IMM suggests that the advancement in construction techniques, building materials quality and transportation technologies alone have not solved the complex problems of the urban life simply because such improvements are not necessarily dealing with the systemic integration. The core argument of IMM is that the performance of the city is being chiefly driven by the complex relationships subsystems rather than the independent qualities of the urban elements. Thus, it aims at portraying the systemic structure of the built environment by introducing a logical framework for modeling the linkage between the city ’ s static and dynamic elements. Integrated Modification Methodology is based on an iterative process involving the following four major phases: Investigation Formulation Modification Retrofitting and Optimization The first phase, Investigation, is a synthesis-based inquiry into the systemic structure of the urban form. It begins with Horizontal Investigation in which the area under study is being dismantled into its morphology-generator elements, namely Urban Built-ups, Urban Voids, Types of Uses, and Links. It follows with Vertical Investigation that is a study of integral relationships between the mentioned elements. The output of Vertical Investigation is a set of quantitative descriptions and qualitative illustrations of certain attributes named Key Categories. In a nutshell they are types of emergence that show how elements come to self-organize or to synchronize their states into forming a new level of organization. Hence in IMM, Key Categories are the result of an emergence process of interaction between elementary parts (Urban Built-ups, Urban Voids, Types of Uses, and Links) to form a synergy able to add 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. IMM declares that the city ’ s functioning manner is chiefly driven from the Key Categories, hence, they have the most fundamental role in understanding the architecture of the city as a Complex Adaptive System. The Investigation phase concludes with the Evaluation step which is basically an examination of the system ’ s performance by referring to a list of verified indicators associated with ecological sustainability. The same indicators are later used in the CAS retrofitting process necessary for the final evaluation of the system performance, after the transformation design process occurred. The Formulation phase is a technical assumption of the most critical Key Category and the urban element within the area deduced from the Investigation phase. These critical attributes are being interpreted as the Catalysts of transformation and are to come to the designer ’ s use to set a contextual priority list of Design Ordering Principals.
IMM suggests that the advancement in construction techniques, building materials quality and transportation technologies alone have not solved the complex problems of the urban life simply because such improvements are not necessarily dealing with the systemic integration. The core argument of IMM is that the performance of the city is being chiefly driven by the complex relationships subsystems rather than the independent qualities of the urban elements. Thus, it aims at portraying the systemic structure of the built environment by introducing a logical framework for modeling the linkage between the city ' s static and dynamic elements. Integrated Modification Methodology is based on an iterative process involving the following four major phases: Investigation Formulation Modification Retrofitting and Optimization The first phase, Investigation, is a synthesis-based inquiry into the systemic structure of the urban form. It begins with Horizontal Investigation in which the area under study is being dismantled into its morphology-generator elements, namely Urban Built-ups, Urban Voids, Types of Uses, and Links. It follows with Vertical Investigation that is a study of integral relationships between the mentioned elements. The output of Vertical Investigation is a set of quantitative descriptions and qualitative illustrations of certain attributes named Key Categories. In a nutshell they are types of emergence that show how elements come to self-organize or to synchronize their states into forming a new level of organization. Hence in IMM, Key Categories are the result of an emergence process of interaction between elementary parts (Urban Built-ups, Urban Voids, Types of Uses, and Links) to form a synergy able to add 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. IMM declares that the city ' s functioning manner is chiefly driven from the Key Categories, hence, they have the most fundamental role in understanding the architecture of the city as a Complex Adaptive System. The Investigation phase concludes with the Evaluation step which is basically an examination of the system ' s performance by referring to a list of verified indicators associated with ecological sustainability. The same indicators are later used in the CAS retrofitting process necessary for the final evaluation of the system performance, after the transformation design process occurred. The Formulation phase is a technical assumption of the most critical Key Category and the urban element within the area deduced from the Investigation phase. These critical attributes are being interpreted as the Catalysts of transformation and are to come to the designer ' s use to set a contextual priority list of Design Ordering Principals.
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