Christopher Alexander and the Art of Building essays

Christopher Alexander and the Art of Building essays In both A Pattern Language and The Nature of Order Christopher Alexander endeavors to create authentic and alive spaces through an organic process of design. His mathematically reinforced patterns, based on ideal function and conceptions of beauty, can be applied to areas as large as cities and as small as individual shelving units. Alexander posits that the patterns allow for optimized design, where desirable relationships between each piece work in perfect unison. Within this theoretical framework, Alexander has outlined his own art of building that can, hypothetically, be followed by others who wish to use it. Most of his theories and writings in this area contain strong points for consideration; this being said, the forced patterns of desirable relationships described by Alexander are also restrictive. Additionally, his ideas about definable beauty make individual creativity irrelevant in his designs, making his methods somewhat flawed in respect to varying taste. The development of Christopher Alexanders theories comes from his strong background in both mathematics and architecture (Kohn 2002). In his earliest works he suggested that designers should identify project requirements and create diagrams to show the interrelationships between them. Diagrams would also be composites of rigorous experimentation. Using these diagrams, computer-generated algorithms would be produced and would dictate how the pieces of the design project should fit together (Kohn 2002). These earlier methods were the beginning of a much more human process but the key elements are the same: there is one true solution and there is a clear process to use to get there. Alexander still uses diagrams and interrelationships to define his buildings and design subjects (Kohn 2002). For example, a basic home diagram illustrates an adult realm and a childrens realm with a large common space connecting them in the center. Intuitively, th...