Polytechnic culture: Ideas, values and opportunities

Complexity is the central theme of our contemporary age, and what technical culture needs today is to know how to manage it. Knowing how to deal with situations that are anything but straightforward – situations that require flexible thinking, the ability to establish a dialogue between fields of knowledge, and the intermingling of points of view that are, by their very nature, heterogeneous. If this is the direction that needs to be taken in order to tackle the major challenges of the future – from energy to the environment, healthcare to data management, and so on – then it naturally follows that the old monodisciplinary paradigm that we have grown accustomed to as a result of tradition, divided up and compartmentalised, is now outdated. In order to face the great trials of our time, of which architecture is an interpreter, we need a broader vision. Indeed, the growing speed of technological evolution, its pervasiveness and the impact that this is capable of having on the community and our future increasingly point towards the validity of a multifaceted approach that reflects and anticipates the dynamics of social development.