Thickening of the city : a city is a living organism with a complex tissue of events

The industrial revolution and modernism brought dramatic changes to our cities and had a negative effect on people's social lives. This thesis considers cities as living organisms and develops systems thinking in city design with the aim of providing a vision that includes a healthier social life. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how an architecture that views cities as social and natural systems can mitigate the negative effects of the industrialized era on our cities and bring social life into our neighbourhoods. Since the primary emphasis of this thesis is on the design process and the logic behind the application of some new scientific fields, an abstract architectural formal language is employed to illustrate the design development. The result is an iterative design process that has been repeated in a variety of mediums. The process uses Five Topics from different disciplines. At each stage of the research, some of the data collected supports a distinct approach to design intervention. However, in order for the Five Topics to work at the same time, the design intervention proposes a three dimensional solution for the city instead of a two dimensional traditional plan. Consequently, the thesis design provides an abstract model for the thickening of the city. This model applies some well-studied social principles to the existing pattern of the city.