{"id":30648,"date":"2022-08-11T04:56:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T04:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=30648"},"modified":"2022-08-12T06:19:02","modified_gmt":"2022-08-12T06:19:02","slug":"how-living-architecture-could-help-the-world-avoid-a-soul-deadening-digital-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/how-living-architecture-could-help-the-world-avoid-a-soul-deadening-digital-future\/","title":{"rendered":"How \u2018living architecture\u2019 could help the world avoid a soul-deadening digital future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tim Gorichanaz<\/a>, Drexel University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first Apple laptop felt like a piece of magic made just for me \u2013 almost a part of myself. The rounded corners, the lively shading, the delightful animations. I had been using Windows my whole life, starting on my family\u2019s IBM 386, and I never thought using a computer could be so fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs said that computers were like bicycles for the mind<\/a>, extending your possibilities and helping you do things not only more efficiently but also more beautifully. Some technologies seem to unlock your humanity and make you feel inspired and alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not all technologies are like this. Sometimes devices do not work reliably or as expected. Often you have to change to conform to the limitations of a system, as when you need to speak differently so a digital voice assistant can understand you. And some platforms bring out the worst in people. Think of anonymous flame wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a researcher who studies technology, design and ethics<\/a>, I believe that a hopeful way forward comes from the world of architecture. It all started decades ago with an architect\u2019s observation that newer buildings tended to be lifeless and depressing, even if they were made using ever fancier tools and techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tech\u2019s wear on humanity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The problems with technology are myriad and diffuse<\/a>, and widely studied and reported: from short attention spans<\/a> and tech neck<\/a> to clickbait<\/a> and AI bias<\/a> to trolling and shaming<\/a> to conspiracy theories and misinformation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As people increasingly live online, these issues may only get worse. Some recent visions of the metaverse<\/a>, for example, suggest that humans will come to live primarily in virtual spaces. Already, people worldwide spend on average seven hours per day on digital screens<\/a> \u2013 nearly half of waking hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While public awareness of these issues is on the rise, it\u2019s not clear whether or how tech companies will be able to address them. Is there a way to ensure that future technologies are more like my first Apple laptop and less like a Twitter pile-on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/a>
Christopher Alexander in 2012. Michaelmehaffy\/Wikimedia Commons<\/a>, CC BY-SA<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Over the past 60 years, the architectural theorist Christopher Alexander pursued questions similar to these in his own field. Alexander, who died in March 2022 at age 85<\/a>, developed a theory of design<\/a> that has made inroads in architecture. Translated to the technology field, this theory can provide the principles and process for creating technologies that unlock people\u2019s humanity rather than suppress it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How good design is defined<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Technology design is beginning to mature. Tech companies and product managers have realized that a well-designed user interface is essential for a product\u2019s success<\/a>, not just nice to have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As professions mature, they tend to organize their knowledge into concepts. Design patterns are a great example of this. A design pattern is a reusable solution to a problem that designers need to solve frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In user experience<\/a> design, for instance, such problems include helping users enter their shipping information or get back to the home page. Instead of reinventing the wheel every time, designers can apply a design pattern: clicking the logo at the upper left always takes you home. With design patterns, life is easier for designers, and the end products are better for users<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design patterns facilitate good design in one sense: They are efficient and productive. Yet they do not necessarily lead to designs that are good for people. They can be sterile and generic. How, exactly, to avoid that is a major challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A seed of hope lies in the very place where design patterns originated: the work of Christopher Alexander. Alexander dedicated his life to understanding what makes an environment good for humans \u2013 good in a deep, moral sense \u2013 and how designers might create structures that are likewise good. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hbwnDdPWjig?wmode=transparent&start=0 Christopher Alexander discussing place, repetition and adaptation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His work on design patterns, dating back to the 1960s, was his initial effort at an answer. The patterns he developed with his colleagues included details like how many stories a good building should have and how many light sources a good room should have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Alexander found design patterns ultimately unsatisfying. He took that work further, eventually publishing his theory in his four-volume magnum opus, \u201cThe Nature of Order<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Alexander\u2019s work on design patterns is very well known \u2013 his 1977 book \u201cA Pattern Language<\/a>\u201d remains a bestseller \u2013 his later work, which he deemed much more important, has been largely overlooked. No surprise, then, that his deepest insights have not yet entered technology design. But if they do, good design could come to mean something much richer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On creating structures that foster life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Architecture was getting worse, not better. That was Christopher Alexander\u2019s conclusion in the mid-20th century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much modern architecture is inert and makes people feel dead inside<\/a>. It may be sleek and intellectual \u2013 it may even win awards \u2013 but it does not help generate a feeling of life within its occupants. What went wrong, and how might architecture correct its course?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cluster<\/a>
An example of the kind of postmodern architecture Christopher Alexander criticized. Garry Knight\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Motivated by this question, Alexander conducted numerous experiments throughout his career, going deeper and deeper. Beginning with his design patterns, he discovered that the designs that stirred up the most feeling in people, what he called living structure, shared certain qualities. This wasn\u2019t just a hunch, but a testable empirical theory, one that he validated and refined from the late 1970s until the turn of the century. He identified 15 qualities<\/a>, each with a technical definition and many examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The qualities are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n