Vertical Investigation: Key Category, PERMEABILITY.
Channel: IMMdesignlab
Date: 01/03/2019

In IMM, Key categories are types of emergence that show how elements come to self-organize or to synchronize their states into forming a new level of organization. Emergence is something new that can‘t be described by the description of the parts. Emerging properties are the product of the synergies between the parts. In IMM the emergence process of interaction between elementary parts to form a synergy is named Key categories. This process adds value to the combined organization. Key categories are the products of the synergy between elementary parts, a new organization that emerge not (simply as) an additive result of the proprieties of the elementary parts. KCs are applied in the investigation phase for understanding the urban context and its performance before the design intervention, as well as in the final as evaluation phase after the intervention. Here, the key categories are: Porosity, Permeability, Diversity, Interface, Accessibility, Proximity,and Effectiveness. 

Carlo Biraghi (PhD candidate and researcher at IMM design Lab) explains what PERMEABILITY is and how to evaluate it.