An Excerpt from "The Moment of Complexity- Emerging Netwrok Culture" by Mark C. Taylor

Mark C. taylor touches upon several categories, such as politics, culture and society, in order to explain the ideologies behind grids and netwroks. he tries to differentiate the world into two parts, that of network structure, and that of grid structure, and he moves on to talk about the hisotry and pioneeers of each. I found his analogy of walls (security) and webs (complexity) quite interesting. his assertion of grids being "order" and networks being "chaos", is also intriguing, and the quote by Stuart Kaufman, "Life evolves toward a regime that is poised between order and chaos," sums up the entire reading. i also enjoyed reading the section on Le Corbusier where he talks about the difference between man and donkey, and their relationship to modernism/post-modernism. It was no surprise to see Adolf Loose mentioned in the excerpt, his anti-ornamentation stance reverbaerates in the segment on MVDR. The strict and ordered traits of the grid system is countered well with the introduction of netwrok structures. I found the part on Frank Gehry to be fascinating since he lived in a lifetime where the impossible became possible. Overall the piece was a good read and contained several storng messages to aspiring architects such as:

• be unpredictable
• principle of order
• know your history
• be informed well
• Inform well
• Architecture reflects a society
• Functionalism
• Simplification of complexity