The (anti) adaptive neighbourhoods. Embracing complexity and distribution of design control in the ordinary built environment

Abstract

While cities as a whole work as complex adaptive systems, the same cannot be said of many of their neighbourhoods constructed in the 20th century. The formation and perpetuation of anti-adaptive-neighbourhoods is a very recent and still under-explored phenomenon in urban history. The paper investigates the causes behind this phenomenon and suggests policy and design implications to generate neighbourhoods and built environments that are more adaptable. It demonstrates that contemporary discussions can be enriched if we pay more attention to certain underestimated urban factors that guarantee the incremental adaptation of the built environment: action, ownership, and time.