Chapter Fractals in Settlement Architecture第二章分形在结算结构.docVIP

Ron Eglash eglash@ African Inspirations for Open Architecture: the Political Economy of Self-organization Introduction Open Source Software (OSS) has become the inspiration for many projects in which we attempt to create a “Common Pool Resource” by which the public can utilize and modify products without the restraints of copyrights and patents. In the case of OSS, such as Lunix, FireFox, OpenOffice and others, these systems are relatively easy to propagate because they are software products, and thus are “non-rival goods” – that is, the use by one consumer does not interfere with the use by another. In a sense that is cheating—the traditional economic conception of a Common Pool Resource is one of rival goods, such as fishing stocks or forests. Thus the challenge of systems such as Open Architecture is to generate the benefits of OSS with the constraints of rival goods. Fortunately we have some excellent models for Open Architecture in the case of traditional African settlements. This essay will briefly review the “open” aspects of these indigenous architectures, and describe how their principles might be applied to contemporary design. Indigenous Open Architecture in Africa Africa is not homogenous; we must emphasize that the fractal character of African architecture is describing a subtle “family resemblance” (as Wittgenstein would call it) across multiple cultural streams. Fractals are patterns that repeat themselves at many different scales. Fractal geometry was first applied in studies of natural systems: trees are branches of branches, mountains are peaks of peaks, and clouds are puffs of puffs. That is because nature tends to utilize self-organizing processes in its constructions. When I first noted fractal structures in aerial photos of African villages, my initial hypothesis was that these structures, like those in nature, were created by unconscious dynamics, but a year of fieldwork in West and Central Africa involving interviews with the artisans pr