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