Brief Site Map Original Link New Brief 8/13/97, 2:13:55PM by NetAttaché Light

Christopher Alexander

SOME NOTES ON CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER, by Nikos A. Salingaros


PHOTO
  1. BIOGRAPHY
  2. PUBLICATIONS
  3. BUILDINGS
  4. INFLUENCE ON COMPUTER SCIENCE
  5. INFLUENCE ON INFORMATION STRUCTURES AND ORGANIZATIONS
  6. INFLUENCE ON ORIENTAL CARPET STUDIES
  7. PHILOSOPHICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

BIOGRAPHY

Christopher Alexander was born in Vienna, Austria, and raised in Oxford, England. He graduated from Cambridge University, where he studied Mathematics and Architecture. He then obtained a Ph. D. in Architecture at Harvard University. For his Ph. D. Thesis, later published as the book Notes on the Synthesis of Form, he was awarded the first Gold Medal for Research by the American Institute of Architects. Since 1963 he has been Professor of Architecture at the University of California at Berkeley, and Director of the Institute for Environmental Structure. In 1980, Professor Alexander was elected member of the Swedish Royal Academy; and in 1996 he was elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Christopher Alexander is a Trustee of the Prince of Wales's Institute of Architecture.

PUBLICATIONS

Alexander is the author of numerous books and papers. He has initiated a new approach to architectural thinking, in which the same set of laws determines the structure of a city; a building; or a single room. He has spent most of his life in searching for these laws. His approach to solving this universal problem takes advantage of scientific reasoning, and totally opposes other, unscientific approaches based on fashion, politics, or arbitrary personal ideas. This is so different from the way architecture has been taught since the second world war that it causes conflicts with established architectural schools.

Alexander offers definitive solutions to the problems of urban architecture and design. It is a great pity that these were not adopted when first published some years ago. Fortunately, a small number of his ideas have been incorporated into the "New Urbanism". Nevertheless, this is only a very recent movement, and it by no means represents a wholesale application of his results. A possible reason for this neglect is that Alexander's results contradict what is understood today as "Urban Planning". He has abstracted the process by which organic and inorganic forms evolve - which is the same process that governs the growth of a city. These results lie at the basis of how matter organizes itself coherently, and oppose the modern planning approach in which grids, zones, roads, and buildings, based on some pre-conceived design on paper, are imposed on human activity.

A comprehensive bibliography up to 1982 is listed in the biography by Stephen Grabow: Christopher Alexander: The Search for a New Paradigm in Architecture, Oriel Press, Stocksfield, England, 1983. Some of Alexander's key publications are:
  1. Christopher Alexander, Notes on the Synthesis of Form (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1964).
  2. Christopher Alexander, "A City is Not a Tree", Architectural Forum 122 April (1965): No. 1, pages 58-61 and No. 2, pages 58-62. [Reprinted in: Design After Modernism, Edited by John Thackara, Thames and Hudson, London, 1988; and in: Human Identity in the Urban Environment, Edited by G. Bell and J. Tyrwhitt, Penguin, 1992]. (see article by Roger Evans in the Urban Design Quarterly).
  3. C. Alexander, S. Ishikawa, M. Silverstein, M. Jacobson, I. Fiksdahl-King and S. Angel, A Pattern Language (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977).
  4. C. Alexander, H. Neis, A. Anninou and I. King, A New Theory of Urban Design (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987).
  5. Christopher Alexander, The Nature of Order (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). (in press).

Brief extracts from the Pattern Language are posted by ImproveNet, by the Isis Group, and by the GBN Book Club. A flavor of Alexander's writings may be obtained from his description of "Space", taken from his book "The Linz Cafe". John Miller gives a brief appreciation of Notes on the Synthesis of Form, and the Pattern Language. See also Alexander's presentation entitled "Domestic Architecture" at the1994 DOORS 2 Conference in Amsterdam.

BUILDINGS

Remarkably, even though Alexander is recognized as one of the most important architects of the twentieth century, and has built many projects in several countries, his buildings are not well documented. There is a 30-minute film on the work of Christopher Alexander, highlighting his approach to building, entitled Places for the Soul: The Architecture of Christopher Alexander. He is himself preparing a comprehensive exposition of his major projects, in a book entitled Sketches of a New Architecture , but it is unfortunately not yet ready for publication. In the meantime, readers can find some photographs in the following works:
  1. Christopher Alexander, The Linz Cafe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1981)
  2. Christopher Alexander, "Sketches of a New Architecture", in Denys Lasdun, ed., Architecture in an Age of Scepticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984) pp. 8-27.
  3. Christopher Alexander, "Battle: The history of a Crucial Clash between World-System A and World-System B", The Japan Architect 8508 (1985) No. 8, pages 15-35.
  4. Thomas Fisher and Pilar Viladas, "Harmony and Wholeness", Progressive Architecture 6:86 June (1986), pages 92-103.
  5. Christopher Alexander, Thomas Fisher and Ziva Freiman, "The Real Meaning of Architecture", Progressive Architecture 7.91 July (1991), pages 100-112.
  6. Ingrid Fiksdahl-King, "Christopher Alexander and Contemporary Architecture", a+u Architecture and Urbanism: Special Issue, August (1993)
  7. Kenneth Baker and Mark Darley, "New American Craftsman House", American Homestyle & Gardening, April/May 1996, pages 43-47.
  8. Alan Powers, "West Dean: a Radical Building in a Rural Guise", Perspectives on Architecture No. 24 August/September (1996), pages 44-47.

Alexander's thoughts on interior design, and especially for the office environment and furniture, are discussed in a separate site.

INFLUENCE ON COMPUTER SCIENCE

Christopher Alexander has had perhaps an even greater impact on computer science than on architecture. Alexander's Pattern Language is being applied to Object Oriented Programming, and is forming the basis for innovative techniques that go beyond it. The theoretical structure that he defined is now recognized as a very general framework in which to link objects in programs together in a co-operative and sequential manner. Already for several years now, the topic of Pattern Languages is established in the field, and possesses a rapidly growing bibliography. There is a yearly conference Pattern Languages of Programming (PLoP). Christopher Alexander was invited to give the keynote address at the 1996 Object Oriented Programming Conference OOPSLA. (PHOTO). (It is now available on video). An assessment of this talk by several attendees was that "this marks the beginning of a new era in computer science".

The Patterns Home Page is a useful repository of information about the application of Pattern Languages in Computer Science. Here, one can find a comprehensive bibliography on the subject, which is constantly being updated. Three books that apply Alexander's ideas to programming are:
  1. James Coplien and Douglas Schmidt (Editors), Pattern Languages of Program Design (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1995).
  2. Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson, and John Vlissides, Design Patterns (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1995)
  3. Richard Gabriel, Patterns of Software (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996). With a foreword by Christopher Alexander.

Only now can the full impact of Christopher Alexander's ideas on computer science be appreciated. We include several links to websites that present more extensive information.

INFLUENCE ON INFORMATION STRUCTURES AND ORGANIZATIONS

Certain computer scientists have taken Alexander's ideas far beyond their initial application to the internal organization of computer programs. As Alexander's results are entirely general, they also apply to the internal structure of organizations and corporations. The beginnings of this very exciting development may be followed in the following two websites:

INFLUENCE ON ORIENTAL CARPET STUDIES

The rules for putting matter together to form a building are universal, and apply to all man-made objects. In particular, they apply to two-dimensional designs such as paintings and textile patterns. The simplification of having only two dimensions and a single material (knots of wool) makes carpets an interesting application of the rules for organized complexity. Alexander establishes the connection between architectural design and Oriental Carpets in his fascinating book: A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art: The Color and Geometry of Very Early Turkish Carpets (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993). The interesting point is that he has obtained insight into architectural design from very early carpets (15th century and earlier).

Alexander's carpet book is of immediate interest to architects, even those who are not particularly interested in oriental carpets. The reason is that the first section summarizes results that form the core of the The Nature of Order, whose publication has been delayed. For example, this is the only place at this time where the "Fifteen Fundamental Properties" and the "Field of Centers" are outlined (if only very briefly). Carpets as examples of human creations that have some measure of "life" are discussed in the following articles:
  1. Christopher Alexander, "A New Way of Looking", HALI: The International Magazine of Antique Carpet and Textile Art 56 (1991): pages 115-125.
  2. Nikos A. Salingaros, "In Defense of Alexander", HALI: The International Magazine of Antique Carpet and Textile Art 78 (1994): pages 67-69.
  3. Nikos A. Salingaros, "The Life of a Carpet: An Application of the Alexander Rules", paper presented at the 8th International Conference on Oriental Carpets.
This work is generating a considerable amount of controversy in the oriental carpet community. Some people appear to be disturbed that a mathematical theory can measure successfully the degree of "life" in a carpet. But that is precisely what happens, and the results agree to a remarkable extent with our deepest intuitions. Also, the very use of the word "life" is misunderstood - it represents design steps that are taken to achieve a coherent design. The same steps are followed whenever organic forms develop. So, life in a man-made object is achieved by following the same rules (though in a vastly more intricate setting) that nature follows in creating biological life. The direction is the same, and that is the beauty of the theoretical result.

Christopher Alexander has put together a collection of very early Turkish carpets in which he finds a large degree of life. All the carpets are illustrated in his book, which serves as a catalogue of the collection; and some of them appear in his article. His carpet collection was exhibited at the de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco during the 6th International Conference on Oriental Carpets, 1990. Many persons who attended this show described it as a very moving experience. Even those in the Oriental Carpet community who disagree with Alexander's analytic approach to carpet designs praise him for being among the first to see the extraordinary power of Seljuk and other very early carpets, and for having the courage to collect them.

PHILOSOPHICAL CONTRIBUTIONS

Alexander's writings on architecture at the same time develop a philosophy of nature and life. He proposes a more profound connection between nature and the human mind than is presently allowed either in science, or in architecture. Alexander sees the universe as a coherent whole, encompassing feelings as well as inanimate matter. This strongly Taoist viewpoint was first developed in his book: The Timeless Way of Building (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979). To some readers, this is a book on architecture written in a philosophical style; to many others, it is a book on philosophy with architectural examples. A large number of people have embraced the philosophy of the Timeless Way of Building, finding in it universal truths on how man interacts with the world. Brief extracts from the Timeless Way are posted by Heather Duggan. Towards the end of his life, J. J. Krishnamurti enjoyed having the Timeless Way read aloud to him.

In both the Timeless Way and the Pattern Language, there are sections of text in which the language itself assumes a peculiarly imprecise, poetic quality. It is exactly at those instances, when Alexander the mathematician appears to be abandoning his customary precision, that Alexander the philosopher is communicating on an entirely different and more fundamentally emotional level. The unconventional syntax he employs is merely a means of conveying deeper philosophical meanings. (It helps to read those passages aloud). Some people readily find a spiritual content in his works. From such people, who may be otherwise indifferent to either architecture, or computer science, Alexander has won a deep and lasting respect.

Many of the patterns in the Pattern Language provide guiding points for Alexander's philosophy. See, for example, the pattern on The Family, posted by Catherine Dibble. There is an emphasis throughout on the potential of the individual; the importance of a spiritual connection to the built world; the need for cooperation among people; the empowerment of individuals or small groups of people to shape their environment. All of this is elaborated further in the forthcoming The Nature of Order, and has far-reaching social and political implications which may be alarming to some and inspiring to others.

Alexander insists that his philosophy is inseparable from his architectural theories. This point worries many conservative architects used to doing things in a certain way, as it does potential clients who might wish to try his method. Some of Alexander's staunchest supporters argue that, in order to facilitate their adoption, his architectural theories ought to be decoupled from the accompanying philosophy. After all, this is an imperfect world, where every architectural project represents a series of compromises. Alexander counters by warning against a superficial application of his method that misses the fundamental point. He has stressed repeatedly in his writings that perfect coherence between built forms and people has to be accompanied by changes in people's basic outlook.

This site is maintained by Nikos A. Salingaros.
It was honored as the Hot Pick of the Alamo PC Organization in February 1997.
Your comments and suggestions will be appreciated. e-mail to Salingaros

| Brief Summary | Site Map| Original Link | NetAttaché(TM) Light