Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the vitalistic characteristics in the contemporary architecture and urbanism. The mechanistic paradigm dominating the modern thinking after Descartes is the element-reductive thinking which analyse and reduce the whole into the elements. The mechanism emphasize the result and the substance rather than the process and the becoming. In opposition to the mechanism, the vitalism considers the life and the matter as continuous things, set a high value on becoming, evolution, process, metamorphosis, virtuality, event, time, etc. This thinking is developed by the philosophes such as Leibniz, Bergson, and Deleuze and the contemporary science such as cybernetics, the network theory and the complexity. This study intends to examine the vitalistic paradigm in the contemporary architecture and urbanism in opposition to the mechanic paradigm.