Community Resilience Through Exaptation. Notes for a Transposition of the Notions of Exaptation
Author: Alessandro Melis
Affiliation: Portsmouth University
Abstract
The cities planned to date are the main cause of greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, it is now necessary to study an alternative way of designing resilient cities. Starting from this consideration, this text is an exploration of the possibilities of using nondeterministic tools, therefore not suitable for designating a use (function) from the planning stage, as a way to respond to the uncertainties of the future. To do this, we hypothesised a methodology that compares biology with architecture and, in particular, natural selection with design. The components of the natural selection’s aptation are, in fact, both deterministic (adaptation) and non-deterministic (exaptation).While adaptation is a concept widely studied in architecture, there is no literature regarding the study of the mechanisms of exaptation, as deffened by Stephen Jay Gould, despite the obvious practical applications of this principle in city planning. From the studies carried out, the difficulty of overcoming an exclusively deterministic planning emerges, above all, because of some prejudices in the form of reifcation, including the ‘recapitulative’ reading of the city. In conclusion, the diversity of subjects who can contribute to city planning is essential to increase their resilience in view of future unexpected effects of the global crises.
References List
Foerster, B. (2020) Città inclusive per la fne del mondo. In: A. Melis (Ed.), ZombieCity. Riprogettare la tua città (pp. 137-154). Roma: D Editore.
Gould, J.S. (1967) Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Gould, J.S. (1982) The Panda’s Thumb. More refections in natural history. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Gould, J.S. (1991) Exaptation: A crucial tool for an evolutionary psychology. Journal of Social Issues. 47(3).43-65. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01822.x.
Gould, J.S. (1996) Full House. The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin. New York: Harmony Books.
Gould, J.S., Vrba, E.S., & Pievani, T. (Eds.) (2008). Exaptation. Il bricolage dell’evoluzione. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri. Hunt, E. (2019, May14) City with a female face: how modern Vienna was shaped by women. The Guardian. Retrieved from
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/may/14/city-with-afemale-face-how-modern-vienna-was-shaped-by-women.
Ijatuyi, O., Ayoola, H.A., & Melis, A. (Accepted/In press). Informality in formality: the case of a neighbourhood in a Nigerian city. In DiRaimo, A., Lehmann, S., & Melis, A. (Eds.), Informality Now - Informal Settlements through the lens of Sustainability. Abingdon: Routledge.
Jacobs, J. (1961) The Death and Life of the Great American Cities. New York: Modern Library.
Johnston-Zimmerman, K. (2017, December 19) Urban Planning Has a Sexism Problem. Next City. Retrieved from https://nextcity.org/features/view/urban-planning-sexism-problem.
Kern, L. (2020) Feminist City. Claiming Space in a Man-made World. London, New York: Verso.
Khemri, M. Y., Caputo, S., & Melis, A. (Accepted/In press) The drawbacks of a global concept of sustainable neighbourhood in developing countries. Resourceedings.
Khemri, M. Y., & Melis, A. (Accepted/In press) Achieving community resilience through informal urban practices: the case of El Houma in Algiers. In A. DiRaimo, S. Lehmann, & A. Melis. (Eds.), Informality Now - Informal Settlements through the lens of Sustainability. Abingdon: Routledge .
Khemri, M. Y., Melis, A., & Caputo, S. (2020) Sustaining the liveliness of public spaces in El Houma through placemaking: the case of Algiers. The Journal of Public Space, 5(1), 129-152.
Lara-Hernandez, J. A., Coulter, C. M., & Melis, A. (2020) Temporary appropriation and urban informality: exploring the subtle distinction. Cities, 99, [102626].
Lara-Hernandez, J. A., & Melis, A. (2020) Understanding temporary appropriation and social sustainability. In A. Melis, J. A. Lara-Hernandez, & J. Thompson (Eds.), Temporary Appropriation in Cities: Human Spatialisation in Public Spaces and Community Resilience (pp. 11-26). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32120-8_2.
Lara-Hernandez, J., Melis, A., & Caputo, S. (2019) Understanding streetscape design and temporary appropriation in Latin American cities: the case of Mexico City Centre. In H. Bougdah, A. Versaci, A. Sotoca, F. Trapani, M. Migliore, & N. Clark (Eds.), Urban and Transit Planning: Advances in
Science, Technology and Innovation (IEREK Interdisciplinary Series for Sustainable Development) (pp. 3-21). (Advances in Science, Technology and Innovation). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17308-1_1.
Lara-Hernandez, J. A., Melis, A., & Lehmann, S. (2019) Temporary appropriation of public space as an emergence assemblage for the future urban landscape: the case of Mexico City. Future Cities and Environment, 5(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.5334/fce.53
Lara-Hernandez, J. A., Melis, A., & Lehmann, S. (2020) Between assemblages and temporary appropriation: the case of Mexico City. In A. Melis, J. A. Lara-Hernandez, & J. Thompson (Eds.), Temporary Appropriation in Cities: Human Spatialisation in Public Spaces and Community Resilience (pp. 27-58). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32120-8_3.
Melis, A. (2020)a Resilienza e salute. Cityvision.
Melis, A. (2020)b Scenario vs processo nella città resiliente: Scenario vs process in the resilient city. Artribune, (55), 36-41. Retrieved from https://www.artribune.com/magazine/.
Melis, A., & Foerster, B. (2020) “Tane Mahuta”, sentinella del pianeta e sismografo del clima. Moreness.
Melis, A., & Medas, B. (2020) Tecnologie avanzate per la resilienza dell’architettura e della comunità. In Bioarchitettura: Appunti per una città sostenibile. Nardini Editore.
Melis, A., Medas, B., & Foerster, B. (2020) (Accepted/In press). Resilienza radicale e informalità, una risposta alle crisi ambientali e sanitarie negli ambienti costruiti. Largo Duomo.
Romano, M. (2019) La città delle donne. Desiderio e bellezza. Milano: La nave di Teseo.
Rustin, S. (2014, December 5) If women built cities, what would our urban landscape look like? The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/may/14/city-with-afemale-face-how-modern-vienna-was-shaped-by-women.
Vitale, G. (2020, May 31) Shaping the female city. Arup. Retrieved from https://www.arup.com/perspectives/shaping-thefemale-city
