During a fertile period of fifteen years between 1954 and 1959, it was set up a change of paradigm from the conservative models established by the modern movement to self-organized systems. This deep transformation can be explained from two complementary points of view: on the one hand the manifestos that emerged against the closed systems and on the other hand the influences of the scientific theories related to open and complex systems.

Six interdisciplinary manifestos that emerged from biology, chemistry, cybernetic, self-organization will change the direction of the new urbanism: Doorn Manifesto (1954), Open Form Manifesto by Oskar Hansen (1959), the Mobile Urbanism Manifesto by Yona Friedman (1959), the Additive Architecture by Jorn Utzon (1958-1970) and finally the provocative manifesto-experiment “Non-Plan: An Experiment in Freedom” by Paul Barker, Peter Hall, Reyner Banham and Cedric Price.

Written by Manuel Perez Romero, the whole article can be read in:

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