Place complexity does not correlate directly with built complexity of form. The spatial energy and complexity of Gehry's Guggenheim museum in Bilbao does not guarantee that as a place it is more complex than Mies van der Rohe's serene museum in Berlin.
Complexity in a place has more to do with complexity of program than with spatial or visual effects, but complexity of place is not quite the same as complexity of program. A large city library, for example, will present a complex functional program for its designers, yet it might still house a fairly simple set of social norms and roles for its users.
(c) David Kolb, 1 August 2001