Skip to main content

SIRN—Synergetic Inter-Representation Networks: An Approach to Urban Planning and Design with Implications to Visual Reasoning and Design Creativity

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Studying Visual and Spatial Reasoning for Design Creativity
  • 2681 Accesses

Abstract

The term SIRN integrates two notions: IRNInter-representation network and synergetics which is the name assigned by Haken to his theory of complex, self-organizing systems. SIRN was originally developed by Haken and Portugali as an approach to, and model of, cognition and cognitive mapping. The aim of this paper is twofold: firstly, to relate SIRN to cognitive planning and urban design and secondly, to discuss the implications thereof to visual-spatial reasoning and design creativity. The discussion below starts with an overview on planning design and construction. It then introduces the notion and models of SIRN. Next a SIRN view on planning and design is suggested and finally on visual-spatial reasoning and design creativity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Portugali J (1996b). Inter-representation networks and cognitive maps. In: Portugali J. (ed) The construction of cognitive maps, pp. 11–43. Kluwer Academic, London

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  2. Haken H (1983a) Synergetics, an introduction, 3rd Edn. Springer, Berlin

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  3. Haken H, Portugali J (1996). Synergetics, inter-representation networks and cognitive maps. In: Portugali J. (ed)The construction of cognitive maps, pp. 45–67. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  4. Das JP, Kar BC, Parrila RK (1996) Cognitive planning: the psychological basis of intelligent behavior. Sage, New Delhi

    Google Scholar 

  5. Lawson B (2005) How designers think, 4th edn. Elsevier, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  6. Hillier B (1996). Space is the machine: a configurational theory of architecture. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Alexander C (2002/2004). The nature of order: an essay on the art of building and the nature of the universe. Center for Environmental Structure, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  8. Haken H, Portugali J (2005) A synergetic interpretation of cue-dependent prospective memory. Cognit Processes 6:87–97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Portugali N (2006). The act of creation and the spirit of a place, a holistic-phenomenological approach to architecture. Axel Menges, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  10. Portugali J (2002) The seven basic propositions of SIRN (Synergetic Inter-Representation Networks). Nonlinear Phenom Complex Syst 5(4):428–444

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  11. Varela FJ, Thompson E, Rosch E (1994) The embodied mind. MIT, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  12. Bartlett FC (1932/1961). Remembering: a study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  13. Portugali J (2000). Self-organization and the city. Springer, Heidelberg

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  14. Portugali J (2010). Complexity, cognition and the city. Springer, Heidelberg

    Google Scholar 

  15. Haken H (1996) Principles of brain functioning: a synergetic approach to brain activity, behavior and cognition. Springer, Berlin

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  16. Miller GA (1956) The magic number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information. Psychol Rev 63(2):81–97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Goel V, Pirolli P (1992).The structure of design problem spaces.Cognit Sci 16:345–429

    Google Scholar 

  18. Gardner H (1987) The mind’s new science. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  19. Gibson JJ (1979) The ecological approach to visual perception, Gibson. Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, p 40

    Google Scholar 

  20. Haken H, Portugali J (2003) The face of the city is its information. J Environ Psychol 23:385–408

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Shannon CE, weaver W (1949). The mathematical theory of comminication. University of Illinois Press, Illinois

    Google Scholar 

  22. Haken H (1988/2000). Information and self-organization: a macroscopic approach to complex systems. Springer-Verlag, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  23. Attneave F (1959) Applications of information theory to psychology. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York

    Google Scholar 

  24. Krampen M (1979) Meaning in the urban environment. Pion, London

    Google Scholar 

  25. Arenheim R (1962/1974) Picasso’s guernica University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  26. Goldschmidt G (1991) The dialectic of sketching. Creativity Res J 4(2):123–143

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Goldschmidt G (1994). On visual design thinking

    Google Scholar 

  28. Sir F. Petrie’s (1904) notion of relative chronology

    Google Scholar 

  29. Cavalli-Sforza, Feldman (1981) have termed “cultural mutation”

    Google Scholar 

  30. Portugali J, Alfasi N (2008) An approach to planning discourse analysis. Urban Stud 45(2):251–272

    Google Scholar 

  31. Alfasi (200×) Ph.D research

    Google Scholar 

  32. Habermas J (1984) The theory of communicative action, vol 1: reason and the rationalization of society. Heinemann, London

    Google Scholar 

  33. Healey P (1997) Collaborative planning: making frameworks in fragmented societies. Macmillan, London

    Google Scholar 

  34. Tan E, Portugali J (2011). The responsive city design game. In Portugali J. et al (eds), Complexity theories of cities have come of age. Springer, Heidelberg (forthcoming)

    Google Scholar 

  35. Chomsky N (1986) Knowledge of language. Praeger, New York

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juval Portugali .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this paper

Cite this paper

Portugali, J. (2015). SIRN—Synergetic Inter-Representation Networks: An Approach to Urban Planning and Design with Implications to Visual Reasoning and Design Creativity. In: Gero, J. (eds) Studying Visual and Spatial Reasoning for Design Creativity. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9297-4_8

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9297-4_8

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9296-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9297-4

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics