Whereas the first volume provides the theoretical groundwork for Schumachers ideas focusing on theory, history, architecture as an autopoeitic system, architecture as a medium and its societal function the second volume addresses the specific, contemporary challenges that architecture faces. It formulates these tasks, looking specifically at how architecture is seeking to organize and articulate the complexity of post-fordist network society through its language and structure. This explicitly addresses how current architecture can upgrade its design methodology in the face of an increasingly demanding task environment, characterised by both complexity and novelty. Architectures specific role within contemporary society is explained and its relationship to politics is clarified. Finally, the emerging new style of Parametricism is introduced and theoretically grounded.
