[Scpg] the Nature of Order C Alexander Pattern Books
Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson
lakinroe at silcom.com
Mon Sep 8 06:05:59 PDT 2003
The Nature of Order
http://www.PatternLanguage.com/
"In the past century, architecture has
always been a minor science - if it has
been a science at all. Present day
architects who want to be scientific, try to
incorporate the ideas of physics,
psychology, anthropology . . . in their
work . . . in the hope of keeping in tune
with the "scientific" times.
I believe we are on the threshold of a new
era, when this relation between
architecture and the physical sciences may
be reversed - when the proper
understanding of the deep questions of
space, as they are embodied in
architecture . . . will play a revolutionary
role in the way we see the world . . . and
will perhaps play the role for the world
view of the 21st and 22nd centuries, that
physics has played in shaping the world
view of the 19th and 20th."
Christopher Alexander, Berkeley, 1983
OVERVIEW
This four-volume work is the culmination of theoretical
studies begun three decades ago and published in a
series
of books -- including The Timeless Way of Building and
A Pattern Language -- in which Christopher Alexander
has advanced a new theory of architecture and matter
which has attracted thousands of readers and practical
followers throughout the world. He has tried to
grasp the
fundamental truths of traditional ways of building & to
understand especially what gives life and beauty
and true
functionality to buildings and towns, in a context
which
sheds light on the character of order in all
phenomena.
***
The four books of the Nature of Order redefine
architecture as we know it. Each of the books is
independent, and deals with one facet of the problem.
Taken together the four books redefine the cosmology
that provides architecture with its underpinning; they
redefine the procedures of planning, design and
building;
they redefine the style, the shapes of buildings
and the
forms of construction. Here is an entirely new way of
thinking about the world, one likely to enter fields as
diverse as computer science, sociology, philosophy, and
art. As one writer has expressed it, "The books provide
the language for the construction and transition to
a new
kind of society, rooted in the nature of human
beings."
The four books, all essays on the topic of living
structure,
are connected and interdependent. Each can be read by
itself, and each sheds light on one facet of the
problem of
living structure: First the definition, second the
process of
generating living structure, third the practical
vision of a
world made of living structure, and fourth, the
cosmological underpinnings and implications caused by
the idea of living structure.
They offer a view of a human-centered universe, a view
of order, in which the soul, or human feeling, and
the soul,
play a central role. Here, experiments are not only
conceivable in the abstract Cartesian mode, but a new
class of experiments reveal the foundation of all
matter,
and all process, as being something which resides in
human beings. Whether this something, which is
demonstrated and used throughout the four books, is a
new entity underlying matter, or what used to be called
the "soul," is left for the reader to decide.
BOOK 1: THE PHENOMENON OF LIFE
In Book 1, Alexander defines life and living
structure as
the necessary criteria for quality in buildings.
Starting with
an analysis of the arbitrariness of present-day
architecture, and going to the root of functional
order in
the world, he proposes a scientific basis for
looking at life
as an objective concept that is rooted in
structure. The
book shows living structure in good buildings and bad;
human artifacts; and natural systems, and discusses the
presence of the same living order in all systems. It is
proposed that living structure, or living order,
depends on
features which make a close connection with the human
self, and a way of regarding living structures
makes them
amenable to empirical treatment. The quality of
works of
art, artifacts, buildings is defined, not merely in
terms of
living structure, but also in their capacity to
affect human
growth and human well-being.
BOOK 2: THE PROCESS OF CREATING LIFE
In Book 2, Alexander examines the kinds of process that
are capable of generating living structure. The
unfolding of
living structure in natural systems is first
compared to the
unfolding of buildings and town plans in traditional
society, and then contrasted with present day
processes.
The comparison reveals deep and shocking problems
which pervade the present day planning and construction
of buildings. He describes the detailed character
of living
process needed to generate, design, plan, and build
buildings with living structure. The character of
living
process is contrasted, repeatedly, with the
character of
present-day professional process, which departs, again
and again, from present process, in order to meet the
necessities inherent in any truly life-creating
process.
Pervasive changes needed to create a world in which
living process - and hence living structure - are
attainable
only through a transformation of society. The dynamic
methods of Book 2, focusing on process, give an
entirely
different picture of the facts and concepts
presented in
Book 1.
BOOK 3: A VISION OF A LIVING WORLD
In Book 3 Alexander presents hundreds of his own
buildings and those of other contemporaries who have
used similar methods consistent with the theory of
living
process. The projects include neighborhoods, housing
built by people for themselves, public buildings,
public
urban space, ornament, colors, details of construction
innovation. The many buildings shown in Book 3, and the
methods needed to design and building these buildings,
shed light on the phenomenon of life, on the nature of
living structure, and make it more practical, more
graspable. Six hundred pages of projects built and
planned over a thirty year period, including many
un-built
experiments, illustrate the impact which is likely
to follow
from the use of living process in the world. The book
provides the reader with an intuitive feel for the
kind of
world, its style and geometry, which is likely to
follow,
together with its ecological and natural character.
It closes
with an assessment of the archetypal character such a
new, living world, is likely to reveal.
BOOK 4: THE LUMINOUS GROUND
In Book 4, the culmination of the quartet, Alexander
addresses the cosmological implications of the
theory he
has constructed and presented. The book begins with a
critique of current cosmological thinking, and its
separation from personal feeling and value. The
outline of
a theory in which matter itself is more
spirit-like, more
personal in character, is sketched. The cosmological
modifications presented in Book 4, are needed, to
supplement the definition of the personal nature of
matter,
design, and form, and acts as a substrate for an
attempt
to implement living process. The book contains a long
chapter, nearly one hundred pages long - almost a book
in itself - in which Alexander presents his theory
of color,
as one ingredient of the new cosmological picture which
he puts forward. This volume draws attention to new
ways of looking at consciousness, and modifies physical
theory so that the human person - what we know as self,
and what Alexander calls the "I" - enters in as a
fundamental and necessary ingredient of all matter.
"The four volumes have been written so
that each stands alone as an independent
book, and may be read without benefit of
the others.
The full meaning of the four books, and
the architectural, social, and
cosmological scheme they introduce, can
only be understood by seeing the interplay
of these four complementary points of
view."
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