The Quality Itself
Argument against « modular » architecture – this style characterizes twentieth century building.
Nature is not “modular”.
Everything is individual. Drops of water, waves and drops within the the wave, blades of grass etc are all different but we don’t get tired of looking at them.
Every ecosystem has common broad characteristics and each element is individual.
No two atoms are the same. Each one is different according to its environment. The orbits of each electron is influenced by the orbits of adjacent electrons.
“Each pattern is a generic solution to some system of forces in the world. But the forces are never quite the same.” P147
Things that are not part of nature are at odds with it.
For a building to be “whole” it must have the character of Nature p149
This does not mean building builings that look like trees etc – but it will have the same balance of repetition.
Repetition in building occurs if elements “make sense”. That is we see sameness in windows nd doors because it makes sense to maintain these shapes.
Baluster
Boards
House siding
Tiles
Roof
Whitewash
Trellises
Arcades
Paving stones
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Notes on Chapter 6
Patterns Which Are Alive
Class or Homework exercise.
Before studying Chapter 6 using the ideas of Christopher Alexander that you have seen so far, on a transparency design a courtyard that is alive. Show this to the class and explain it.
Chapter 6
A city that’s lives let’s our inner forces loose, a dead one locks them up
Character of a city comes from repeating patterns.
A man is alive when he not in conflict with his internal forces.
This can’t be achieved through inner work alone.
Alexander believed it is influenced by one’s surroundings. Some places make us feel alive others make it more difficult.
E.g 1 Work and family separation
– when family/work relationship is good we come alive.
When children are present or close to the work of parents then there is less conflict. Children observe parents working, understand the adult world.
Modern families, fathers faces his children when he is most tired.
A working woman is compromised between being masculine and feminine p108.
Eg 2 Courtyard
Properly formed helps people come alive
People seek:
Privacy
Sky
Sun
Plants and flowers
When a courtyard is to enclosed with no view people feel uncomfortable and stay away cf Prague guesthouse Alabaster. Courtyard with windows – felt like being stared at – people stayed away.
People need to see out to a larger and more distant space.
A courtyard should be a place where people pass in and out – crossing paths from different rooms
Should have multiple purposes
Requires a transitional area to accommodate people’s timidity eg a porch or veranda
Here forces resolve themselves.
Class or Homework exercise.
Before studying Chapter 6 using the ideas of Christopher Alexander that you have seen so far, on a transparency design a courtyard that is alive. Show this to the class and explain it.
Chapter 6
A city that’s lives let’s our inner forces loose, a dead one locks them up
Character of a city comes from repeating patterns.
A man is alive when he not in conflict with his internal forces.
This can’t be achieved through inner work alone.
Alexander believed it is influenced by one’s surroundings. Some places make us feel alive others make it more difficult.
E.g 1 Work and family separation
– when family/work relationship is good we come alive.
When children are present or close to the work of parents then there is less conflict. Children observe parents working, understand the adult world.
Modern families, fathers faces his children when he is most tired.
A working woman is compromised between being masculine and feminine p108.
Eg 2 Courtyard
Properly formed helps people come alive
People seek:
Privacy
Sky
Sun
Plants and flowers
When a courtyard is to enclosed with no view people feel uncomfortable and stay away cf Prague guesthouse Alabaster. Courtyard with windows – felt like being stared at – people stayed away.
People need to see out to a larger and more distant space.
A courtyard should be a place where people pass in and out – crossing paths from different rooms
Should have multiple purposes
Requires a transitional area to accommodate people’s timidity eg a porch or veranda
Here forces resolve themselves.
Notes on Chapter 5
Patterns of Space
There are two sorts of places those that set our inner forces loose or free and those that constrain them.
A place that is “alive” in Christopher Alexander’s terms is one that conforms to instinctive desires for comfort.
Work and Family
Desires
Children need to feel they belong
Children learn by imitating adults
Children desire to be like their parents and want to see and them in their work
Parents desire to educate their children
Conflict
Women desire to be maternal, do not like being only at work may feel masculine
Men have to deal with children when most tired
Resolution
Design a city that resolves the separation of work and family.
Court yard
Desires
To be under the sky
Sun
Shelter
Flowers/plants
A view onto a larger space
Privacy
Familiarity
Openness
Dislike enclosed spaces
People like gradual transition between inside and outside
To design a courtyard that meets these fundamental desires. If you can you will have created a place where people can feel alive.
A certain amount of stress is necessary to live
Stress resolution is what life is about
And necessary for the creation of quality
The presence of this quality without a name gives the object “goodness”. Natural things have this but it is not dependant on human usefulness – that is natural things have intrinsic value.
There are two sorts of places those that set our inner forces loose or free and those that constrain them.
A place that is “alive” in Christopher Alexander’s terms is one that conforms to instinctive desires for comfort.
Work and Family
Desires
Children need to feel they belong
Children learn by imitating adults
Children desire to be like their parents and want to see and them in their work
Parents desire to educate their children
Conflict
Women desire to be maternal, do not like being only at work may feel masculine
Men have to deal with children when most tired
Resolution
Design a city that resolves the separation of work and family.
Court yard
Desires
To be under the sky
Sun
Shelter
Flowers/plants
A view onto a larger space
Privacy
Familiarity
Openness
Dislike enclosed spaces
People like gradual transition between inside and outside
To design a courtyard that meets these fundamental desires. If you can you will have created a place where people can feel alive.
A certain amount of stress is necessary to live
Stress resolution is what life is about
And necessary for the creation of quality
The presence of this quality without a name gives the object “goodness”. Natural things have this but it is not dependant on human usefulness – that is natural things have intrinsic value.
Notes on Chapter 4
Pattern of Events
- Every place is given character by the events that occur there.
- Events that move us – saying good bye, Christmas memories
- The events are not necessarily human – sunlight on a window sill, wind in the grass
- The life of a house or a town by shape of buildings, ornament and plan – but by the quality of events encountered there.
- All events counts both human and natural.
- The character of a town is determined by the events that keep on happening there.
- Our lives are made up of about a dozen patterns of events.
- If these few patterns are good for me I live well if not I live badly.
- Each town has a set of patterns that correspond to its culture.
- These patterns of events give the world a structure – the patterns are anchored in space
- Patterns require certain structures – sleeping require a bed.
- In order to “watch the world go by” a raised area above a public place is required – a porch or a café terrace.
- The pattern of event is dependant on the space in which it occurs.
- The names of spaces tell us what goes on there – they suggest what happens there and what people do there eg rooftop, alley, parking lot, freeway etc.
- They are not just dead pieces of architecture, they have a entire life associated with them.
- Space does not cause events – different cultures respond differently to spaces.
- Sidewalk in NY is for walking on. Sidewalk in Jamaica is for sitting and chatting.
- People respond in terms of what they expect to happen there.
- We cannot separate the stream from the stream bed.
- A building is a living thing.
- Try to see the pattern of events and the space as one.
Notes on Chapter 3
Being Alive
The search for this quality is essence of anyone’s life.
The quality is found in all things
We can only really understand it when we see it in ourselves.
Seen in the smile of gypsies.
Smile of being at home with one.
This freedom/oneness comes when we abandon ourselves – give ourselves over to our intuition.
When all our forces can move freely within us. P.48
“So long as we are like this there is a tightness about the mouth, a nervous tension in the eyes, a stiffness and a brittleness in the way we walk, the way we move.”
Japanese film Ikiru (To Live)
Terminally ill, makes a park in a Tokyo slum.
He has no more fear because he knows he’s going to die. He has nothing to lose.
We are most alive when we are taking risks e.g. high wire walker family who fell.
“On the wire that’s living…all the rest is waiting.”
To be at ease with nature and the elements
No fear of ridicule, morality, loss etc.
Most of us live not knowing whether we are free or not.
But when we smile unexpectedly is when all the forces are momentarily resolved.
Hold on to these moments and repeat them.
Women recognize these moments better than men.* ( fake and felt smile confirmed more often by women than men)
Conscious effort to attain this state will spoil it – we only know them in retrospect
Yet we all know the feeling.
When we are most just, most sad and most hilarious p.53
We recognize this quality when it occurs in buildings*- by asking whether they are like us when we are free – which buildings, places make us feel like this –which ones make us remember those moments.
One creates the other – they are not just an analogy.
People who have this quality put it in their constructions
It is the quality of life
We should seek it in order to become alive.
The search for this quality is essence of anyone’s life.
The quality is found in all things
We can only really understand it when we see it in ourselves.
Seen in the smile of gypsies.
Smile of being at home with one.
This freedom/oneness comes when we abandon ourselves – give ourselves over to our intuition.
When all our forces can move freely within us. P.48
“So long as we are like this there is a tightness about the mouth, a nervous tension in the eyes, a stiffness and a brittleness in the way we walk, the way we move.”
Japanese film Ikiru (To Live)
Terminally ill, makes a park in a Tokyo slum.
He has no more fear because he knows he’s going to die. He has nothing to lose.
We are most alive when we are taking risks e.g. high wire walker family who fell.
“On the wire that’s living…all the rest is waiting.”
To be at ease with nature and the elements
No fear of ridicule, morality, loss etc.
Most of us live not knowing whether we are free or not.
But when we smile unexpectedly is when all the forces are momentarily resolved.
Hold on to these moments and repeat them.
Women recognize these moments better than men.* ( fake and felt smile confirmed more often by women than men)
Conscious effort to attain this state will spoil it – we only know them in retrospect
Yet we all know the feeling.
When we are most just, most sad and most hilarious p.53
We recognize this quality when it occurs in buildings*- by asking whether they are like us when we are free – which buildings, places make us feel like this –which ones make us remember those moments.
One creates the other – they are not just an analogy.
People who have this quality put it in their constructions
It is the quality of life
We should seek it in order to become alive.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Notes on Chapter 2
The Quality Without A Name
Alexander argues that architects are taught that it is impossible to determine whether a building is good or bad because these are subjective concepts. But Alexander does not accept this. For him a good building promotes life, creativity and happiness, a bad building is self-destructive and generates conflict and misery.
The reason it is widely believed that there is no such thing as a good or bad building is “… because the central quality which makes the difference cannot be named.” P25. This mysterious quality according to Alexander is the essence of life and Nature itself, and when it is found in a building, it is appreciated and loved. He then sets out the characteristics of this ‘quality without a name’.
It is variable and depends on its surroundings. It is free of inner contradictions. We know this ourselves as a deep sense of feeling of well-being. It is true to itself. An atom for example just 'is', there is no question that it 'ought to be' something else. A building that has the mysterious quality would be the same as an atom in this respect.
People struggle to become true to themselves. Those that find this appear 'more real'.
Freedom from inner contradiction makes things alive. This is a oneness.
This quality can't be named. It is a precise concept but words are inadequate.
It contain ideas such as:
Alive
Whole
Comfortable
Free
Exact
Bitter/sweet - related to death
Alexander argues that architects are taught that it is impossible to determine whether a building is good or bad because these are subjective concepts. But Alexander does not accept this. For him a good building promotes life, creativity and happiness, a bad building is self-destructive and generates conflict and misery.
The reason it is widely believed that there is no such thing as a good or bad building is “… because the central quality which makes the difference cannot be named.” P25. This mysterious quality according to Alexander is the essence of life and Nature itself, and when it is found in a building, it is appreciated and loved. He then sets out the characteristics of this ‘quality without a name’.
It is variable and depends on its surroundings. It is free of inner contradictions. We know this ourselves as a deep sense of feeling of well-being. It is true to itself. An atom for example just 'is', there is no question that it 'ought to be' something else. A building that has the mysterious quality would be the same as an atom in this respect.
People struggle to become true to themselves. Those that find this appear 'more real'.
Freedom from inner contradiction makes things alive. This is a oneness.
This quality can't be named. It is a precise concept but words are inadequate.
It contain ideas such as:
Alive
Whole
Comfortable
Free
Exact
Bitter/sweet - related to death
Notes on Chapter 1
Introduction
According to architect Christopher Alexander 'the quality without a name' that characterises beautiful structures is found when a 'living process of construction' is applied. In his book The Timeless Way of Building(1979) when buildings, neighbourhoods and towns are adapted to and in harmony with their surroundings they are reminiscent of living things. That is, they are 'alive' and conducive to allow people to be themselves and attain peaceful happiness.
Here are the main points from each chapter and summary that should have been covered during student presentations. If they weren't, or you still need help understanding them then read through these notes. You could also get yourself of Alexander’s book and explore the website:
http://www.patternlanguage.com/
Chapter 1: The Timeless Way
All architects want to build structures and design spaces and towns and cities that are great, beautiful, in which we feel at home and that are alive. The only way to do this is to understand that they were built using “the timeless way”. The purpose of the first chapter is to help us recognise it, in the hope of being able to produce it in design.
Alexander shows a number of photographs and gives an number of examples of structures that were built using the timeless way.
He cites:
the Alhambra
some tiny Gothic church
a New England house
An Alpine hill village
An ancient Zen temple
A seat by a mountain stream
A courtyard with yellow and blue tiles
He says the thing they have in common, and what is emotionally moving is that they are "alive".
This term is explained later in chapter two and is central to Alexander’s thesis. Follow one of the links above and see if you can see what the author means.
We all have a deep instinctive desire to create such places, be they a garden or a house or a city, and they may constitute for us a “living world, a universe”. P.9
He claims there are a simple series of steps that if followed anyone can create structures and spaces that “live”. This method of building is as old as humanity and somewhat unconsciously or instinctively executed.
The identification of the method is found by looking for what is constant or "invariant" in beautiful, great and living structures. Alexander calls them ‘patterns’.
These patterns emerge from the combination of a variety of processes. There is however a single process or method that generates all other processes and patterns. I guess we could call it the “mother of all patterns”. With this we can make all structures “alive”. Alexander attaches a warning at this stage, saying it is a specific method but it cannot be used in a mechanical fashion.
This method reveals what we know intuitively and instinctively, and shows that we don’t need the building methods taught to us (P13). Applying this method should allow anyone to design a community without the need of plans p.14. He explains that this is because it is somehow based on Nature, and in Nature order emerges spontaneously “from nothing”.
The author explains that in order to apply this method requires a certain abandonment of the fear of failure. For it is for this reason we adhere to confirmed methodologies. And it is these that make modern buildings so lifeless.
Return to
Nature, Art & Language
According to architect Christopher Alexander 'the quality without a name' that characterises beautiful structures is found when a 'living process of construction' is applied. In his book The Timeless Way of Building(1979) when buildings, neighbourhoods and towns are adapted to and in harmony with their surroundings they are reminiscent of living things. That is, they are 'alive' and conducive to allow people to be themselves and attain peaceful happiness.
Here are the main points from each chapter and summary that should have been covered during student presentations. If they weren't, or you still need help understanding them then read through these notes. You could also get yourself of Alexander’s book and explore the website:
http://www.patternlanguage.com/
Chapter 1: The Timeless Way
All architects want to build structures and design spaces and towns and cities that are great, beautiful, in which we feel at home and that are alive. The only way to do this is to understand that they were built using “the timeless way”. The purpose of the first chapter is to help us recognise it, in the hope of being able to produce it in design.
Alexander shows a number of photographs and gives an number of examples of structures that were built using the timeless way.
He cites:
the Alhambra
some tiny Gothic church
a New England house
An Alpine hill village
An ancient Zen temple
A seat by a mountain stream
A courtyard with yellow and blue tiles
He says the thing they have in common, and what is emotionally moving is that they are "alive".
This term is explained later in chapter two and is central to Alexander’s thesis. Follow one of the links above and see if you can see what the author means.
We all have a deep instinctive desire to create such places, be they a garden or a house or a city, and they may constitute for us a “living world, a universe”. P.9
He claims there are a simple series of steps that if followed anyone can create structures and spaces that “live”. This method of building is as old as humanity and somewhat unconsciously or instinctively executed.
The identification of the method is found by looking for what is constant or "invariant" in beautiful, great and living structures. Alexander calls them ‘patterns’.
These patterns emerge from the combination of a variety of processes. There is however a single process or method that generates all other processes and patterns. I guess we could call it the “mother of all patterns”. With this we can make all structures “alive”. Alexander attaches a warning at this stage, saying it is a specific method but it cannot be used in a mechanical fashion.
This method reveals what we know intuitively and instinctively, and shows that we don’t need the building methods taught to us (P13). Applying this method should allow anyone to design a community without the need of plans p.14. He explains that this is because it is somehow based on Nature, and in Nature order emerges spontaneously “from nothing”.
The author explains that in order to apply this method requires a certain abandonment of the fear of failure. For it is for this reason we adhere to confirmed methodologies. And it is these that make modern buildings so lifeless.
Return to
Nature, Art & Language
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