Aus architektonischer Sicht handelt die Kybernetik von der Faszination, Mythologisierung, Ideologisierung und dem utopischen Potenzial des technischen Denkens. Der Autor bietet eine fundierte Darstellung der Kybernetik in der Architektur und hat dafur neben einer umfangreichen Basisrecherche auch bisher unveroffentlichtes Material u. a. von Heinz von Foerster, Walter Gropius und Konrad Wachsmann verarbeitet. Mit dem Band kontextualisiert und bereichert er fur Leser die aktuelle Debatte um informationstechnologische Einflusse auf die Architektur."

In the era of cybernetics, architects suddenly encountered entirely new ways of operating technical systems: buildings could be calculated using circuit diagrams, creativity and imagination were confronted with the technical intelligence of thinking machines. Architects found themselves in the crosshairs of cybernetics. At stake was nothing less than the continued existence of the architect's inventive intelligence in a techno-scientific world. Today, we see computing machines, once so heavy, losing weight while gaining power. Computers are fully colonizing the human environment, creating their own digital ecosystems, and giving rise to forms of society and ways of being that cannot even be explained without big data. Available for the first time in English as a new edition.

As models and paradigms, patterns have been helping to orient architects since the Middle Ages. But patterns are also the basis of the history of ornament, an aesthetic phenomenon that links all times and cultures at a fundamental level. Ornament - and hence pattern as well - was abolished by the avant-garde in the first half of the twentieth century, but the notion of pattern has taken on new meaning and importance since the 1960s.

Complexity research has ultimately shown that even highly complex, dynamic patterns may be based on simple behavioral rules, and that has allowed the notions of pattern and pattern formation to take on new meanings, that are also central for architecture.

Today the use of generative computerized methods is opening up new ways of talking about an idea that is becoming increasingly abstract and dynamic. Pattern explores the question: what are the notions of pattern that must be discussed in the context of contemporary architecture?

Editorship Elisabeth Blum, Jesko Fezer, Gunther Fischer, Angelika Schnell Not unjustly referred to as legendary, this series of books on the history and theory of architecture and urban development was founded in 1963 by Ulrich Conrads, who was joined by Peter Neitzke as a co-editor of the series in the early 1980s. Now numbering over 150 titles, it is the most comprehensive German-language book series covering these fields. Following the deaths of the two longtime editors Ulrich Conrads (2013) and Peter Neitzke (2015), a new editorial committee was formed to continue their work: Elisabeth Blum, Jesko Fezer, Gunther Fischer and Angelika Schnell. As the future editors of this series, it is our aim to maintain the course set by our forerunners. The series has fulfilled its original aim of taking stock of the constructional and urban planning ideas and realizations formulated and achieved over the twentieth century in exemplary fashion. The Bauwelt Fundament series actually represents a history of ideas in the fields of planning and building that extends from the beginning of the twentieth century into the present. The second objective of the series, one that is anchored in its very name, will also continue to guide the development of the series, namely the publication of foundational thought - authoritative and fundamental - rather than passing opinion, of theses and polemics relating to the burning architectural and urban planning themes of the time. Penetrating complex interrelationships and probing them with systematic analysis provides the prerequisite for fruitful discourse and ongoing debate. As a forum for such discourses and contributions, the Bauwelt Fundamente series is maintaining its focus on the areas of architecture and urbanism, supplementing it with the always necessary historical investigation of important questions and texts and its extension into other cultural and social fields. A strong international orientation and the desire for more female authors are self-evident in such a context. The original graphic design approach taken by Helmut Lortz to the series is being maintained. As is fitting for a working library, Bauwelt Fundamente titles remain simply designed, using black and white for the logo, the images on the front and back, and the eleven-line summary of the volume's contents. This is indicative of the broad orientation of Bauwelt Fundamente to all those interested in the cultural and social development that provides the context for the creation of cities, houses and other objects, which in turn create contexts for the world. "Architects, it is said - or hoped - have always been interested in the world beyond the boundaries of their profession." (1) (1) Peter Neitzke, manuscript of his address Nicht mit dem Rucken zur Gesellschaft (Not with one's back to society) given to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Bauwelt Fundamente in Berlin, 2013.