cybernetics
Cybernetics and Architecture
In Francis Heylighen’s “Cybernetics and second order Cybernetics” discusses how cyberneticians use relational high level concepts to “analyze and formally model different abstract properties of systems and their dynamics” thus “allowing us to ask such questions as whether complexity tends to increase with time.”
I will start by saying that in my effort to understand Cybernetics, first and/or second order, that the above statement holds true. The more I read, the more difficult the concepts became to grasp, not withholding the infuriating spatters of terms that only those already familiar with cybernetics would understand.
The idea of understanding how things work and the concept of deconstructing autonomy are intriguing but how does that apply to architecture?
Yes, architecture is continually re-inventing itself by leaps and bounds with new technology and attention to the concerns of the day. But what are we hoping to achieve by studying cybernetics in relation to it? Most traditional architecture is static. Even if it is not, it is only in recent years that buildings or its components have had the ability to respond to external stimuli. Perhaps the study of cybernetics is moving towards the creation of an autonomous building? One that will think for its user and pre-empt its needs and wants.
Excuse me for being a naysayer but haven’t most of us watched “i.Robot” where the cyborg is able to think for itself then tries to take over the world? I don’t know how much of an autonomous building I’d like to live in if what I do is being “observed” and analysed by the walls and windows.
To a large degree, yes, it is extremely practical to have detectors and sensors that will help save on running costs or help the environment. However, when it comes to cybernetics within the realm of architecture, I believe that second-order cybernetics would be much more useful in studying. I think that if the study of the intended users of the piece of architecture involved how they think, work and react to different stimuli, much more functional and successful architecture could be developed.
For now, based on my crude understanding of Cybernetics, I say that there are probably people other than Architects who would benefit more from the intense study of it. Then again, I probably misunderstood the entire article (I skipped the parts about equations).
