Course : EMERGENT FORM

This seminar is based on the concept of Emergence and Self-Organization as they are present in various fields, starting with Biology but extending to all facets of human culture (Urbanism, Natural Systems, Structural Systems, Computational Algorithms). Some of the questions we investigate are: Why and How can this sort of thinking be applied to design? Why is this important?  Everyone taking the class needs to complete a reading in order to build some fundamental understanding of the concepts discussed. This is a short book by Stephen Johnson, which introduces the concept of Emergence in a fairly accessible way. There are ample references out there, but this I think is a good introduction to the class, and serves well for initiating a discussion during the first week. The book, "Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software", by Stephen Johnson is available on Amazon: