I can’t remember how I came across Christopher Alexander. Maybe it was this kind of review _______ or this wild and funny debate he had ______. But the hook was set, and I have been fascinated by his ideas ever since.
It turns out he was the “golden boy” alpha male of a generation of architects just after the War. Fi
rst in Austria… then England, MIT and finally landing in Berkely. He hit all the of the best and brightest places rose above them all.
He was authentic, sincere, hardworking and domineering… (Big feet kill a lot of ants…) (not judging…)
But, in his driving persistence, he was able to write a 4-volume tome 1800x pages) on architecture over 10x years. Sure, it was unedited, and self-published, because he wanted it done his way, (see?) but it has remained a best seller in that field for the past 40 years.
You dip into it, just to see what was going on in his head, find the nuggets in the gushing flood of ideas. Just reading the chapter headings of the book, makes you want to peek into this world.
His time in architecture was before the invention of the web, but his book on XXX reads like a precursor to the web… all the 253 rules or ideas on design are cross linked repeatedly just by rule number. If the book was rewritten today, you would see each idea, as a normal hyperlink back and forth thru the book.
His development of the idea of building/designing by patterns was taken up by software designers, later on, to create massive code in the same way… He became a hero of the great coders much later in his life, as seen in this YouTube.
Even the sweet, but important Whole Earth Catalogue of the 70’s sprouted from his ideas.
To those in the world of Architecture, you are already familiar with Christopher Alexander.
To those new in this world, his written work alone is massive.
A few people have made good summary introductions here:
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In his most foundational books (……) he lists 253 rules for great design….and within each rule, he just refers to each rule by their ID number. See? The use of links, before the idea of link was invented. This same book is full of simple hand drawings all over the place, instead of painfully perfect art….just scribbles to get the job done…. not one to be painfully perfectionistic in his art…. he carves deep ravines of thought, that you must sit and concentrate to keep up… forcing you to stretch your mind, like back in college. If you are overwhelmed…just keep reading… there are 1000 more ideas for you to comprehend.
So much of his writings were done before the web, but the spirit of the web…the circular links in his work are precursors to the present-day links on the web.
It is actually fun to be stretched like this… comforted by the work is worth it… you are not following an idiot, or a sloppy thinker, but a disciplined, creative mathematician …. his humanity is not second fiddle to his math… but absolutely equal…… he understands and builds his rules based on a keen knowledge of human nature… over the eons, not human nature of current fads or style…but instinctual human nature.
Now, there are whole disciplines examining human nature in architectural design… with such preposterous titles as:
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Such labels help get students to cough up 150K for a degree in these things…. and help justify hiring people with these degrees… but, all this superfluous silliness is nothing more than great interior decorating or Landscaping or designing with knowledge of what humans need… their basic instincts for shelter, protection, inspiration, space, light and the drama, the wow, or awe of a place.
But any ONE of these fields, has room to work a lifetime of effort, yet he tackled the entire universe of Human Nature in his examination of design in general and as it pertains to Architecture.
The book I cannot even afford to buy, is examination of weaving patterns .. a book out of print going for about $500 now. It is a classic example of how perfection of creativity was achieved by tiny corrections of weaving styles over generations… No one person hit the scene, but the thoughts and goals of generations produces the samples of woven material he collected from 1200AD on. It is tangible evidence of how he believed great design is generated. The tiny shreds of rugs all raggedy and tossed, are glimpses of the method designs are created, when a culture gives you the time and reward for almost spiritual work.,
So… I stop… this page is just a pointer toward what 1000’s of others have said….if you are interested… it is all out there.
As I drew, I knew what I wanted, but needed some backing, encouragement to do radical things…. like putting a shower facing the scenic woods, instead of that wall of windows in the master bedroom… Who does that? Who even puts a window in the shower…but it makes all the difference…and is gloriously appreciated every single day…. besides…
If I had to point to one other guy that guided my design process, it would be Appleton, in his books on Prospect and Refute… He was another post war thinker, that applied this simple concept, to 100’s of ideas…. P&R was the least common denominator of so many great ideas…. Though he is hardly ever spoken of, or even known today… still can say “of course” as his 2-word philosophy accounts for so many situations, scenes, works of art, and design ideas based on these 2 tiny words.
is just a single facet of the many ideas proven to work in his designs…
OK…sure, in his private life he gets head strung, and fights …delicious authentic fights
Whole earth catalogue
You can still see his talks on YouTube,
- Phil Greenspun My computer hero, is Philip Greenspun. I have been following him from before his Red Hat Days, doing Ars Digita stuff. Brilliant, sensible, creative, bold, fearless, logical guy. Lately I looked thru his reading list… and found out he TOO is a FOC
- Ken Tate
Now reading about Ken Tate, … who was taught by a sudent of Chris… so another descendant.
- 3 book upstairs about patterns
- the doc in San Antonio
There is a mountain of material written by Christopher Alexander and about him. Someone this brilliant, that has worked for 50 years, cannot be digested in an afternoon.
If, however, you were to study just 50 of his 253 rules…patterns, you will go a long way in designing your house in the right direction.
“Right” to me mean, timeless, flexible, built with the needs of Human Nature in mind, a house that makes YOU a better person, a house that is comforting, and calm, and supportive of you long and changing life.
His rules are based on common sense, and Human Nature….seems a good place to start. We all have the same basic needs, but also, we are all not the same…especially regarding taste and style… A house build with the ideas of Alexander, just needs to adjust, “fix” the soft, short term parts of a house to make it theirs… (interior decorating, landscaping) knowing the bones of the house.. electric, plumbing, wall configuration, views in and view out, the functional layout, the flow are all designed correctly…. with surprise views, and joyous combinations of rooms and flexibility added in right from the beginning.
That is about all you can hope for in designing your own house.
Ok… as I like to do… reverse it…what does a house look like NOT following CA rules?
- Generic knee jerk, Open floor plan. If planned correctly, you can have some rooms wide open, with views, and high ceilings… IF also, you have walls to close off the noise, if you can use your house at 5am, without waking everyone up… babies, dogs that need attention with the slightest creak of the floor, or even vibration of your steps… If you cannot even wake up early to work in your own house… then your house inhibits you, your work, your mind, your time.
- A house too open, is like this… the smells of the kitchen (onions, garlic, spaghetti, burnt toast) oozes out to the living room, up to the balcony, and throughout the second floor…not just the smells, but the sounds! This house is not peaceful… yet, this openness is called an “great thing” but it is NOT flexible…sounds, smells, heat, AC are all out there… it’s all or nothing… Flexible means you can adjust the heat to just one room, not the whole house.
- Rooms with window on one side.. Look at this.,. a $5.5M renovations… and it MOSTLY has rooms with windows on one side….! THEY JUST DON’T GET IT!! These are pros… not a housewife at home with a cat, designing a house… these are the big guys. When gutting an old house, you have the choice to add windows, correct flow, create powder rooms with windows, air and light, not dark small closets that the doors hit your knees as you are doing business.
- It is this massive error count on new houses, that fuels me to write this. The obvious unneeded, unforced errors, mistakes, by the pros, means they are sloppy, cheap, shortcutting for more profit, at the misery of the generations that will live here, till the house gets torn down.
- Alexander was fueled by the violent anger of his peers at Berkley. .he knew this fear and anger during a paradyme shift was predictable, and part of the process… and it meant he was going the right way.
- For me, seeing the constant horrible built mansions, fuels me to warn buyers against buyign these houses and encourage bad design… see check list..
- This is not my mission, but a side dish… My mission it to elevate ME, to doing good design…warning others, is just a side benefit.
- It is easy to point to errors… it is hard to do great work, and have it become unseen, natural, non-descript…fade into background… That is hard! As Ahearn says “he wants his houses to look like they have always been there, and he did not MAKE them… “
As you design, you have to pick your hero’s, inspiration, guides. I am only surer of his good work, the more time I spend on it… he does not disappoint. It is not shallow, or trendy. If you use the top 50 of the 253 rules (patterns) will get you far in designing your own house…