Step-by-step adaptation

During the course of evolution, the adaptation of the thousands and millions of variables that must occur to make one successful organism happens step by step, essentially one gene at a time. That is what makes evolution possible. It would be impossible for nature to “design” a system as complex as an organism all at once.
The same must happen when a building is designed and built, if it is to be well adapted and to have living structure. A building has too many aspects, too many variables. We cannot get each aspect of the building right unless it is possible to work out one aspect at a time.

The process must go gradually, in a way that allows assessments, corrections, and improvements to be made about the degree of life which occurs throughout the structure, at all scales and at all levels. This process must occur continually throughout conception, design, and construction. And the process must be sufficiently widespread to affect all scales of building and construction.

#book/The Nature of Order/2 The process of creating life/8 Step-by-step adaptation#