Early and Unpublished Writings of Christopher Alexander

Description

Early and Unpublished Writings of Christopher Alexander: Thinking, Building, Writing

This book brings together key works of the noted architect and architectural theorist Christopher Alexander (1936–2022), many of which have not been published before. The book contains twenty-five essays and other works, many chosen from the newly organized Christopher Alexander archive, providing a window into the ideas and thought process of one of the most innovative architectural thinkers of the twentieth century. The items span Alexander’s fifty-year career, beginning with an early version of his PhD dissertation based on fieldwork in India, continuing to fifteen years in the development of A Pattern Language, one of the best-selling books in the history of architecture, and proceeding to the writing of The Nature of Order, Alexander’s four-volume masterwork, and beyond. The writings combine theory and descriptions of practice, and together support a blueprint for the development of a new, humane way of building, while also providing a window into the mind of an extraordinary thinker, teacher and professional.

CONTENTS

PART 1: THE LARGE AND SMALL DETAILS OF EVERYDAY LIFE

• 1. Perception and modular coordination 1959
• 2. Notes on the Synthesis of Form: Contents, Preface and Part One in early draft 1960
• 3. The Nature of Order, Book One, section on local symmstries 2001
• 4. On changing the way people see 1964
• 5. From a set of forces to a form 1966
• 6. Center for Environmental Structure seminar report, excerpt, 1967
• 7. Early ideas for the pattern language format 1967-68
• 8. Major changes in environmental form required by social and psychological demands 1969
• 9. The atoms of environmental structure 1970

PART 2 : FROM THE CENTER TO THE UNIVERSE

• 10. Value: a reply to Protzen 1977
• 11. Centering 1977
• 12. A shrine to color and light 1990
• 13. OOPSLA lecture 1996
• 14. Reply to William Saunders 2002
• 15. Our new architecture and the many world cultures 2002
• 16. Harmony-seeking computations 2005
• 17. Conversation with Rem Koolhaas 2006

PART 3: THEORY INTO BUILDING

• 18. The grassroots housing process 1973
• 19. The growth of order from small acts 1974
• 20. The architect-builder: toward changing the conception of what an architect is 1977
• 21. Rebirth of the Inner City: The North Omaha Plan, excerpts 1981
• 22. The construction of new neighborhoods for Guasare New Town, Venezuela, excerpts 1983
• 23. Toward a personal workplace, excerpt 1987
• 24. Construction management contract 1994
• 25. Battle, unpublished chapter 2010

Bibliography, Illustration credits, Index