Steen Eiler Rasmussen

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Steen Eiler Rasmussen (1898-1990) was a Danish architect and town-planner, professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and a prolific writer of books and poetry. Like his compatriots Hans Christian Andersen and Johannes Vilhelm Jensen he travelled extensively, and his observations often became basis for his writings. His bibliography (1973) lists 536 items.

One of his most important books was London. It was first published in Danish in 1934, in English (as London, the Unique City) in 1937. When this edition was re-issued in 1948, Rasmussen had added two Postscripts: "For English readers only", and "For American readers only". A shorter version was published as a paperback in 1960.

Other influential books by Steen Eiler Rasmussen are Towns and Buildings (1951), and Experiencing Architecture (1959).

It has been stated that every English and American city-planner knows his "Rasmussen".

In 1942 Rasmussen (together with is colleague Kay Fisker) educated Jørn Utzon, the world renowned architect and creater of the Sydney Opera House, at the Academy.

Steen Rasmussen also refers to the Artificial Life scientist who has published numerous reviews and reports in the Journal, Artificial Life. He coined the term, complex systems dogma, which alludes to the presupposition that simple lower-level elements can give rise to higher-level dynamical structures. In his article, Ansatz for Dynamical Hierarchies, he pursues in proving the shortcomings of such a dogma, claiming that higher-level dynamical structures can only be obtained through forming more complex lower-level structures. Gross and McMullin published a criticism of his work, also in Artificial Life, and Rasmussen subsequently provided a defense of his Ansatz. All of the articles can be found in the fourth issue of the seventh volume of the Artificial Life journal.