The essential structural and infrastructural systems of the city exist to support the direct and indirect survival of its citizen bodies, relationships and exchanges. Even as cities become increasingly adept at creating built solutions to meet human demands, they seem to be disconnecting from the ultimate infrastructure on which their systems depend – namely [...]
Structural (or building) intelligence represents the “ Its” space of the human hive. This intelligence connects us to the time-space realities of the city, that we see, feel, hear, smell, touch and taste. It gives us the capacity to structure and systematize our environment to sustain our complex adaptive life systems. City structures are made [...]
Last month I visited Leon Mexico where I met the Citizen's Observatory and together we all met the Mixteca indigenous peoples who have moved to the city. The Mixteca have created their own urban culture (beside the railway tracks) from the strength of the stories they bring from their traditional ways. Their stories of daily life, spiritual practice, making [...]
Relationships may be the prime “currency” of the Integral City. Our interpersonal relationships tell us do we have the capacity to survive together? connect with our environment (including other people)? and reproduce? recreate? regenerate? In a living system, relationships are the bonds that link identities (holons) and information. Relationships make exchanges possible. The formation of [...]
Cultural intelligence represents the “We” life of the city. It is the beating heart of the Human Hive. This heart-based intelligence embraces the relationships in the city. These relationships transcend boundaries that both contain and separate families, groups, organizations and all the collectives of people in the city. It includes the individual and the group [...]
Health emerges because the structures we have created sustain us through relatively stable times and life conditions. When these structures have built-in flexibility they are also resilient and create the conditions for an energetic city. This means that my bio-physical self can respond to the changes in my environment and access to energy, including other [...]
Our senses are our biological evidence gathering mechanisms. They gather the data that stimulate both automatic behavior (like eye blinking, flinching, sneezing, gagging) and intentional behavior. Intentional behavior involves choice and therefore consciousness. A city without intelligence sufficient to its complexity is a city that has lost touch with its senses. A senseless or sense [...]
Outer intelligence is the biological "It" space of the citizen — the space where the body acts and behaves. Behaviors demonstrate our inner intelligence in action. Demographics are key determinants of our intentional, cultural and social capacities, because they represent the bodies through which our intentions, cultures and systems are delivered. If we want to understand [...]
July Greetings, Integral City-zens and Friends of Integral City Today's Integral City Sparkies for City Co-Creators: Architect Christopher Alexander is experimenting with the “Phenomenon of Life,” co-designing living worlds where building centers, hulls and space are co-created with the stakeholders and future users of the buildings. He and his team are doing this with everyone from poor [...]
Inner intelligence is the "I" space of each citizen. At the scale of the individual I am (virtually) the city's mind from which emerges the city's cognitive, emotional and cultural capacities. This "I" is capable of reflection and learning - not just once - not just in a linear way - but through the many [...]