The assumption of an environmental crisis, global warming and climate change, has put into question the viability of modern development patterns in industrialised societies. This pattern is characterised by excessive exploitation of energy and resources without concern for negative impact upon the natural ecosystem. One of the primary challenges to sustainable development is identified as the dilemma between long term economic development and environmental damage. Influenced by this pattern, modern design of buildings and cites contributes to environmental degradation.
To explore an alternative paradigm for sustainable design, this book investigates a model of open systems evolution based on scientific foundations of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and complex systems science. It states the creativity of the universe appears as the emergence of order via the mechanisms of open systems evolution, a manifesto of the Post-Modernism world-view. Furthermore, the book argues this novel paradigm of open systems evolution implies a conceptual framework for sustainable design, an intelligent model of buildings and cities, adapting to the natural ecosystem and ensuring positive impact upon it, and a contextual design strategy for ecologically symbiosis with nature, an order of buildings and cities.