He has been a close collaborator of the architect Christopher Alexander, with whom Salingaros shares a harsh critical analysis of conventional modern architecture.
Like Alexander, Salingaros has proposed an alternative theoretical approach to architecture and urbanism that is more adaptive to human needs and aspirations, and that combines rigorous scientific analysis with deep intuitive experience.
Salingaros published substantive research on algebras, mathematical physics, electromagnetic fields, and thermonuclear fusion before turning his attention to architecture and urbanism.
Michael Batty, Bartlett Professor of Planning at University College London, wrote about Salingaros' contribution: "He shows how networks which evolve from the bottom up lead to ordered (scaled) hierarchies that are both efficient and well adjusted.
"[2] A Theory of Architecture, a collection of previously published papers, describes a set of guidelines for design, giving scientific principles that link forms to human sensibilities.
Salingaros defines "bad architecture" as that which makes people uncomfortable or physically ill, and which pursues formal or ideological concerns instead of adapting to nature and to the needs of ordinary human beings.
"Social Housing in Latin America: A Methodology to Utilize Processes of Self-Organization", by Nikos Salingaros, David Brain, Andrés Duany, Michael Mehaffy, and Ernesto Philibert, outlined the role of socio-spatial relations in guaranteeing a successful built environment.
[3] The principal urbanist problem facing the world today concerns the socio-political processes in the planning and construction of social housing, as well as the large-scale renovation of favelas.
He had been working with me helping me edit material in The Nature of Order, for years, and at some point—in the mid-nineties I think—began writing papers looking at architectural problems in a scientific way.
Salingaros is involved in forming a community that applies analogous techniques of File sharing and Open-source software from computer science to urbanism.
Information exchange in urban systems includes visual input from the environment, personal contact, telecommunications, and the movement of people.
In "The Information Architecture of Cities" Salingaros also defined the useful notion of "fractal loading", later picked up by Richard Veryard,[12] Phil Jones,[13][14] and others in Computer Science.
Salingaros introduced a model of Complexity by using an analogy with thermodynamic quantities in physics, later developed in collaboration with the Computer Scientist Allen Klinger.
Christopher Alexander discussed Salingaros' model in Book 1 of The Nature of Order: "I believe it is important to show this result simply to underline the fact that living structure is, in principle, susceptible to mathematical treatment, and may therefore be regarded as a part of physics."
Supporting Alexander's most recent work tying religion to geometry, Salingaros argues for the important historic contribution of religious tradition to human understanding, both in architecture and in philosophy.
This is the first follow-up of the 2001 Utne Reader book "(65) VISIONARIES: people and ideas to change your life", which included Jane Jacobs, Andrés Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Muhammad Yunus, Fritjof Capra, Edward Goldsmith, and William McDonough.