This page has only limited features, please log in for full access.

Dr. Nikos Salingaros
Department of Mathematics, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle San Antonio, Texas 78249, USA

Basic Info


Research Keywords & Expertise

0 Architectural Design
0 Planning
0 Resilience
0 Social Housing
0 Urban Design

Fingerprints

Planning
Urban Design
Urbanism
Pattern languages

Honors and Awards

The user has no records in this section


Career Timeline

The user has no records in this section.


Short Biography

Dr. Nikos A. Salingaros is Professor of Mathematics and Architecture at the University of Texas at San Antonio. An internationally recognized urbanist and architectural theorist, he was Visiting Professor of Architecture at the Delft University of Technology, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Querétaro, Mexico, and at Università di Roma III. He has directed and advised twenty Masters and PhD theses in architecture and urbanism. His publications include seven books and numerous articles. He has collaborated with visionary architect and software pioneer Christopher Alexander. Salingaros won the 2019 Stockholm Cultural Award for Architecture and shared the 2018 Clem Labine Traditional Building Award with Michael Mehaffy.

Following
Followers
Co Authors
The list of users this user is following is empty.
Following: 0 users

Feed

Journal article
Published: 04 July 2021 in Applied Sciences
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Eye-tracking technology is a biometric tool that has found many commercial and research applications. The recent advent of affordable wearable sensors has considerably expanded the range of these possibilities to fields such as computer gaming, education, entertainment, health, neuromarketing, psychology, etc. The Visual Attention Software by 3M (3M-VAS) is an artificial intelligence application that was formulated using experimental data from eye-tracking. It can be used to predict viewer reactions to images, generating fixation point probability maps and fixation point sequence estimations, thus revealing pre-attentive processing of visual stimuli with a very high degree of accuracy. We have used 3M-VAS software in an innovative implementation to analyze images of different buildings, either in their original state or photographically manipulated, as well as various geometric patterns. The software not only reveals non-obvious fixation points, but also overall relative design coherence, a key element of Christopher Alexander’s theory of geometrical order. A more evenly distributed field of attention seen in some structures contrasts with other buildings being ignored, those showing instead unconnected points of splintered attention. Our findings are non-intuitive and surprising. We link these results to both Alexander’s theory and Neuroscience, identify potential pitfalls in the software’s use, and also suggest ways to avoid them.

ACS Style

Alexandros Lavdas; Nikos Salingaros; Ann Sussman. Visual Attention Software: A New Tool for Understanding the “Subliminal” Experience of the Built Environment. Applied Sciences 2021, 11, 6197 .

AMA Style

Alexandros Lavdas, Nikos Salingaros, Ann Sussman. Visual Attention Software: A New Tool for Understanding the “Subliminal” Experience of the Built Environment. Applied Sciences. 2021; 11 (13):6197.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Alexandros Lavdas; Nikos Salingaros; Ann Sussman. 2021. "Visual Attention Software: A New Tool for Understanding the “Subliminal” Experience of the Built Environment." Applied Sciences 11, no. 13: 6197.

Journal article
Published: 19 May 2021 in Land
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The world can learn two key lessons from spontaneous settlements: (i) design so as to adapt to human biology; and (ii) design to save energy. Timeless processes of urban growth and sustainability have forced societies to conserve energy. Yet, nowadays, a profession focused on design ideology and short-term profit discredits many economical and effective long-term design methods. Decision-makers, politicians, and urbanists talk of energy conservation while continuing to use failed notions of industrial urbanity in place of documented solutions that work. Most damaging is the myopic academic elite’s fixation on an unsustainable industrial-modernist visual vocabulary of minimalist forms. By promoting typologies based on images dating from the 1920s, instead of using scientific analysis, the industry serves extractive global imperialism rather than satisfying the world’s population needs. We should instead learn from how self-builders adapt form, geometry, materials, surfaces, and ornament to maximize the user’s emotional experience in an otherwise extremely challenging environment.

ACS Style

Nikos Salingaros. Spontaneous Cities: Lessons to Improve Planning for Housing. Land 2021, 10, 535 .

AMA Style

Nikos Salingaros. Spontaneous Cities: Lessons to Improve Planning for Housing. Land. 2021; 10 (5):535.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos Salingaros. 2021. "Spontaneous Cities: Lessons to Improve Planning for Housing." Land 10, no. 5: 535.

Journal article
Published: 17 December 2020 in She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Beauty connects us viscerally to the material universe. Life forms evolved to experience biological connectedness as an absolute necessity for survival. Starting one century ago, however, dominant culture deliberately reversed the mechanism responsible for visceral connection. The resulting disconnection from the material world will continue to have long-lasting negative consequences for human well-being. Christopher Alexander describes how to revive the visceral connecting process, creating conditions for human-centered design in our times. Biological connectedness arises from an organic projection of the designer’s “self” onto the material reality of the object being designed, and to its physical context. Exploring multiple scenarios using informational feedback avoids letting the designer’s ego or imposed images exert a controlling influence. Implementing Alexander’s connecting method could revolutionize design, with the potential to produce a new, nourishing art and architecture. Recent developments in biophilia and neuro-design help to better understand Alexander’s ideas, using results not available at the time he was developing his theory.

ACS Style

Nikos A. Salingaros. Connecting to the World: Christopher Alexander’s Tool for Human-Centered Design. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation 2020, 6, 455 -481.

AMA Style

Nikos A. Salingaros. Connecting to the World: Christopher Alexander’s Tool for Human-Centered Design. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation. 2020; 6 (4):455-481.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos A. Salingaros. 2020. "Connecting to the World: Christopher Alexander’s Tool for Human-Centered Design." She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation 6, no. 4: 455-481.

Discussion
Published: 29 September 2020 in She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation
Reads 0
Downloads 0

This is a commentary on Per Galle’s review of the work of Christopher Alexander. Galle covers the classic book A Pattern Language and the later four-volume The Nature of Order. Alexander spent many decades deriving a geometrical basis for beauty. The design tools he introduced create humane and living architecture, by adapting to the human body and sensibilities. Alexander discards the postwar ideology pretending that beauty is meaningless, subjective, existing only in the eye of the beholder. This provocative material re-defines architecture. Alexander has always struck a sympathetic chord with non-architects. Galle clarifies the innovative strands of Alexander’s thought for the average practitioner and reader. Implementing them could completely re-orient the way we build all over the world.

ACS Style

Nikos A. Salingaros. It’s Time for World Architecture to Learn from Christopher Alexander: Discovering Humanity’s Relationship with the Universe. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation 2020, 6, 376 -380.

AMA Style

Nikos A. Salingaros. It’s Time for World Architecture to Learn from Christopher Alexander: Discovering Humanity’s Relationship with the Universe. She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation. 2020; 6 (3):376-380.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos A. Salingaros. 2020. "It’s Time for World Architecture to Learn from Christopher Alexander: Discovering Humanity’s Relationship with the Universe." She Ji: The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation 6, no. 3: 376-380.

Journal article
Published: 28 September 2020 in Inference: International Review of Science
Reads 0
Downloads 0

While Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius were indeed enormously influential in shaping modern architecture, noteworthy designs being done today prove that the International Style is no longer dominant.

ACS Style

Scott Simpson; Nikos Salingaros. On Theory and Practice. Inference: International Review of Science 2020, 5, 1 .

AMA Style

Scott Simpson, Nikos Salingaros. On Theory and Practice. Inference: International Review of Science. 2020; 5 (3):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Scott Simpson; Nikos Salingaros. 2020. "On Theory and Practice." Inference: International Review of Science 5, no. 3: 1.

Journal article
Published: 18 May 2020 in Urban Science
Reads 0
Downloads 0

The human brain evolved to implicitly approach or avoid objects in its surroundings. Requisite for survival, this behavior happens without conscious awareness or control, honed over 60 million years of primate evolution. Biometric technologies, including eye tracking, reveal these unconscious behaviors at work and allow us to predict the initial response of a design experience. This paper shows how a biometric tool, 3M-VAS (Visual Attention Software), can be effectively used in architecture. This tool aggregates 30 years of eye-tracking data, and is commonly applied in website and signage design. A pilot-study uses simplified drawings of building elevations to show 3M-VAS’s predictive power in revealing implicit human responses of engagement and disengagement to buildings. The implications on the impact of a structure in creating the public realm suggest recommendations for approving new architecture.

ACS Style

Nikos A. Salingaros; Ann Sussman. Biometric Pilot-Studies Reveal the Arrangement and Shape of Windows on a Traditional Façade to be Implicitly “Engaging”, Whereas Contemporary Façades are Not. Urban Science 2020, 4, 26 .

AMA Style

Nikos A. Salingaros, Ann Sussman. Biometric Pilot-Studies Reveal the Arrangement and Shape of Windows on a Traditional Façade to be Implicitly “Engaging”, Whereas Contemporary Façades are Not. Urban Science. 2020; 4 (2):26.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos A. Salingaros; Ann Sussman. 2020. "Biometric Pilot-Studies Reveal the Arrangement and Shape of Windows on a Traditional Façade to be Implicitly “Engaging”, Whereas Contemporary Façades are Not." Urban Science 4, no. 2: 26.

Journal article
Published: 01 January 2020 in Symmetry: Culture and Science
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Symmetry: Culture and Science (ISSN 0865-4824) - Online

ACS Style

Salingaros Nikos A.. Symmetry gives meaning to architecture. Symmetry: Culture and Science 2020, 31, 231 -260.

AMA Style

Salingaros Nikos A.. Symmetry gives meaning to architecture. Symmetry: Culture and Science. 2020; 31 (3):231-260.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Salingaros Nikos A.. 2020. "Symmetry gives meaning to architecture." Symmetry: Culture and Science 31, no. 3: 231-260.

Journal article
Published: 12 December 2019 in Inference: International Review of Science
Reads 0
Downloads 0

In Making Dystopia: The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism, James Stevens Curl argues that modernist architecture is ill-adapted to human needs. Joining his voice with Curl’s, Nikos Salingaros describes how the style became internationally preferred, despite its failings. He argues that modernist architecture spread through the support of powerful institutions.

ACS Style

Nikos Salingaros. The Rise of the Architectural Cult. Inference: International Review of Science 2019, 5, 1 .

AMA Style

Nikos Salingaros. The Rise of the Architectural Cult. Inference: International Review of Science. 2019; 5 (1):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos Salingaros. 2019. "The Rise of the Architectural Cult." Inference: International Review of Science 5, no. 1: 1.

Journal article
Published: 04 November 2018 in Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research
Reads 0
Downloads 0

This is a review of the scholarly book “Making Dystopia — The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism”, by Professor James Stevens Curl. The book is severely critical of the Modernist movement in architecture, holding it responsible for the loss of historical, traditional, and vernacular building cultures. It goes further to associate the loss of other valuable aspects of culture with the erasing influence of modernist thought. The obvious transformation of the built environment influenced people subconsciously away from older compassionate, humane design practices, and towards a cold, inhuman industrialism. Today’s unsustainable Industrial-Modernism is not the inevitable consequence of a natural process of architectural evolution, while the Bauhaus was not an enlightened architecture school. Professor Stevens Curl’s work is an invaluable resource for academia, the public, and professional practitioners. It could help to trigger a massive re-orientation of the building industry, helped by forward-thinking legislators. An enlightened and interested public has to come to grips with what happened, and try and fix it for a better society in the future.

ACS Style

Nikos Salingaros. Book Review: Making Dystopia — The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism, by James Stevens Curl, Oxford University Press. 2018. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research 2018, 12, 327 -332.

AMA Style

Nikos Salingaros. Book Review: Making Dystopia — The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism, by James Stevens Curl, Oxford University Press. 2018. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research. 2018; 12 (3):327-332.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos Salingaros. 2018. "Book Review: Making Dystopia — The Strange Rise and Survival of Architectural Barbarism, by James Stevens Curl, Oxford University Press. 2018." Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research 12, no. 3: 327-332.

Journal article
Published: 15 October 2018 in Conscious Cities Anthology 2020: To Shape and Be Shaped
Reads 0
Downloads 0
ACS Style

Nikos Salingaros. Fractals and Christopher Alexander’s “Fifteen Fundamental Properties. Conscious Cities Anthology 2020: To Shape and Be Shaped 2018, 2018, 1 .

AMA Style

Nikos Salingaros. Fractals and Christopher Alexander’s “Fifteen Fundamental Properties. Conscious Cities Anthology 2020: To Shape and Be Shaped. 2018; 2018 (1):1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos Salingaros. 2018. "Fractals and Christopher Alexander’s “Fifteen Fundamental Properties." Conscious Cities Anthology 2020: To Shape and Be Shaped 2018, no. 1: 1.

Reference entry
Published: 04 December 2017 in The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory
Reads 0
Downloads 0
ACS Style

Nikos Salingaros. Pattern Language. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory 2017, 1 -3.

AMA Style

Nikos Salingaros. Pattern Language. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory. 2017; ():1-3.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos Salingaros. 2017. "Pattern Language." The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory , no. : 1-3.

Journal article
Published: 19 September 2017 in JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM
Reads 0
Downloads 0

This paper argues for a basic need for graspable “handles” to be physically present, or merely suggested in our immediate environment. Yet two of the most characteristic elements of industrial-modernist architecture, plate-glass curtain walls and minimalist surfaces, fail to match this aspect of our body’s biology. The absence of graspable components from the formal architecture of the 20th Century leads to psychological disconnection on the part of the user, and could possibly be a cause for stress and anxiety. Physical built elements and designs suggestive of grasping arise in traditional and vernacular methods of construction as ubiquitous moldings, ornament, and trim in response to both human psychology and tectonics.

ACS Style

Nikos Salingaros. WHY WE NEED TO “GRASP” OUR SURROUNDINGS: OBJECT AFFORDANCE AND PREHENSION IN ARCHITECTURE. JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 2017, 41, 163 -169.

AMA Style

Nikos Salingaros. WHY WE NEED TO “GRASP” OUR SURROUNDINGS: OBJECT AFFORDANCE AND PREHENSION IN ARCHITECTURE. JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM. 2017; 41 (3):163-169.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos Salingaros. 2017. "WHY WE NEED TO “GRASP” OUR SURROUNDINGS: OBJECT AFFORDANCE AND PREHENSION IN ARCHITECTURE." JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 41, no. 3: 163-169.

Book chapter
Published: 31 December 2014 in Commons
Reads 0
Downloads 0
ACS Style

Nikos Salingaros; Federico Mena-Quintero. Peer-to-Peer-Stadtplanung: Aus Erfahrung lernen Neuere Entwicklungen in der Stadtplanung. Commons 2014, 508 -515.

AMA Style

Nikos Salingaros, Federico Mena-Quintero. Peer-to-Peer-Stadtplanung: Aus Erfahrung lernen Neuere Entwicklungen in der Stadtplanung. Commons. 2014; ():508-515.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos Salingaros; Federico Mena-Quintero. 2014. "Peer-to-Peer-Stadtplanung: Aus Erfahrung lernen Neuere Entwicklungen in der Stadtplanung." Commons , no. : 508-515.

Journal article
Published: 08 October 2014 in JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Many, if not a majority, of the world’s citizens view contemporary architecture as ineffective in accommodating the lives of everyday human beings. And yet, voluminous texts by prominent architects and the media argue just the opposite; that, in fact, flashy and expensive new projects profoundly benefit humanity. Those buildings supposedly provide continued advancement in how humans occupy the world. While there is no doubt that the built environment is instrumental to human achievement and wellbeing, what is the true value of the ill-formed, and perhaps ill-conceived, products of today’s leading architects? This essay argues that the elite power structure behind high-profile architectural projects is focused more upon promoting like-minded architects, and their narrow ideological interests, than in satisfying the ordinary everyday user. In doing so, this activity irrevocably damages the environment and markedly diminishes human neuro-physiological engagement with the man-made world. The logical conclusion from this purposeful misrepresentation is that the profession deliberately manipulates both the general public and architecture students to serve its own agenda.

ACS Style

Kenneth G. Masden; Nikos Salingaros. INTELLECTUAL [DIS]HONESTY IN ARCHITECTURE. JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 2014, 38, 187 -191.

AMA Style

Kenneth G. Masden, Nikos Salingaros. INTELLECTUAL [DIS]HONESTY IN ARCHITECTURE. JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM. 2014; 38 (3):187-191.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Kenneth G. Masden; Nikos Salingaros. 2014. "INTELLECTUAL [DIS]HONESTY IN ARCHITECTURE." JOURNAL OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM 38, no. 3: 187-191.

Journal article
Published: 12 July 2014 in Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research
Reads 0
Downloads 0

This is an introduction to the special issue of IJAR.

ACS Style

Nikos Salingaros. GUEST EDITORIAL: COMPLEXITY, PATTERNS, AND BIOPHILIA. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research 2014, 8, 5 .

AMA Style

Nikos Salingaros. GUEST EDITORIAL: COMPLEXITY, PATTERNS, AND BIOPHILIA. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research. 2014; 8 (2):5.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos Salingaros. 2014. "GUEST EDITORIAL: COMPLEXITY, PATTERNS, AND BIOPHILIA." Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research 8, no. 2: 5.

Book chapter
Published: 03 April 2014 in Commons
Reads 0
Downloads 0
ACS Style

Nikos Salingaros; Federico Mena-Quintero. Peer-to-Peer-Stadtplanung: Aus Erfahrung lernen Neuere Entwicklungen in der Stadtplanung. Commons 2014, 1 .

AMA Style

Nikos Salingaros, Federico Mena-Quintero. Peer-to-Peer-Stadtplanung: Aus Erfahrung lernen Neuere Entwicklungen in der Stadtplanung. Commons. 2014; ():1.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos Salingaros; Federico Mena-Quintero. 2014. "Peer-to-Peer-Stadtplanung: Aus Erfahrung lernen Neuere Entwicklungen in der Stadtplanung." Commons , no. : 1.

Journal article
Published: 01 January 2014 in Oz
Reads 0
Downloads 0
ACS Style

Nikos Salingaros. Complexity in Architecture and Design. Oz 2014, 36, 4 .

AMA Style

Nikos Salingaros. Complexity in Architecture and Design. Oz. 2014; 36 (1):4.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos Salingaros. 2014. "Complexity in Architecture and Design." Oz 36, no. 1: 4.

Book chapter
Published: 05 December 2011 in Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age
Reads 0
Downloads 0

Successful urban configurations are the result of a complex sequence of implicit computations that transform unorganized input into organized output. Although that is exactly what they do, few urbanists discuss their work in these terms. I propose a fundamental distinction between the principal methods of urban computation. One algorithmic process for urbanism leads to formal planning, which lacks the complex organizational structures that support essential adaptability. This closed computational method uses a set of fixed, or formal, rules to compute a configuration that does not adapt interactively during execution. Such algorithms perform each computation based upon predetermined rules, and those rules cannot be changed via any interaction. The other method of urban generation is achieved by means of interactive computing, which is the basis of human intelligence. An interactive computational method generates adaptive organic urban fabric, as seen in both traditional cities and squatter settlements. Adaptive computational systems necessarily rely upon interaction with their situational environment. In this interactive approach, the result of each step in the sequence of computations is fed back into the algorithm so as to influence the subsequent step. The algorithm itself changes by interacting with whatever it is computing. Interactive or intelligent computing, therefore, is not equivalent to computations that rely exclusively upon a fixed algorithm. These two diverse computational methods design two morphologically distinct types of urban fabric. Also included in this discussion are urban morphologies that have no computational basis, as well as those that are deliberately random.

ACS Style

Nikos A. Salingaros. Urbanism as Computation. Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age 2011, 245 -268.

AMA Style

Nikos A. Salingaros. Urbanism as Computation. Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age. 2011; ():245-268.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nikos A. Salingaros. 2011. "Urbanism as Computation." Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age , no. : 245-268.

Book chapter
Published: 15 March 2010 in Cities between Competitiveness and Cohesion
Reads 0
Downloads 0

This essay outlines how to incorporate morphological rules within the exigencies of our technological age. We propose using the current evolution of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technologies beyond their original representational domain, towards predictive and dynamic spatial models that help in constructing the new discipline of “urban seeding”. We condemn the high-rise tower block as an unsuitable typology for a living city, and propose to re-establish human-scale urban fabric that resembles the traditional city. Pedestrian presence, density, and movement all reveal that open space between modernist buildings is not urban at all, but neither is the open space found in today’s sprawling suburbs. True urban space contains and encourages pedestrian interactions, and has to be designed and built according to specific rules. The opposition between traditional self-organized versus modernist planned cities challenges the very core of the urban planning discipline. Planning has to be re-framed from being a tool creating a fixed future to become a visionary adaptive tool of dynamic states in evolution.

ACS Style

Pietro Pagliardini; Sergio Porta; Nikos Salingaros. Geospatial Analysis and Living Urban Geometry. Cities between Competitiveness and Cohesion 2010, 99, 331 -353.

AMA Style

Pietro Pagliardini, Sergio Porta, Nikos Salingaros. Geospatial Analysis and Living Urban Geometry. Cities between Competitiveness and Cohesion. 2010; 99 ():331-353.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Pietro Pagliardini; Sergio Porta; Nikos Salingaros. 2010. "Geospatial Analysis and Living Urban Geometry." Cities between Competitiveness and Cohesion 99, no. : 331-353.

Journal article
Published: 01 March 2010 in URBAN DESIGN International
Reads 0
Downloads 0

URBAN DESIGN International is a scholarly publication with a strong practitioner emphasis. It is relevant for all of those involved in architectural and planning education and practice. It is relevant for urban designers, architects, planners, surveyors and landscape architects and all professionals concerned with urban development and design.

ACS Style

Michael Mehaffy; Sergio Porta; Yodan Rofe; Nikos Salingaros. Urban nuclei and the geometry of streets: The ‘emergent neighborhoods’ model. URBAN DESIGN International 2010, 15, 22 -46.

AMA Style

Michael Mehaffy, Sergio Porta, Yodan Rofe, Nikos Salingaros. Urban nuclei and the geometry of streets: The ‘emergent neighborhoods’ model. URBAN DESIGN International. 2010; 15 (1):22-46.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Michael Mehaffy; Sergio Porta; Yodan Rofe; Nikos Salingaros. 2010. "Urban nuclei and the geometry of streets: The ‘emergent neighborhoods’ model." URBAN DESIGN International 15, no. 1: 22-46.