At Engaging we deliver organic systems; but what does this even mean? In his various writings, including Autobiography and The Natural House, the Frank Lloyd Wright named his entire methodology organic architecture. Since the field of software architecture takes its very name from Wright’s own, we can presume there is much to learn about software architecture from America’s — if not the world’s — greatest architect.
As well as being a response to the needs and desires of the client, an organic building grows from its site. This is why some of the greatest homes, such as Wright’s 1938 masterpiece Fallingwater, are built on irregular land; the building must deliver the client’s requirements while wrapping itself around the constraints of the site. The hearth at Fallingwater sits on the original boulder where the Kaufmann family used to picnic, left in place and breaking through the floor. And of course, the house is built over and as a response to the Bear Run stream itself.
The realm of software has a pretty stark homologue: domain-driven design, where the system is developed based on understanding and modeling what it is to be about. Most software paves over the landscape with its own abstractions, then makes people translate their world into its terms. Domain-driven software in contrast, like organic architecture, expresses the pre-existing reality of the organization: the relationships, commitments and stuff that existed before any system did.
An organic system is also one that covers everything in the domain, wherein all parts contribute to the whole. Parts are not plonked in nor are extensions, but are contributors—the organs of the organism. In contrast, the current enterprise paradigm is to run a constellation of separate, siloed best-of-breed software products.
Wright insisted on honesty in materials, in not imitating one material with another nor covering up a material with the facade of another. Looking at a Wright house, the very bones of the building are visible; no plasterboard, paint, nor wallpaper covers up the beauty of the material that the building is built with. That could be clay brick in the case of the Usonians, local sandstone like at Fallingwater, or Wright’s stylized concrete blocks in the Los Angeles homes such as the movie-famous Ennis House.
In software development, this value of maintaining integrity in materials is expressed in using the same names for elements throughout the system. These are the terms unearthed during domain discussions and that form what DDD terms the Ubiquitous Language. The terms presented to users in the interface come directly from the innermost skeleton of the system: its database fields.
A corollary to the notion of a building being a deep response to its environment is that the inside and outside are of each other; the outside comes in and the inside flows out. In a Wright home, walls surrounding windows flow through them, maintaining streamlined continuity of outside and in. Following this value through to organic software, the system’s processes serve the organization’s entire ecosphere, both staff within the organization and others outside it who interact with it, such as customers and suppliers. In organic organizational software, the process may start outside the organization, enter it, then end outside it again, the most obvious of these being a purchase.
While the term organic has become associated with the undertow opposing technology, Wright always considered architecture technological, and, like Apple says about itself, considered architecture to be at the crossroads of the humanities and science. His most celebrated workspace, the Johnson Wax building, is a luminous hall held up by what he called dendriform columns that came to be known as his lily pads. He designed this shape like a waiter's open hand, and proved its engineering soundness to skeptical planners by holding an exhibition of loading up one of his columns with weight until it finally collapsed at something like 10x more than regulations required.
As echoed by Apple, Wright’s organic architecture demanded design of the entire experience, not only of the building, but of the furniture (often built-in), and even the art. (In fact, he noted that his favorite part of the process was ornamentation, placing the works of art that need not serve a purpose save to beautify.) In software terms, this would mean that those who design the company’s branding should be part of the team that designs its software.
One signature element of a Wright house, no matter the environment, is the fireplace; every home he ever built, and he built hundreds, has at least one, and it was important that the house be built around this central pillar. For him the hearth is the heart of the home, of which the chief function is shelter from the elements. What would be the equivalent in organizational management software? We would need to ask ourselves what is its chief function, why are we even using it? Perhaps it is to provide a remote control panel into the organization, a way to operate it at one’s fingertips rather than physically visiting every part of it to do so. If this is the case, then maneuverability around the system’s model of the organization is its most valuable function and akin to the fireplace. To that end, we have placed a prominent back button at the top left of every screen. Yes, this may be redundant when every browser has one, but so is a fireplace in Arizona or when the house is also designed with underfloor heating throughout, a technology Wright pioneered.
Wright's Usonian vision was about elevating the American family's environment with design, using inexpensive, abundant, honest materials systemically used. He never quite reached them being inexpensive, but he approached it. And among those he did touch, many were inspired. One was Joseph Eichler, who was so inspired after staying in a Wright home that he became a builder. In turn, Steve Jobs grew up in an Eichler house and was inspired by it. We system software developers can pick up the pencil.
Aesthetically, Wright championed the horizontal line for much of his career (though later championing circles and spirals more). His prairie houses, such as the Robie House at the University of Chicago, are the apex of this value; the grouting of his brick walls emphasizes the horizontal over the vertical grouts. We keep this pleasing “line of domesticity” in mind when designing Engaging OS interfaces.
All that said, to date this vision of an organic system for enterprise has been considered impractical because of the sheer functional depth required in each of the (expensive) disparate systems of record. Now however the advent of AI makes for much cheaper and faster development, tipping the balance, making organic systems become practical. And if organizations want to apply AI not just in developing but in operating their systems, organic software is not only practical but necessary.