Article
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A Recursive Definition of Goodness of Space for Bridging the Concepts of Space and Place for Sustainability
Version 1
: Received: 25 July 2019 / Approved: 26 July 2019 / Online: 26 July 2019 (04:19:25 CEST)
How to cite: Jiang, B. A Recursive Definition of Goodness of Space for Bridging the Concepts of Space and Place for Sustainability. Preprints 2019, 2019070297 Jiang, B. A Recursive Definition of Goodness of Space for Bridging the Concepts of Space and Place for Sustainability. Preprints 2019, 2019070297
Abstract
Conceived and developed by Christopher Alexander through his life’s work: The Nature of Order, wholeness is defined as a mathematical structure of physical space in our surroundings. Yet, there was no mathematics, as Alexander admitted then, that was powerful enough to capture his notion of wholeness. Recently, a mathematical model of wholeness, together with its topological representation, has been developed that is capable of addressing not only why a space is good, but also how much goodness the space has. This paper develops a structural perspective on goodness of space – both large- and small-scale – in order to bridge two basic concepts of space and place through the very concept of wholeness. The wholeness provides a de facto recursive definition of goodness of space from a holistic and organic point of view. A space is good, genuinely and objectively, if its adjacent spaces are good, the larger space to which it belongs is good, and what is contained in the space is also good. Eventually, goodness of space – sustainability of space – is considered a matter of fact rather than of opinion under the new view of space: space is neither lifeless nor neutral, but a living structure capable of being more living or less living, or more sustainable or less sustainable. Under the new view of space, geography or architecture will become part of complexity science, not only for understanding complexity, but also for making and remaking complex or living structures.
Keywords
scaling law; head/tail breaks; living structure; beauty; streets; cities
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Space and Planetary Science
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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