> The third or organismic view of space states that space is neither lifeless nor neutral, but a living structure capable of being more living or less living […]
> The living structure is defined as a physical and mathematical structure or simply characterized by the recurring notion (or inherent hierarchy) of far more small substructures than large ones.
> […] fundamental laws of living structure that favour statistics over exactitude, because the former (or statistics) tends to make a structure more living than the latter (or exactitude). We present the concept of living structure through some working examples and make it clear how a living structure differs from a non-living structure, under the organismic worldview that was first conceived by the British philosopher Alfred Whitehead (1861–1947). In order to make a structure or space living or more living, we illustrate two design principles – differentiation and adaptation – using two paintings and two city plans. The new geography is a science of living structure, dealing with a wide range of scales, from the smallest scale of ornaments on walls to the scale of the entire Earth’s surface.
Adaptation is a process of change directed toward improving the 'fit' between a system and its environment. Adaptation may be a question of survival, of growth and development or of preference. The process depends on feedback (either positive or negative) to tell which alterations work best in the given environmental conditions. The process may take place in seconds, such as when our eyes adjust to a darkened room, or it may take generations such as in a society which develops the customs and crafts which fit it to its climate, its terrain or its neighbors.
Living structure is such a structure that consists of far more small substructures than large ones across all scales ranging from the smallest to the largest (the scaling law), yet with more or less similar sized substructures on each of the scales (Tobler’s law). Therefore, living structure is said to be governed by these two fundamental laws (Jiang 2019). Among the two laws, the scaling law is the first, or dominant law, as it is universal, global, and across scales, while Tobler’s law is available locally or on each of the scales.
# See also
The two laws have a common keyword – ‘things’: (1) more or less similar things on each scale, and (2) far more small things than large ones across all scales. What are the ‘things’ the two laws refer to? We have provided examples above while introducing these two laws. For example, cities in a country and streets in a city are the things, for they are with far more smalls than larges. Seen from the perspective of cities and streets, the country and the city are living structures. In general terms, the things that collectively constitute a living structur