Cities can be viewed as information architecture systems. Here, ärchitecture" is used in the sense of computer architecture -- it refers not to the design of buildings, but to how the components of a complex system interact. Information exchange includes the movement of people and goods, personal contact and interactions, telecommunications, as well as visual input from the environment. Information networks provide a basis for understanding living cities and for diagnosing urban problems. This paper argues that a city works less like an electronic computer, and more like the human brain. As a functionally complex system, it heuristically defines its own functionality by changing connections so as to optimize how components interact. An effective city will be one with a system architecture that can respond to changing conditions. This analysis shifts the focus of understanding cities from their physical structure to the flow of information.
%0 Journal Article
%1 coward2004iac
%A Coward, L. Andrew
%A Salingaros, Nikos A.
%D 2004
%J Journal of Information Science
%K architecture cities complexity design information theory urban
%N 2
%P 107
%T The Information Architecture of Cities
%U http://applied.math.utsa.edu/~salingar/InfoCities.html
%V 30
%X Cities can be viewed as information architecture systems. Here, ärchitecture" is used in the sense of computer architecture -- it refers not to the design of buildings, but to how the components of a complex system interact. Information exchange includes the movement of people and goods, personal contact and interactions, telecommunications, as well as visual input from the environment. Information networks provide a basis for understanding living cities and for diagnosing urban problems. This paper argues that a city works less like an electronic computer, and more like the human brain. As a functionally complex system, it heuristically defines its own functionality by changing connections so as to optimize how components interact. An effective city will be one with a system architecture that can respond to changing conditions. This analysis shifts the focus of understanding cities from their physical structure to the flow of information.
@article{coward2004iac,
abstract = {Cities can be viewed as information architecture systems. Here, "architecture" is used in the sense of computer architecture -- it refers not to the design of buildings, but to how the components of a complex system interact. Information exchange includes the movement of people and goods, personal contact and interactions, telecommunications, as well as visual input from the environment. Information networks provide a basis for understanding living cities and for diagnosing urban problems. This paper argues that a city works less like an electronic computer, and more like the human brain. As a functionally complex system, it heuristically defines its own functionality by changing connections so as to optimize how components interact. An effective city will be one with a system architecture that can respond to changing conditions. This analysis shifts the focus of understanding cities from their physical structure to the flow of information.},
added-at = {2007-06-03T19:19:01.000+0200},
author = {Coward, L. Andrew and Salingaros, Nikos A.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/21107ccd5d92897609500a702b2436fde/yish},
interhash = {f5b9c67b78ff9840d15d564930d9b92c},
intrahash = {1107ccd5d92897609500a702b2436fde},
journal = {Journal of Information Science},
keywords = {architecture cities complexity design information theory urban},
number = 2,
pages = 107,
timestamp = {2007-06-03T19:19:01.000+0200},
title = {The Information Architecture of Cities},
url = {http://applied.math.utsa.edu/~salingar/InfoCities.html},
volume = 30,
year = 2004
}