Modelagem da informação: arquitetura, urbanismo e meio ambiente

Abstract

Models are narratives of information that explain phenomena through a system, that means, a set of coordinated parts to achieve a set of diverse goals, understanding and controlling them. Models, information, and narratives have common characteristics, but they are different things. The information is not transferable. People come in contact with information and try to tell others about it. When the narrative is accepted by a group, it becomes a component of a model. The models can be questioned because the narratives that compose them can become with little significance for the collectivity. Understanding model errors is important to allow for greater precision in the description of phenomena. Science has used models for the intellectual conception for a long time, trying to describe the observed phenomena and helping in the development of society, but the complexity of living has increased. Due to the emergence of new activities, which have generated new problems, science have become part of everyday life. The advance of technologies and theories in the 20th and 21st centuries generated concerns and questions and, perhaps epistemologies adopted, that are not enabled to model complex phenomena (with multiple variables), emerging and autopoietic systems (capable of self-regulation). That demonstrated that seems to be a conflict between the theoretical framework adopted for the elaboration of models of reality and the predictive fallibility of these models. The intention of the construction of this thesis is to try to purpose an advance in the epistemological vision that is related the modeling of information so that this vision will be able to demonstrate how it can be used as a tool to understand phenomena (in Architecture, in Urbanism, in Urban Health and in the Environment) elucidating structural characteristics of the modeling, the components of the formed systems and the predictive capacity of the models. This was obtained with the methodology of case studies that seems to highlight the analysis of complex information models elaborated through the composition of a framework of knowledge that comprised the thoughts of Karl Popper - the General Theory of Systems -, Autopoiesis, Emergence, Complexity Theory and Graphs. Therefore, the synthesis of a research framework with systemic characteristics called Modeling Concreteness was elaborated, which was validated after being applied in four case studies.