ABSTRACT
Part One of Two Spheres depicted three drivers of architectural change: postindustrial society, systems thinking, and complex buildings. Part Two now examines three phases of adaptation to those evolutions: encounters, convergences, and embraces. This first chapter in the Part Two examination is a historical recounting of four architectural encounters with complexity; all originating in postindustrial transformation. That history is told through four lively tangos that architects have danced with complexity: wicked problems, messy authenticity, ordered essences, and natural ecology. Chapter 5 then illustrates some current convergences between architecture and postindustrial complexity. Chapter 6 concludes Part Two by speculating as to how these encounters and convergences might inevitably lead from a dance to a full embrace.
