Architecture of complexity: Design aimed at serving life in a case study in the south of Minas Gerais

Abstract

The growing complexity of human society asks for new ways of being and living in and with the planet, overcoming old models and standards for a deeper understanding of the world based on mechanicism, reductionism and fractionism of knowledge and action. This new lifestyle points to living processes - the biosphere, as a source of inspiration and knowledge for human productions. In this study we propose a biophilic and integrative architecture, respondent to standards, cycles, webs and nets established by the evolution of human beings in syntony with the planet sheltering us all. The Architecture of Complexity, which incorporates inter, multi and ransdisciplinarity, multiple intelligences, different learning and doings, resulting from the interaction among human cultures and local ecosystems, are mediated or guided by the ecological design. With a view to answer an intriguing question, among others, we reflect upon the feasibility of an architecture which formulates a habitable area as part of an ecosystem, which expands beyond itself and reverberates with the land which, in response, provides feedback to the constructed environment. Aimed at an answer we have developed Gaia Terranova, a theoretical-practical-experiential experiment in the South of Minas Gerais.