BEYOND GESTALT

Cybernetics has been defined, as ‘the art of effective action’. Yet architecture in developing countries tends to emulate the configurations familiar to the industrialized world forsaking ‘the hidden dimension of culture’ a sure recipe for alienation—the affliction of populations of many urban housing solutions. Intention: ‘to investigate the isomorphy of concepts, laws and models in various fields’ and review design strategy which may ‘enable us to integrate our knowledge of mind with our knowledge of the physical world’. In the search for coherent theory, or ‘the four deep structures at the roots of architecture’ are involved Hillier and Pearlman (1967, 1973, 1977, 1979) with their isomorphic ‘four function’ paradigms. Adoption of the research approach of Pask's ‘redundant holist’, searching for and attending to diverse types of information, led to the revelation of an isomorphy between a particular set of ‘four functions’ devoped by Pearlman (1977) and the ‘four principles’ of Gestalt thereby advancing the understanding of the intentions and processes that cause forms to exist and give them their significance and meaning.