Date

1975

Author

Esmer, Özcan

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The aim of this paper is to examine in broader terms the cybernetic and traditional approaches to city planning. One of the central issues with regard to city planning is to relate the complexity level of the real world situation to its abstract model. An urban structure as a part of large social system requires an N-dimensional space for description and planning. Largeness of systems is not a matter of physical size, but their complexity which is measured by variety. Variety is defined as the number of distinguishable elements within a given set. In large systems many inputs and many outputs are involved where most of the inputs are not controllable and most of the outputs are not measurable. Large systems, because of the high variety, resist piecemeal and atomistic attempts at understanding. Yet, such systems are accessible by the process of variety reduction through the principles of cybernetic modelling. The. original definition of cybernetics, "the science of control and communication in the animal and the machine", advanced by N. Wiener(1948) should be generalized to include social and economic systems. The traditional and cybernetic approaches to complex systems is similar to each other at the beginning. Both begin by constructing a model which greatly reduces the variety of the world situation. However, the traditional approach assumes that the boundary of the system is closed and in the process of modelling the information lost cannot be retrieved at the end. Therefore, the distortion between the model prediction and the real situation cannot be eliminated by simple error-controls. As a result, the traditional approach cannot cope with the high variety of complex systems. The cybernetic approach develops first a structural and parametric model of the world situation. By using and applying concepts like "Requisite Variety", "Black Box", "Performance Optima", and "Feed back" it regenerates the lost variety in the process of modelling. Moreover, the cybernetic approach provides principles to deal with the "Unexpectedness" which is characteristic to the complex systems. Our "master plans" cannot work because they are low-variety solutions to high-variety and spatially extensive urban situations To meet the demands of Requisite Variety, the methods of city planning should be redefined. Braybrooke and Lindbloom's strategy of "Incrementalism" can be criticized from the cybernetic point of view, on the ground that they do not consider the variety-reducing techniques. Cybernetics is capable of dealing with not only complex systems but the whole, and thus, comprehensive systems. Neither R.Bolan27 does analyze the implications of cybernetics in his "Emerging Views of Planning". Yet, G.Chadwick's(1971) recommendation of an erection of a planning system structured upon A.Etzioni's(1968) "Mixed-Scanning Approach" can be compatible with the Cybernetic Approach.

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http://jfa.arch.metu.edu.tr/archive/0258-5316/1975/cilt01/sayi_1/129-143.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/51444

Collections

Department of Architecture, Article