ABSTRACT
The temptation to carry the analogy between a non-linear nature and a non-linear architecture to the scale of the city is considerable, and quite a few have succumbed. If anything, the city lends itself more easily to discussions of complex systems because it is itself a complex system, or rather layers of complex systems, some material, some ethereal, with the ethereal seeking to supersede the material. Is there, however, any real environmental advantage to be gained from the imposition of modish conceptual models upon current urban conditions, whether industrial or post-industrial? Can they provide new ways of thinking about urban change that will help us, not only understand, but act on, transformations we feel at present to be uncontrollable and/or undesirable? Current thinking on the future of the city tends to be split between materialists, who concern themselves with sustainable urban forms, whether compact, polynucleated or decentralized, and non-materialists, who proclaim the supplanting of urban space by cyberspace, as if it were a fait accompli. Does cyberspace have anything to teach those seeking to give form to the sustainable cities of this millennium. Are there, in the constitution of ephemeral digital systems, models that are of use to those reconstructing material urban systems? Or is cyberspace a passing fashion that has nothing to offer sustainable practice past the usual and dubious claims that computing cuts down on commuting?
