Archigram and Metabolist: "Systems Thinking in Architecture"
The objective of systems thinking is a methodology to solve problems. It follows two basic premises: first, that reality is regarded in terms of wholes ('Gestalten'), and that the environment is an essential situation as systems interact (affect and are affected by) their environments. Why is systems thinking important for design in general and architecture in particular? Because the more research is done on disparate subjects, the clearer it becomes that, since all things are influenced by the environment in which they exist, to understand the aesthetics, functioning and relative ongoing usability of a chosen subject, one must also have an understanding of the factors which have influence in that context. The purpose of this paper is to discuss systems theory as understood and expressed in comparative architectural design history and theories of the Archigram in the West and the Metabolism Movement in Japan.
Over the ages, observations, perception and data collection has resulted in the formulation of theories. According to Bohm and Peat (2000), "Theories have become science's most important link with reality à theories determine not only the design of scientific instruments but the kinds of questions that are posed in the experiments themselvesà even raw data that they yield are fed directly into computers in the form of numbers and digitized signals."
Systems thinking can be defined as the ability to synthesize or integrate elements rather than breaking them into parts for the purpose of analysis. As opposed to specialists, synthesizers are able to understand how elements interact, how they fit together to make a whole or a system. A system is a whole whose properties and behavior derive from the way the parts interact with each other in the context of their environment and other input factors, not how they act when taken separately. When a system is ta...