Complexity Theory as an Epistemological Approach to Sustainability Assessment Methods Definition

It is since the 1987, with the publication of the Brundtland Report that the world community has formally recognized the necessity of approaching the changes occurring to the social environmental and economic structure of our society. Since then, many efforts have been done to implement strategies to apply sustainable principles to many fields. In this context, the field of architecture and urban design has faced a paradigmatic shift in many instances, from the proposal of new design strategies, to the definition of many systems to manage the emerging social, environmental and economic challenges. Yet, the fact itself that sustainability has to represent a crucial shift for the architectural and urban design practice is still object of an open debate, characterized by contrasting positions (Hosey, 2012). Despite since 1992, when UN released the Agenda 21 and called for 'better measurement tool' to assess the sustainable practice, the definition of an assessment method able to gauge the complexity of the changes that are occurring in our societies seems not to be fully achieved yet. The definition of such methods is still the focus of an open discussion and work by both the academic and the industrial world (Caradonna, 2014), as a reflection to the general controversial approach that seems to exists on sustainability in architecture and urban design. The aim of this work is to explore a possible epistemological approach to understand the complexity of the current state of practice of sustainability in architecture and urban design.