Synergy in architectural design and urban planning

If the notion of synergy understood as cooperation has been functioning in human groups since time immemorial, modern philosophical and technical definitions of synergy as an interaction of various elements that when combined produce a total effect which is greater than the sum of the individual elements’ actions was set up in the 20^th century (H. Van Lier 1962, H. Haken 1969, R. Buckminster Fuller 1969). Synergetics means a generalisation of synergy, a universal theory and methodology, the subject of which are the principles of the world self-organisation. In Poland first publications on synergy appear in the 1970s. (Kotarbiński, Lenartowicz, Pszczołowski, Böhm). The paper presents three types of synergy related to architectural design and urban planning: 1) the synergy of spatial form, the effect of which is spatial order, an organized formation of elements that create a whole. 2) the synergy of social dialogue. The decision making process of design / planning, including the realisation and use, requires involvement of all the key-players. A synergetic effect depends on social participation. 3) the synergy of social economy. Public-private partnership which through synergy leads to the lever effect in the financing of an investment. Existence of civil society is one of the conditions of a successful participation. To obtain a synergetic effect in practice one needs a catalyst, a behavioural public intervention (BPI) – an intermediary to act between the stakeholders, i.e. the users, and the design/planning/realisation team and to assist the development of the process. Landscape or cityscape is a result of the design/planning activity. Landscape allows for the diagnosis of the wellbeing of the economy and society (Pawlikowski, Bogdanowski). The patriotism of landscape is one of the manifestations of the civil society (J. Mackiewicz). Some cases deprived of synergy, as well good practices of synergetic character are presented.