On the antifragility of cities and of their buildings

Abstract

We discuss the relevance of the concept of antifragility, introduced by Nassim Taleb, to the theory and practice of urban planning and design. We further contrast the antifragility of cities with that of their "smartness", suggesting that the former deserves a greater focus in the planning practice. Finally, we explore the potential antifragility of buildings, arguing it to be an important factor of the antifragility of cities in general.

Innovative Entrepreneurship as a Collaborative Effort: An Institutional Framework

“…While all healthy economies will see a blend of fragile, robust, and antifragile CIBs and a continuous movement across these three categories, the renewal of the CIB population should be less volatile and smoother than microlevel processes in a well-functioning institutional setting (Elert and Henrekson 2020). 8 Living organisms are generally (to a certain extent and within their life cycle) antifragile, as are many objects, technologies, institutions, social practices, and systems that last for a long time (Blečić and Cecchini, 2017). Antifragility has similarities to Ostrom's (2010) theory of resilient governance.…”

Antifragile planning

“…2 So the scheme in Figure 1 clarifies that not everything antifragile is necessarily internally dynamic nor complex, but also that not everything complex is necessarily antifragile. In the case of urban systems we are of course dealing with the second column, their potential antifragility rooted in their complexity (Blečić and Cecchini, 2017).…”

“… 2. An interesting example of antifragility – relevant for the survivability of cities, neighbourhoods and buildings (Blečić and Cecchini, 2017; Brand, 1994) – is the phenomenon of ‘anti-aging’, the so-called Lindy Effect (Goldman, 1964; Mandelbrot, 1982; Taleb, 2012). The idea of Lindy Effect is that the future life expectancy of a non-senescent thing (e.g.…”

El Edificio de altura. Una revisión de las aproximaciones desde la sociología para su estudio

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