The Embodied Multisystemic Resilience of Architecture and Built Form

Abstract

Abstract Architecture and built form embody resilience at multiple scales in time and space and are multisystemic. This chapter introduces the concept of operative panarchy, which combines Saverio Muratori’s project to activate the historical knowledge of architecture, cities, and territory and panarchy, based on Lance H. Gunderson and C. S. Holling’s description of adaptive transformations in human and natural systems. Operative panarchy, therefore, offers a framework for embodying multisystemic resilience, through incorporating the empirical evidence and historical analysis of human adaptation and ecosystem transformation in the historical evidence of architecture and built form. Archeological and cultural records, together with our common familiarity with the built environment, demonstrate how humans creatively reorganize and change in response to crisis, both minor everyday sensorimotor breakdowns and unprecedented catastrophic events. An operative panarchy diverges from previous discussions on applying various technical understandings of resilience to the professional practices of architecture and urban design and planning and proposes a more universal and embodied understanding of the multisystemic resilience of architecture and built form. Various examples will be presented, including a discussion on developing the concept of operative panarchy in response to the unprecedented speed and scale of urban development in contemporary China.