Workshop theme:
In a traditional view of complexity, the fundamental issue of interest is the emergence of global patterns out of the non-linear interaction of simple elements. Cities, organizations, policy networks, economic systems, or human-computer networks, all encompass the interaction of relatively simple (or not that simple!) components that at some level of abstraction might appear to have some order. The impact of abstractions like CA, multi-agent systems, networks, or co-evolution, in understanding and modelling reality and supporting decisions in complex worlds is overwhelming. However, it can be argued that patterns that emerge in cities, economies, or organizational structures, are not purely random (or self-organised) phenomena, because elements or agents of the system are taking deliberate decisions in anticipation of such patterns. The workshop wishes to explore epistemological and methodological issues addressing the problem of how complexity may produce order that has been designed to emerge or likewise how the emergence of such patterns might acquire a design value.

The objective of the workshop is to investigate the relationship between design and complexity under this perspective and disclose pertinent questions for future research. For example,
- How design(s) can emerge out of complexity? How do design processes and products exist within a self-organised world? What is the role of design?
- How complexity, taken both as an epistemological approach and as a (diverse) set of methodologies, has been and can be utilised to (computationally or methodologically) support design?
- How knowledge developed about design in different domains can inform the way we understand and define complexity?

Relevant themes include:
- design in self-organising systems
- design in evolutionary and cooperative processes
- design for emergence
- networks and distributed design
- anticipating design
- scaling effects in design problems and objects
- complexity methods as design support tools

The organising committee:
Elena Besussi
Theodore Zamenopoulos
Katerina Alexiou

Scientific committee:
Mike Batty
Jeff Johnson
Philip Steadman
Arnaldo Cecchini
Angela Barbanente