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The Timeless Way of Building
In The Timeless Way of Building Christopher Alexander presents a new theory of architecture, building, and planning which has at its core that age-old process by which the people of a society have always pulled the order of their world from their own being.
He writes, “There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. It is not possible to make great buildings, or great towns, beautiful places, places where you feel yourself, places where you feel alive, except by following this way. And, as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills, and as our faces are.”
The Timeless Way of Building is the introductory volume to Alexander’s other works, A Pattern Language and The Oregon Experiment, in the Center for Environmental Structure series.
He writes, “There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. It is not possible to make great buildings, or great towns, beautiful places, places where you feel yourself, places where you feel alive, except by following this way. And, as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills, and as our faces are.”
The Timeless Way of Building is the introductory volume to Alexander’s other works, A Pattern Language and The Oregon Experiment, in the Center for Environmental Structure series.
552 pages, Hardcover
First published December 12, 1978
About the author
Christopher W. Alexander
26 books382 followersChristopher Wolfgang John Alexander (4 October 1936 – 17 March 2022) was an Austrian-born British-American architect and design theorist. He was an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley. His theories about the nature of human-centered design have affected fields beyond architecture, including urban design, software, and sociology. Alexander designed and personally built over 100 buildings, both as an architect and a general contractor.
In software, Alexander is regarded as the father of the pattern language movement. The first wiki—the technology behind Wikipedia—led directly from Alexander's work, according to its creator, Ward Cunningham. Alexander's work has also influenced the development of agile software development.
In architecture, Alexander's work is used by a number of different contemporary architectural communities of practice, including the New Urbanist movement, to help people to reclaim control over their own built environment. However, Alexander was controversial among some mainstream architects and critics, in part because his work was often harshly critical of much of contemporary architectural theory and practice.
In software, Alexander is regarded as the father of the pattern language movement. The first wiki—the technology behind Wikipedia—led directly from Alexander's work, according to its creator, Ward Cunningham. Alexander's work has also influenced the development of agile software development.
In architecture, Alexander's work is used by a number of different contemporary architectural communities of practice, including the New Urbanist movement, to help people to reclaim control over their own built environment. However, Alexander was controversial among some mainstream architects and critics, in part because his work was often harshly critical of much of contemporary architectural theory and practice.
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January 8, 2022
The Timeless Way of Building, Christopher W. Alexander
The Timeless Way of Building is a 1979 book by Christopher Alexander, the introductory volume in the Center for Environmental Structure series, Christopher Alexander presents in it a new theory of architecture, building, and planning which has at its core that age-old process by which the people of a society have always pulled the order of their world from their own being.
The theory of architecture implicit in our world today, Christopher Alexander believes, is bankrupt. More and more people are aware that something is deeply wrong. Yet the power of present-day ideas is so great that many feel uncomfortable, even afraid, to say openly that they dislike what is happening, because they are afraid to seem foolish, afraid perhaps that they will be laughed at.
Now, at last, there is a coherent theory which describes in modern terms an architecture as ancient as human society itself.
Alexander writes, "There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. And as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills, and as our faces are."
تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز هفتم ماه ژانویه سال2005میلادی
عنوان: معماری و راز جاودانگی: راه ب‍ی زمان ساختن؛ نویسنده: کریستوفر الکساندر؛ مترجم مهرداد قیومی‌بیدهندی؛ با مقدمۀ مهدی حجت؛ تهران، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی، مرکز چاپ و انتشارات، سال1381؛ در بیست و پنج و468ص؛ شابک9644570677؛ چاپ سوم سال1390؛ در بیست و چهار و479ص؛ با عنوان: معماری و راز جاودانگی : راه جاودانه ساختن؛ سال1396؛ در بیست و پنج و468ص؛ شابک9789644574078؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، روزنه، سال1390؛ در360ص، مصور، چاپ دوم سال1392؛ شابک9789643343354؛ چاپ سوم سال1393؛ موضوع معماری و الگو شناسی از نویسندگان بریتانیایی تبار ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده20م
معماری و راز جاودانگی نوشته کریستوفر الکساندر استاد معماری دانشگاه برکلی است؛ اکساندر به عنوان پدر زبان‌های الگو شناخته می‌شوند؛ برای آنکه دوباره بتوانیم بناها و شهرهایی زنده بسازیم که همچون موجودات زنده حیات داشته باشند و به محیط و بهره برداران از خود پاسخی طبیعی بدهند باید دوباره زبان‌های الگوی مشترک بسازیم؛ الکساندر می‌کوشند راه ساختن زبان الگوی معماری و شهر را در این روزگار نشان دهند
نقل از متن: (به ما آموخته‌اند که بنای خوب با بنای بد و شهر خوب با شهر بد هیچ تفاوت عینی روشنی ندارد؛ حق این است که تفاوت میان بنای خوب و بد، یا شهر خوب و بد امری عینی است؛ این تفاوت همان تفاوت میان سلامت و بیماری، انسجام و آشفتگی، خودبانی و خود ویرانگری است؛ در عالمی سالم و منسجم و زنده و خودبان، خود مردم می‌توانند زنده و خودآفرین باشند؛ در عالمی متشتت و خودویرانگر، مردم نمی‌توانند زنده باشند؛ خودشان ناگزیر خودویرانگر و بدبخت‌اند؛ اما درک و فهم اینکه چرا مردمان با اطمینان می‌پندارند که مبنای واحد و استواری برای تفاوت میان بنای خوب و بد وجود ندارد آسان است این پندار ناشی از آن است که بر کیفیت اصلی ای که این تفاوت را موجب می‌شود، نمی‌شود نامی گذاشت)؛ پایان نقل
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 17/10/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
The Timeless Way of Building is a 1979 book by Christopher Alexander, the introductory volume in the Center for Environmental Structure series, Christopher Alexander presents in it a new theory of architecture, building, and planning which has at its core that age-old process by which the people of a society have always pulled the order of their world from their own being.
The theory of architecture implicit in our world today, Christopher Alexander believes, is bankrupt. More and more people are aware that something is deeply wrong. Yet the power of present-day ideas is so great that many feel uncomfortable, even afraid, to say openly that they dislike what is happening, because they are afraid to seem foolish, afraid perhaps that they will be laughed at.
Now, at last, there is a coherent theory which describes in modern terms an architecture as ancient as human society itself.
Alexander writes, "There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. And as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills, and as our faces are."
تاریخ نخستین خوانش روز هفتم ماه ژانویه سال2005میلادی
عنوان: معماری و راز جاودانگی: راه ب‍ی زمان ساختن؛ نویسنده: کریستوفر الکساندر؛ مترجم مهرداد قیومی‌بیدهندی؛ با مقدمۀ مهدی حجت؛ تهران، دانشگاه شهید بهشتی، مرکز چاپ و انتشارات، سال1381؛ در بیست و پنج و468ص؛ شابک9644570677؛ چاپ سوم سال1390؛ در بیست و چهار و479ص؛ با عنوان: معماری و راز جاودانگی : راه جاودانه ساختن؛ سال1396؛ در بیست و پنج و468ص؛ شابک9789644574078؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، روزنه، سال1390؛ در360ص، مصور، چاپ دوم سال1392؛ شابک9789643343354؛ چاپ سوم سال1393؛ موضوع معماری و الگو شناسی از نویسندگان بریتانیایی تبار ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده20م
معماری و راز جاودانگی نوشته کریستوفر الکساندر استاد معماری دانشگاه برکلی است؛ اکساندر به عنوان پدر زبان‌های الگو شناخته می‌شوند؛ برای آنکه دوباره بتوانیم بناها و شهرهایی زنده بسازیم که همچون موجودات زنده حیات داشته باشند و به محیط و بهره برداران از خود پاسخی طبیعی بدهند باید دوباره زبان‌های الگوی مشترک بسازیم؛ الکساندر می‌کوشند راه ساختن زبان الگوی معماری و شهر را در این روزگار نشان دهند
نقل از متن: (به ما آموخته‌اند که بنای خوب با بنای بد و شهر خوب با شهر بد هیچ تفاوت عینی روشنی ندارد؛ حق این است که تفاوت میان بنای خوب و بد، یا شهر خوب و بد امری عینی است؛ این تفاوت همان تفاوت میان سلامت و بیماری، انسجام و آشفتگی، خودبانی و خود ویرانگری است؛ در عالمی سالم و منسجم و زنده و خودبان، خود مردم می‌توانند زنده و خودآفرین باشند؛ در عالمی متشتت و خودویرانگر، مردم نمی‌توانند زنده باشند؛ خودشان ناگزیر خودویرانگر و بدبخت‌اند؛ اما درک و فهم اینکه چرا مردمان با اطمینان می‌پندارند که مبنای واحد و استواری برای تفاوت میان بنای خوب و بد وجود ندارد آسان است این پندار ناشی از آن است که بر کیفیت اصلی ای که این تفاوت را موجب می‌شود، نمی‌شود نامی گذاشت)؛ پایان نقل
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 17/10/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
April 3, 2024
My friend and poet Jen urged me to read this, telling me it is one of her favorite and most influential books. It was written over fourteen years in the sixties and seventies, published in 1979, and has the feel of a "back to the garden" romanticism. That sounds like I am dismissive of it, which isn't true. It just feels like what he said then is almost hopelessly truer today. Other books like it include Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig, or Seeing Like a State by James Scott, books that essentially show you how bureaucracy moves us away from organic approaches to living. Alexander's book is about architecture, but it can be applied to anything. The making of anything, like my friend Jen's poetry.
Alexander looks at "the quality with no name" that he finds makes buildings alive, a quality connected to human need, to beauty, to interdependence, to nature. He sees contemporary architectural philosophy and practice as cut off from human beings, from nature. His is a stripped down approach that might best be described as a Zen or Taoist way of life. He includes more than a hundred illustrative photographs from various sources, usually unexplained.
I resist some of his more romantic, universalist claims for "timeless" qualities rooted in a common language, but I appreciate his organic approach, his resistance to acontextual, standardized approaches to the world, and architecture in particular. My own world, the world of the classroom, suffers from assumptions people have about standardized assessment, and the misguided idea that democracy somehow implies we have to treat everyone the same way, and make them all read and study precisely the same things at the same time. A robotic approach that denies individual differences, and at the same time resists any notion of community. The world seems to have forgotten about principles of interdependence. This book is a reminder.
Alexander looks at "the quality with no name" that he finds makes buildings alive, a quality connected to human need, to beauty, to interdependence, to nature. He sees contemporary architectural philosophy and practice as cut off from human beings, from nature. His is a stripped down approach that might best be described as a Zen or Taoist way of life. He includes more than a hundred illustrative photographs from various sources, usually unexplained.
I resist some of his more romantic, universalist claims for "timeless" qualities rooted in a common language, but I appreciate his organic approach, his resistance to acontextual, standardized approaches to the world, and architecture in particular. My own world, the world of the classroom, suffers from assumptions people have about standardized assessment, and the misguided idea that democracy somehow implies we have to treat everyone the same way, and make them all read and study precisely the same things at the same time. A robotic approach that denies individual differences, and at the same time resists any notion of community. The world seems to have forgotten about principles of interdependence. This book is a reminder.
May 24, 2014
ساده بود و عمیق. به خواننده‌اش احترام گذاشته بود و نحوه خواندن کتاب را هم برای کسی که می‌خواهد سرسری نگاهش کند و هم کسی که می‌خواهد کل کتاب را بخواند توضیح داده بود. دنبال خودنمایی و نشان دادن علم و سواد و دایره لغاتش نبود. و همه‌ی اینها باعث شده بود که بتوانی به راحتی بخوانی‌اش؛ بتوانی آن را نه یک کتاب آموزشی، که یک رمان یا داستان تصور کنی که می‌توانی درازکش هم بخوانی و به اینکه آخرش چه می‌شود فکر کنی!
اما کتابی نبود که مثل رمان‌ها یک بار بخوانی و وقتی فهمیدی آخرش چه می‌شود به کتابخانه برگردانی. با وجود اینکه ساده بود ولی باید باز هم بخوانی‌اش. آخر از چیزهایی می‌گوید که همه می‌دانیم ولی سعی در انکار یا فراموشی‌شان داریم. بس که در این روزگار مدرن به یاد داشتن بعضی چیزها بی‌کلاسی حساب می‌شود و غرق شدن در آهن و بتن کلاس.
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دیر این کتاب را خواندم، اما ناراحت نیستم. هنوز آنقدر درگیر جاذبه مدرنیسم نشده‌ام که با حرف‌های نویسنده غریبه باشم. در مدت زمان خواندنم، مخصوصاً در فصل‌های آخری که نمونه موردی‌ها اضافه می‌شدند، به این فکر می‌کردم که من هم در طراحی خانه‌ای که به من سفارش شده بود با همین روش‌ها کار می‌کردم. بستن چشم‌ها و تصور فضایی که به من و ساکنین آن خانه حس خوب بدهد. کاری که این روزها در دانشگاه‌های معماری از یاد همه رفته است...
یکشنبه 4 خرداد 1391
تهران
اما کتابی نبود که مثل رمان‌ها یک بار بخوانی و وقتی فهمیدی آخرش چه می‌شود به کتابخانه برگردانی. با وجود اینکه ساده بود ولی باید باز هم بخوانی‌اش. آخر از چیزهایی می‌گوید که همه می‌دانیم ولی سعی در انکار یا فراموشی‌شان داریم. بس که در این روزگار مدرن به یاد داشتن بعضی چیزها بی‌کلاسی حساب می‌شود و غرق شدن در آهن و بتن کلاس.
.
دیر این کتاب را خواندم، اما ناراحت نیستم. هنوز آنقدر درگیر جاذبه مدرنیسم نشده‌ام که با حرف‌های نویسنده غریبه باشم. در مدت زمان خواندنم، مخصوصاً در فصل‌های آخری که نمونه موردی‌ها اضافه می‌شدند، به این فکر می‌کردم که من هم در طراحی خانه‌ای که به من سفارش شده بود با همین روش‌ها کار می‌کردم. بستن چشم‌ها و تصور فضایی که به من و ساکنین آن خانه حس خوب بدهد. کاری که این روزها در دانشگاه‌های معماری از یاد همه رفته است...
یکشنبه 4 خرداد 1391
تهران
November 30, 2011
I found this book both wonderful and a bit frightening. The book is not a literary masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination, but the images it paints in the mind are quite beautiful in its discussion of what we use to be and what we've lost. As a designer, I find Alexander's proposed solution a bit scary as it reject contemporary architecture practices almost completely, even after 40 years of publication. But the ideas behind that rejection, about architecture being a common language and direct reflection of human nature and society, are incredibly intriguing. The concepts in this book could easily be applied to other professions and problems. Overall this is one of the few books that I borrowed and immediately wanted to keep for future reference and rereading.
April 2, 2009
One of my all-time favorite philosophy books. It has lots and lots of picturs and the unusual feature of a fast-track design that allows people to skim the book in a day. I read the whole book and it made me cry and changed the way I look at everything.
April 14, 2018
WARNING- short excerpt will follow.
Why is it that a book about building makes me cry every time I re-read it? This isn't a book about building. It's an ode to beauty and humility that speaks to the soul rather than the mind, and those two combined are just the healing my heart needs and forgets to get in the midst of the rational technicality of architectural and planning thought. I'm immensely grateful I studied architecture because I met pr. Alexander's books, and this one in particular. This book is a reminder that not all designers went to architecture school, and not all those who went to architecture school are designer.
"This is the importance of the void. A person who is free, and egoless, starts with a void, and lets the language generate the necessary forms, out of this void. He overcomes the need to hold onto an image, the need to control the design, and he is comfortable with the void, and confident that the laws of nature, formulated as patterns, acting in his mind, will together create all that is required."
Why is it that a book about building makes me cry every time I re-read it? This isn't a book about building. It's an ode to beauty and humility that speaks to the soul rather than the mind, and those two combined are just the healing my heart needs and forgets to get in the midst of the rational technicality of architectural and planning thought. I'm immensely grateful I studied architecture because I met pr. Alexander's books, and this one in particular. This book is a reminder that not all designers went to architecture school, and not all those who went to architecture school are designer.
"This is the importance of the void. A person who is free, and egoless, starts with a void, and lets the language generate the necessary forms, out of this void. He overcomes the need to hold onto an image, the need to control the design, and he is comfortable with the void, and confident that the laws of nature, formulated as patterns, acting in his mind, will together create all that is required."
August 27, 2009
Perhaps it should have been called 'Zen and the Art of Building'.... I hadn't come across this book before, although I think it may be required reading for architecture students. Having come from a design background myself I found it interesting.
It's long winded and often waxes lyrical, but the basic premise states that buildings are not for enhancing the egos of architects, but instead, they are for the people who use and live in them. So far, so good. Alexander also reveals how the patterns of activities carried out within a building are either helped or hindered by it's architecture, again, fairly predictable. He points out how certain buildings feel 'alive' while others are 'dead' spaces.
The book goes on to explain how to achieve what Alexander calls 'the quality with no name' which brings a building, even a whole city, to life. It's a very organic process, achieved without the detailed plans normally involved in construction. I love the idea of building in this way, but I'm not surprised it's not widely practiced. How long will the project take? How do you budget? Maybe he covers all that in one of his other books!
It's long winded and often waxes lyrical, but the basic premise states that buildings are not for enhancing the egos of architects, but instead, they are for the people who use and live in them. So far, so good. Alexander also reveals how the patterns of activities carried out within a building are either helped or hindered by it's architecture, again, fairly predictable. He points out how certain buildings feel 'alive' while others are 'dead' spaces.
The book goes on to explain how to achieve what Alexander calls 'the quality with no name' which brings a building, even a whole city, to life. It's a very organic process, achieved without the detailed plans normally involved in construction. I love the idea of building in this way, but I'm not surprised it's not widely practiced. How long will the project take? How do you budget? Maybe he covers all that in one of his other books!
December 22, 2010
This book is essential reading for anyone involved in making things for use by other human beings. Part Taoist philosophy of architecture, part systems thinking for the way people and the spaces they inhabit interact, it explains why some places are vibrant and alive, others decaying and dying. It's impossible to look at buildings and towns the same way after reading this.
Alexander's Design Patterns give a way to capture the knowledge about how parts of a system (building, town) take their place in the whole, and how to peace them together in a constructive way. If you've come to Design Patterns from software development, you need to read this to understand the intent of a pattern language. If you've come to them from interaction/interface/product design, you need to read this to understand how to design and assemble something that is alive.
The Timeless Way of Building is profound, moving, and flowing. It's almost impossible to put down.
Alexander's Design Patterns give a way to capture the knowledge about how parts of a system (building, town) take their place in the whole, and how to peace them together in a constructive way. If you've come to Design Patterns from software development, you need to read this to understand the intent of a pattern language. If you've come to them from interaction/interface/product design, you need to read this to understand how to design and assemble something that is alive.
The Timeless Way of Building is profound, moving, and flowing. It's almost impossible to put down.
August 23, 2019
چرا چنین هراسانیم؟ برای ا��ن که اگر هرجومرج ایجاد کنیم مردم به ما می‌خندند؟ یا شاید برای این که بیش از هر چیز از این می‌ترسیم که اگر در حالی که می‌خواهیم هنری بیافرینیم هرجومرج ایجاد کنیم، خودمان آشفته و هیچ و پوچ شویم؟ ... هراس بر اثرِ اوهام در ما به وجود می‌آید ...
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بیشترِ انسانها با طبیعتِ درونیِ خود سازگاری ندارند، و در نتیجه کاملاً اصیل نیستند. در واقع مهم‌ترین مسئله‌ی زندگیِ بسیاری از انسانها سازگار بودن با خود است. وقتی با کسی برخورد می‌کنید که با خودش سازگار است، ناگهان احساس می‌کنید اصیل‌تر از سایرِ مردم است.
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درست است که گاه رویدادی خاص ممکن است زندگیِ ما را زیر و زبر کند، یا اثرِ خود را بر ما باقی بگذارد، اما گزافه نیست اگر بگوییم که به طورِ کلی هویتِ زندگیِ ما حاصلِ رویدادهایی است که به کرات و دفعات اتفاق می‌افتد.
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پرسیدنِ احساسِ کسی با پرسیدنِ نظرِ او یکی نیست ... پرسیدنِ احساسِ کسی با پرسیدنِ سلیقه‌ی او نیز یکی نیست ... پرسیدنِ احساس فقط پرسیدنِ احساس است و لاغیر.
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بیشترِ انسانها با طبیعتِ درونیِ خود سازگاری ندارند، و در نتیجه کاملاً اصیل نیستند. در واقع مهم‌ترین مسئله‌ی زندگیِ بسیاری از انسانها سازگار بودن با خود است. وقتی با کسی برخورد می‌کنید که با خودش سازگار است، ناگهان احساس می‌کنید اصیل‌تر از سایرِ مردم است.
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درست است که گاه رویدادی خاص ممکن است زندگیِ ما را زیر و زبر کند، یا اثرِ خود را بر ما باقی بگذارد، اما گزافه نیست اگر بگوییم که به طورِ کلی هویتِ زندگیِ ما حاصلِ رویدادهایی است که به کرات و دفعات اتفاق می‌افتد.
—————————
پرسیدنِ احساسِ کسی با پرسیدنِ نظرِ او یکی نیست ... پرسیدنِ احساسِ کسی با پرسیدنِ سلیقه‌ی او نیز یکی نیست ... پرسیدنِ احساس فقط پرسیدنِ احساس است و لاغیر.
June 4, 2023
A book, beautifully written, describing a beautiful vision.
September 17, 2015
In this thoughtful book, Chris Alexander takes an approach to architecture that understands it through the filter of human (and non-human) agency. He understands that the most useful buildings are ones that are created by the maximization of agency of the people involved, with the utilization of language based patterns that we inhabit to organize our behavior. He writes this book almost as if talking in a dream. Reading this book is a visceral experience of stepping into the a shower.
It's quite a masterful work, one that deals with the aesthetics of embodiedness rather than the more mundane (but necessary) considerations of budgeting, and so on. In a way, this a book of one who is entering a mastery of the craft, where the detailed considerations fall to the wayside as the considerations of that pure level of agency come into full consideration.
Alexander's method is more meditative and thoughtful, one that seems geared towards his process of consideration and his familiarity with the "pattern languages" that he utilizes more than anything else. What I find most interesting in this book is that he utilizes spaces from other cultures all the while remarking that such patterns are built into our native language. Are they then, really more a function of our cultural-mind? He suggests we know this intuitively, and yet most people cannot build accordingly as buildings cannot be formed from a poverty of our languaged patterns. So that seems like a big epistemological-cultural hole. But at the same time, his thoughts are so compelling, you want to believe in them. That there is a potentially rich environment of knowledge and consideration that we can dig from, only if we were in tune with it!
It's no surprise then, that he originates in the Berkeley area, as San Francisco is the hotbed of such hippy mysticism. Still, there's something to be said for his approach and his "method" which takes a much less mechanical view of building. We should gear our use appropriately to the individuals for whom a building should embody! Our culture is impoverished due to the fragmentation of disciplines and the jealous guardians who don't want to share with their economic competitors! In a very real way he is talking about Taoism. I look forward to reading more of his work.
It's quite a masterful work, one that deals with the aesthetics of embodiedness rather than the more mundane (but necessary) considerations of budgeting, and so on. In a way, this a book of one who is entering a mastery of the craft, where the detailed considerations fall to the wayside as the considerations of that pure level of agency come into full consideration.
Alexander's method is more meditative and thoughtful, one that seems geared towards his process of consideration and his familiarity with the "pattern languages" that he utilizes more than anything else. What I find most interesting in this book is that he utilizes spaces from other cultures all the while remarking that such patterns are built into our native language. Are they then, really more a function of our cultural-mind? He suggests we know this intuitively, and yet most people cannot build accordingly as buildings cannot be formed from a poverty of our languaged patterns. So that seems like a big epistemological-cultural hole. But at the same time, his thoughts are so compelling, you want to believe in them. That there is a potentially rich environment of knowledge and consideration that we can dig from, only if we were in tune with it!
It's no surprise then, that he originates in the Berkeley area, as San Francisco is the hotbed of such hippy mysticism. Still, there's something to be said for his approach and his "method" which takes a much less mechanical view of building. We should gear our use appropriately to the individuals for whom a building should embody! Our culture is impoverished due to the fragmentation of disciplines and the jealous guardians who don't want to share with their economic competitors! In a very real way he is talking about Taoism. I look forward to reading more of his work.
June 29, 2020
خلاصه ی این کتاب رو از پادکست وادی شنیدم
https://castbox.fm/vb/277848416
مقدمه‌ی خوبیه برای کتاب زبان الگو از همین نویسنده و برای کسایی که کتاب" تفکر معماری:فرایند طراحی و چشمان جوینده"رو‌خوندن میتونه منبع کاملی باشه که موضوع زبان الگو رو کامل تر درک کنن.
گوینده توضیح میده که بیشتر بخش های کتاب مثال هایی هستن برای درک سر تیتر ها و چند نمونه از این مثال ها رو هم میگه.
https://castbox.fm/vb/277848416
مقدمه‌ی خوبیه برای کتاب زبان الگو از همین نویسنده و برای کسایی که کتاب" تفکر معماری:فرایند طراحی و چشمان جوینده"رو‌خوندن میتونه منبع کاملی باشه که موضوع زبان الگو رو کامل تر درک کنن.
گوینده توضیح میده که بیشتر بخش های کتاب مثال هایی هستن برای درک سر تیتر ها و چند نمونه از این مثال ها رو هم میگه.
September 26, 2018
کتاب را میتوان به گونه ای ذن و معماری دانست اما با توضیحاتی که نویسنده در بخشی پایانی و البته زیبای کتاب بابت خلاء ذهنی بیان میکند، تعبیر جاودانه بودن در معماری زیباتر است تا عنوان کردن یه فلسفه بخصوص.
زیبایی کتاب در تلاشی است که نویسنده بکار میگیرد تا احساسات و حال خوبی که انسان از فضا دریافت میکند را با تکنیک ویا به بیان کتاب زبان الگو گره بزند. اینکه چه روشی را اتخاذ کنیم تا بنایی داشته باشیم که آن حال خوب و جاودانه را تجربه ک��یم
کتاب را برای دو دسته بغیر از معماران پیشنهاد میکنم:
اول دوستانی که دغدغه پیوند تکنیک و فلسفه و یا به نوعی عرفان هستند و اینکه چگونه میتوان بین دو دید شهودی و تحلیلی هماهنگی ایجاد کرد و دوم دوستانی که به هر طریق چیزی (نه لزوما ساختمان و بنای معماری) میسازند که با انسانها ارتباط دارد.
زیبایی کتاب در تلاشی است که نویسنده بکار میگیرد تا احساسات و حال خوبی که انسان از فضا دریافت میکند را با تکنیک ویا به بیان کتاب زبان الگو گره بزند. اینکه چه روشی را اتخاذ کنیم تا بنایی داشته باشیم که آن حال خوب و جاودانه را تجربه ک��یم
کتاب را برای دو دسته بغیر از معماران پیشنهاد میکنم:
اول دوستانی که دغدغه پیوند تکنیک و فلسفه و یا به نوعی عرفان هستند و اینکه چگونه میتوان بین دو دید شهودی و تحلیلی هماهنگی ایجاد کرد و دوم دوستانی که به هر طریق چیزی (نه لزوما ساختمان و بنای معماری) میسازند که با انسانها ارتباط دارد.
January 12, 2019
The Timeless Way of Building got a recommendation in an IT book. In Head First Design Patterns the Freemans tell that the concept of Design Patterns was not coming from the Gang of Four or even the IT world. It stemmed from architecture. This rose my interest. To be honest, in the book of Christopher Alexander I found only weak links between the design patterns of city building and architecture on the on hand, and the concept with the same name from the IT world. Both can be seen as building blocs, if you look at it from a static point of view, yet if you look at it as tools to cope with dynamism and change, there are in my opinion many.
Christopher Alexander is looking in his book for the quality without a name, i.e. that quality, sometimes called “alive”, “whole”, “comfortable”, “free” or “eternal”, that makes that a city, neighborhood, house or room feel good to live in, and which make the difference between sanity and illness, between life and dead. This is a very appealing idea, and indeed I know also places where I want to stay and others I want to run away from. The author claims that people in earlier times used to know how to make living buildings, because they had a language to make them, a pattern language. Patterns are both a set of elements defining activity and space, and a set of rules to make them. Patterns are also repeated in endless variation. In early days these rules were simple and everybody new them. For instance every farmer knew to make a barn and applied for it a standard set of patterns. This way rooms, buildings, villages and towns grew organically, generated indirectly from the pattern language, just like a living being is generated from its genetic code.
The author denounces the way towns are planned nowadays and how houses are first conceived on the drawing table. Industrial society broke down the relationship between the act of building and de use of the building, the creation of professionals making themselves indispensable, and rendering people having lost their intuition and sense of judgment. The pattern language has become one of artificial forms, based on control. Urban design, mass production and the passing of laws to keep control, have rendered an unstable result.
Alexander states that the central task of architecture should instead be the creation of a single, shared, evolving pattern language. In this respect a pattern is a context, a problem to be solved within this context and a solution to the problem. It is a relationship which allows fighting forces to resolve, and instructions showing how. A pattern is inadequate if forces do not get resolved and tension remains. The author gives many examples on how this works on the level of building a town, a neighborhood, a house, a room.
The author also tells about the process of construction. Nothing is drawn, no standard components are used. It starts with walking in space, discussing, sharing the patterns in a gradually more shared language, imagination. Then build it in the same way as it was designed. No drawing table, no standard components. After the construction, a continuous process of repair starts, fixing what is wrong, filling gaps. The core idea of this way of building is this way there is no room for ego. All grows organically, nothing is created by decision or design.
Having come to this point, I’m left with many questions. No ego. All right. Then I recall all the nice buildings and sceneries the author shows in the many nice black and white pictures in the book, rooms, buildings, landscapes and townscapes from a long time ago, when people allegedly still knew the right pattern language, and this timeless, egoless way of building. Even cathedrals were built that way, Alexander claims. This makes me suspicious. Ego, conflict and dominance is from all times. The builders of cathedrals for sure had an ego, and many very nice ancient gardens, townships and castles, which for me have “the quality without a name” for sure, were built by architects who wanted to be remembered, and who were paid by people knowing nothing about the act of building. Also, chapter 22 the book tells about the “timeless” conception of a mental health care system, citing Dr. Ryan, the chief psychiatrist, all the time. Not really egoless, in all respect. Finally, the book itself is far from egoless.
For this very reason I have very mixed feelings about the book. While there are many beautiful passages in it, after all I have the hunch that it is one big lie. While for sure there is such a thing as a “quality without a name”, I’m not convinced of the recipe to obtain it, except maybe the process of continuous repair, which would be then the ultimate way to get rid of the negative impact of ego on building.
Christopher Alexander is looking in his book for the quality without a name, i.e. that quality, sometimes called “alive”, “whole”, “comfortable”, “free” or “eternal”, that makes that a city, neighborhood, house or room feel good to live in, and which make the difference between sanity and illness, between life and dead. This is a very appealing idea, and indeed I know also places where I want to stay and others I want to run away from. The author claims that people in earlier times used to know how to make living buildings, because they had a language to make them, a pattern language. Patterns are both a set of elements defining activity and space, and a set of rules to make them. Patterns are also repeated in endless variation. In early days these rules were simple and everybody new them. For instance every farmer knew to make a barn and applied for it a standard set of patterns. This way rooms, buildings, villages and towns grew organically, generated indirectly from the pattern language, just like a living being is generated from its genetic code.
The author denounces the way towns are planned nowadays and how houses are first conceived on the drawing table. Industrial society broke down the relationship between the act of building and de use of the building, the creation of professionals making themselves indispensable, and rendering people having lost their intuition and sense of judgment. The pattern language has become one of artificial forms, based on control. Urban design, mass production and the passing of laws to keep control, have rendered an unstable result.
Alexander states that the central task of architecture should instead be the creation of a single, shared, evolving pattern language. In this respect a pattern is a context, a problem to be solved within this context and a solution to the problem. It is a relationship which allows fighting forces to resolve, and instructions showing how. A pattern is inadequate if forces do not get resolved and tension remains. The author gives many examples on how this works on the level of building a town, a neighborhood, a house, a room.
The author also tells about the process of construction. Nothing is drawn, no standard components are used. It starts with walking in space, discussing, sharing the patterns in a gradually more shared language, imagination. Then build it in the same way as it was designed. No drawing table, no standard components. After the construction, a continuous process of repair starts, fixing what is wrong, filling gaps. The core idea of this way of building is this way there is no room for ego. All grows organically, nothing is created by decision or design.
Having come to this point, I’m left with many questions. No ego. All right. Then I recall all the nice buildings and sceneries the author shows in the many nice black and white pictures in the book, rooms, buildings, landscapes and townscapes from a long time ago, when people allegedly still knew the right pattern language, and this timeless, egoless way of building. Even cathedrals were built that way, Alexander claims. This makes me suspicious. Ego, conflict and dominance is from all times. The builders of cathedrals for sure had an ego, and many very nice ancient gardens, townships and castles, which for me have “the quality without a name” for sure, were built by architects who wanted to be remembered, and who were paid by people knowing nothing about the act of building. Also, chapter 22 the book tells about the “timeless” conception of a mental health care system, citing Dr. Ryan, the chief psychiatrist, all the time. Not really egoless, in all respect. Finally, the book itself is far from egoless.
For this very reason I have very mixed feelings about the book. While there are many beautiful passages in it, after all I have the hunch that it is one big lie. While for sure there is such a thing as a “quality without a name”, I’m not convinced of the recipe to obtain it, except maybe the process of continuous repair, which would be then the ultimate way to get rid of the negative impact of ego on building.
May 16, 2021
This book isn't life changing so much as it expresses clearly and beautifully things which I know deep inside. And yet, since what is being described is itself so hard to describe, the truths of this book are sometimes more felt than explicitly learned.
On the surface, this book is about how to develop pattern languages and use them to guide building physical places which live. The patterns are all from the domain of architecture. Some elements, such as how to go about the processes of detailed design or building are deeply impractical in a culture where, for better and for worse, much of what it takes to build buildings has been professionalized. (That said, as a metaphor for software creation, which does depend on taking common components and contextualizing them, they are more applicable.)
However, none of that matters because what you really take away is the deeper sense of what it means for a system to be alive, whole, comfortable, free, exact, egoless, eternal — for it to have the quality without a name. The quality without a name is that deeply felt yet hard to describe sense of rightness that things sometimes have. It can be thought of as a sense of dynamic equilibrium where all forces are aligned and tensions resolved. Yet even that is a deceptive description because the forces in play are always changing and so while particular solution may embody the quality without a name for moment, for a system to have this quality, it must be always adapting.
Because there is so much great material in this book, I'll just highlight some of the ideas I loved best.
The world is made up of relationships, called patterns. These patterns arise from the events which happen repeatedly in a space. Patterns which help resolve the tensions that arise from these events are alive. Those patterns which create or increase tensions eventually make a space dead. Dead patterns cannot be isolated. They eventually leak out and contaminate the whole system, so it is important to try to resolve them, not just hide them. Living patterns reinforce each other.
Patterns together form a pattern language. A pattern language is made of patterns which relate to each other in a certain way: a pattern depends on the components which are needed to make it whole. In computer science terms, patterns form a directed acyclic graph. We each have our own pattern language which is built from the forces we've had to deal with in our lives. Yet our pattern languages are also shared. We learn patterns from each other and our own patterns evolve in response to what we learn. It is because these languages are largely shared that the application of a pattern language can lead to a common character over a larger set of design decisions.
Design works best when it is holistic. At each step of the design process, design should apply differentiation on a whole. Details should not be designed in isolation, without any concern for their context. Rather, the context should be defined to form a whole, then the parts within that refined to form a more detailed whole, and so on until a design is complete down to the details. If a design is whole at every step of the way, it minimizes the chance that a later detail will derail the big picture design. This process of refinement depends on having a properly structured order for design. In a pattern language, that is captured in the hierarchical relationship between patterns.
A shared pattern language can help a design to be coherent when applied to design decisions made in a community. Nested groups should be responsible for design, where the group that uses a pattern at a certain scale is responsible for designing their own solution. However, they are also responsible for making sure their solution fits coherently with the larger patterns it is encompassed in. The larger groups which the smaller groups are a part of are responsible for instantiating those larger patterns. When a pattern language is shared across a community, this process of delegating design to the smallest applicable group can create a coherent whole even while many independent decisions are being made.
All that just scratches the surface. This book has so much to offer, and I look forward to reading it again.
On the surface, this book is about how to develop pattern languages and use them to guide building physical places which live. The patterns are all from the domain of architecture. Some elements, such as how to go about the processes of detailed design or building are deeply impractical in a culture where, for better and for worse, much of what it takes to build buildings has been professionalized. (That said, as a metaphor for software creation, which does depend on taking common components and contextualizing them, they are more applicable.)
However, none of that matters because what you really take away is the deeper sense of what it means for a system to be alive, whole, comfortable, free, exact, egoless, eternal — for it to have the quality without a name. The quality without a name is that deeply felt yet hard to describe sense of rightness that things sometimes have. It can be thought of as a sense of dynamic equilibrium where all forces are aligned and tensions resolved. Yet even that is a deceptive description because the forces in play are always changing and so while particular solution may embody the quality without a name for moment, for a system to have this quality, it must be always adapting.
Because there is so much great material in this book, I'll just highlight some of the ideas I loved best.
The world is made up of relationships, called patterns. These patterns arise from the events which happen repeatedly in a space. Patterns which help resolve the tensions that arise from these events are alive. Those patterns which create or increase tensions eventually make a space dead. Dead patterns cannot be isolated. They eventually leak out and contaminate the whole system, so it is important to try to resolve them, not just hide them. Living patterns reinforce each other.
Patterns together form a pattern language. A pattern language is made of patterns which relate to each other in a certain way: a pattern depends on the components which are needed to make it whole. In computer science terms, patterns form a directed acyclic graph. We each have our own pattern language which is built from the forces we've had to deal with in our lives. Yet our pattern languages are also shared. We learn patterns from each other and our own patterns evolve in response to what we learn. It is because these languages are largely shared that the application of a pattern language can lead to a common character over a larger set of design decisions.
Design works best when it is holistic. At each step of the design process, design should apply differentiation on a whole. Details should not be designed in isolation, without any concern for their context. Rather, the context should be defined to form a whole, then the parts within that refined to form a more detailed whole, and so on until a design is complete down to the details. If a design is whole at every step of the way, it minimizes the chance that a later detail will derail the big picture design. This process of refinement depends on having a properly structured order for design. In a pattern language, that is captured in the hierarchical relationship between patterns.
A shared pattern language can help a design to be coherent when applied to design decisions made in a community. Nested groups should be responsible for design, where the group that uses a pattern at a certain scale is responsible for designing their own solution. However, they are also responsible for making sure their solution fits coherently with the larger patterns it is encompassed in. The larger groups which the smaller groups are a part of are responsible for instantiating those larger patterns. When a pattern language is shared across a community, this process of delegating design to the smallest applicable group can create a coherent whole even while many independent decisions are being made.
All that just scratches the surface. This book has so much to offer, and I look forward to reading it again.
July 13, 2023
Five starts not because that’s necessarily what it deserves but for how much I’ve thought about it.
What a crazy book.
Takes Jane Jacob’s theory about diversity and goes wild with it. I think I agreed and then disagreed with every other sentence in this book.
Some maybe helpful alternative tiles for this book that have helped me pin down parts of the theory:
- If they come, you will build it: the natural law approach to architecture.
- let he with no sin, lay the first brick: urban architecture for a world without total depravity.
- generational architecture: construction without timelines or building codes.
- the philosophy of the alcove: architecture for the hobbit-minded.
Ultimately, I think your particular political philosophy will determine your response to this book.
What a crazy book.
Takes Jane Jacob’s theory about diversity and goes wild with it. I think I agreed and then disagreed with every other sentence in this book.
Some maybe helpful alternative tiles for this book that have helped me pin down parts of the theory:
- If they come, you will build it: the natural law approach to architecture.
- let he with no sin, lay the first brick: urban architecture for a world without total depravity.
- generational architecture: construction without timelines or building codes.
- the philosophy of the alcove: architecture for the hobbit-minded.
Ultimately, I think your particular political philosophy will determine your response to this book.
January 7, 2022
Starting 2022 off impossibly strong
December 15, 2023
I stumbled upon Christopher Alexander's work a handful of years ago and revisited it as we made plans to revive an old home. Highly recommended resource for those interested in city planning, architecture, home design or living an interesting life. This is one of my favorite gifts to give.
June 18, 2023
I look at many areas of life differently after having read this, and for that, it's one of the most important and influential books I've ever had the pleasure of reading.
March 27, 2018
Austrian-British architect Christopher Alexander wrote The Timeless Way of Building nearly forty years ago, but in some ways it seems as timeless as the buildings it describes and illustrates. It reads as an extended meditation on the proper purposes and methods of architecture, but Alexander would likely baulk at such an explanation. What he purports to give us is a ‘way’, a ‘gate’ – a ‘language’ of architectural patterns that can be used by anyone to re-enrich our lived spaces; and this ‘way’ works by operating on a quality that cannot be named, that causes the buildings and the people who live and work in them to feel alive. If this sounds purposely New Age (or retro-Daoist, or Zen), that appears to be intentional. Alexander makes no bones about having been influenced by the architecture (and philosophy) of the Far East, particularly Old Japan.
Alexander’s architectural gospel combines a populist attempt to undo the bureaucratisation and professionalisation of architecture, an æsthetic critique of artificial and modular attempts to impose a forced order on both human habits and the external environment, and a pattern theory that in some important ways resembles the Platonic forms. Like the forms, Alexander’s patterns are exact(ing), but are never tied down to any one particular expression in fact, being dependent for their expression on their surroundings. Like the forms, the patterns resist easy resolution into ‘one’ and ‘many’, into ‘whole’ and ‘part’, but can be repeated and adapted across any number of different expressions, from the minute and immediate to the ‘macro’-level one would see in the apparent design of a town. Like the forms, the patterns exist in a common and commonly-accessible human experience that has to be ‘remembered’ in a particular way by the builders who use them.
Possibly a bit unlike the forms, though, these patterns relate to each other in a fashion which Alexander likens to linguistic composition. In order to articulate oneself in speaking or writing, one has to use a certain set of grammatical and syntactical rules that obtain in the English language. Alexander’s patterns also follow a specific set of rules and interrelations, such that patterns can scale up and down from each other, follow from and flow into each other like a cascade or a waterfall. This is a part which, it appears, Alexander’s point has to be intuited rather than ratiocinated. He articulates himself not with dry directions, but with descriptions: scenes of human life, sensations, actions, habits. The patterns are meant to fit the entire spectrum of human behaviours and external ‘forces’ which guide it. Architecture is meant to resolve these forces and support the ordinary business of human life in its entire depth.
But the patterns are only the means. The end is nothing less than life, and here Alexander turns to a kind of Buddhist analogy. Patterns can be used in healthy and life-giving ways, or they can be used in inappropriate ways that don’t resolve their environmental and human forces, and result in uncomfortable or dead space. What commonality underlies all of these unhealthy expressions? They spring from ego: whether it’s the individual ego seeking some kind of artificial liberation, or the corporate ego that seeks to impose an artificial, modular and mass-produced order on the world. Alexander says that patterns work best when the builder loses her ego: when she gets out of her own way, when she frees herself from her extraneous ideas and concepts of what architecture should look like, when she observes the forces at work around her, when she lets the solution to them come out of itself. Only when ego is removed from the picture can the architectural patterns thus serve and support healthy and life-giving ends.
This book is itself very difficult to classify. Is it philosophy? Social critique? Architectural theory? A travelogue? In fact, it’s all of the above: a thrilling blend of the ideas of Plato and Zhuangzi, applied dynamically to the problems of how we physically live.
Alexander’s architectural gospel combines a populist attempt to undo the bureaucratisation and professionalisation of architecture, an æsthetic critique of artificial and modular attempts to impose a forced order on both human habits and the external environment, and a pattern theory that in some important ways resembles the Platonic forms. Like the forms, Alexander’s patterns are exact(ing), but are never tied down to any one particular expression in fact, being dependent for their expression on their surroundings. Like the forms, the patterns resist easy resolution into ‘one’ and ‘many’, into ‘whole’ and ‘part’, but can be repeated and adapted across any number of different expressions, from the minute and immediate to the ‘macro’-level one would see in the apparent design of a town. Like the forms, the patterns exist in a common and commonly-accessible human experience that has to be ‘remembered’ in a particular way by the builders who use them.
Possibly a bit unlike the forms, though, these patterns relate to each other in a fashion which Alexander likens to linguistic composition. In order to articulate oneself in speaking or writing, one has to use a certain set of grammatical and syntactical rules that obtain in the English language. Alexander’s patterns also follow a specific set of rules and interrelations, such that patterns can scale up and down from each other, follow from and flow into each other like a cascade or a waterfall. This is a part which, it appears, Alexander’s point has to be intuited rather than ratiocinated. He articulates himself not with dry directions, but with descriptions: scenes of human life, sensations, actions, habits. The patterns are meant to fit the entire spectrum of human behaviours and external ‘forces’ which guide it. Architecture is meant to resolve these forces and support the ordinary business of human life in its entire depth.
But the patterns are only the means. The end is nothing less than life, and here Alexander turns to a kind of Buddhist analogy. Patterns can be used in healthy and life-giving ways, or they can be used in inappropriate ways that don’t resolve their environmental and human forces, and result in uncomfortable or dead space. What commonality underlies all of these unhealthy expressions? They spring from ego: whether it’s the individual ego seeking some kind of artificial liberation, or the corporate ego that seeks to impose an artificial, modular and mass-produced order on the world. Alexander says that patterns work best when the builder loses her ego: when she gets out of her own way, when she frees herself from her extraneous ideas and concepts of what architecture should look like, when she observes the forces at work around her, when she lets the solution to them come out of itself. Only when ego is removed from the picture can the architectural patterns thus serve and support healthy and life-giving ends.
This book is itself very difficult to classify. Is it philosophy? Social critique? Architectural theory? A travelogue? In fact, it’s all of the above: a thrilling blend of the ideas of Plato and Zhuangzi, applied dynamically to the problems of how we physically live.
December 21, 2009
If I were to summarize this book in a single sentence, I would say that it applies taoist philosophy to architecture. However, that is not giving either this book or taoism the the attention they deserve.
The Timeless Way of Building describes a natural way of building. However, when I say this, I do not mean natural in terms of materials or aesthetics, or even neccisarily the methods of construction. But rather, in an aproach to design and building that creates living environments. The Timeless way describes a way of building where one recognizes the underlying forces at play within an environment - whether it be the need for people to get from one place to another, the need for privacy, social spaces, ect... and to then identify the patterns of behaviour and space that are neccisary to allow these forces to be resolved. The result is then a language of patterns that describe the qualities and aspects that are neccisary for an environment to foster the life in and around it. Using these pattern languages as a blueprint, one can then create environments that are similiar in their nature but also different, in that they are perfectly suited to a particular place, and particular inhabitants. Like branches of a tree, each one grows in the best way possible to contribute to the wellbeing of the tree.
The Timeless Way of Building describes a natural way of building. However, when I say this, I do not mean natural in terms of materials or aesthetics, or even neccisarily the methods of construction. But rather, in an aproach to design and building that creates living environments. The Timeless way describes a way of building where one recognizes the underlying forces at play within an environment - whether it be the need for people to get from one place to another, the need for privacy, social spaces, ect... and to then identify the patterns of behaviour and space that are neccisary to allow these forces to be resolved. The result is then a language of patterns that describe the qualities and aspects that are neccisary for an environment to foster the life in and around it. Using these pattern languages as a blueprint, one can then create environments that are similiar in their nature but also different, in that they are perfectly suited to a particular place, and particular inhabitants. Like branches of a tree, each one grows in the best way possible to contribute to the wellbeing of the tree.
May 26, 2013
The architect Christopher Alexander says that we can immediately feel when a place makes us feel more alive. “We become happy in the presence of deep wholeness,” he says. “When a building works, when the world enters the blissful state which makes us fully comfortable, the space itself awakens. We awaken. The garden awakens. The windows awaken. We and our plants and animals and fellow creatures and the walls and light together wake.”
In his masterful, poetic book, The Timeless Way of Building, Alexander called this animating spirit “the quality without a name.” “There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named.” He considers some descriptions—alive, whole, comfortable, free, exact, egoless, and eternal—but while that’s partly it, no single word captures this quality.
“The search which we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central search of any person, and the crux of any individual person’s story,” Alexander writes. “It is the search for those moments and situations when we are most alive.”
In his masterful, poetic book, The Timeless Way of Building, Alexander called this animating spirit “the quality without a name.” “There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named.” He considers some descriptions—alive, whole, comfortable, free, exact, egoless, and eternal—but while that’s partly it, no single word captures this quality.
“The search which we make for this quality, in our own lives, is the central search of any person, and the crux of any individual person’s story,” Alexander writes. “It is the search for those moments and situations when we are most alive.”
September 22, 2010
I would give this book 6 stars if possible. Christopher Alexander's approach to architecture is so natural and comforting. I don't doubt that the world would be very different if everyone fully embraced his approach, especially since, as he argues, it's the same approach that had been used for thousands of years until the past few decades. But the thing that I liked so much about this book is that his approach is broad enough to apply to other areas of life instead of just architecture. He is constantly trying to describe a certain quality which he says is undefinable. But that quality is what we should be striving for in our houses, neighborhoods, and towns. He doesn't explicitly say this, but he implies that the same quality should not only be at the heart of architecture, but also relationships, social situations, personality, philosophy, religion, business, politics, etc. The book was published in 1979, but it feels like it was written this year.
December 8, 2021
I read this book so I could understand A Pattern Language which I, in turn, wanted to read so I could understand Pattern Language for Game Design for my practice of (surprise) designing games. The nested approach to design is powerful and the book presents many beautiful ways to look at the nature of design and everyday life. Read it cover to cover in two days, skimming as desired (and as suggested. What an incredible way to structure a book).
One thing I will mention is that I found The Timeless Way of Building paired well with what I learned from The Beginning of Infinity - a book that I have not yet finished, but which suggests that the search for better explanations is really an infinite process. Deutsch's titular 'infinity' is a necessary and beautiful concept to help describe Alexander's pursuit of the 'nameless quality' as both concrete and yet endless.
One thing I will mention is that I found The Timeless Way of Building paired well with what I learned from The Beginning of Infinity - a book that I have not yet finished, but which suggests that the search for better explanations is really an infinite process. Deutsch's titular 'infinity' is a necessary and beautiful concept to help describe Alexander's pursuit of the 'nameless quality' as both concrete and yet endless.
August 2, 2022
This is the best book i’ve ever read. In The Timeless Way, Chris Alexander illustrates and breaks down why some places feel alive and why others do not. He goes further, chapter by chapter, describing the ways in which patterns and pattern languages can be used such that anyone can build places that are alive.
Chris Alexander has a way of writing about abstract concepts in such a beautiful way. This work of non-fiction is poetry. Even if you have no intention of designing a building, the concepts he covers can be applied to many different types of “building”. Maybe you’re a designer, or a writer, or an engineer; all his concepts of trying to make something that is living can be applied to all of this work.
This book is a primer for a A Pattern Language, and gives a very good introduction to the next book.
Chris Alexander has a way of writing about abstract concepts in such a beautiful way. This work of non-fiction is poetry. Even if you have no intention of designing a building, the concepts he covers can be applied to many different types of “building”. Maybe you’re a designer, or a writer, or an engineer; all his concepts of trying to make something that is living can be applied to all of this work.
This book is a primer for a A Pattern Language, and gives a very good introduction to the next book.
May 8, 2023
Me: I’m going to read a book about architecture and planning (clueless)
The main point here is that all design is vibe based. You can consider that a good or bad thing. Architecture has become a discipline based of charts and data. Boring! It’s all about how you feel about a building, or place, or environment.
At the core of this main point is that we humans are nothing, but from that nothingness is everything.
I tried to explain this book to several people as I was reading it and I couldn’t do it. It’s complicated and multi-dimensional, and really more philosophical than anything. I read another review that said this book reads like it was written in a dream, and they were correct.
I can’t think of anyone to recommend this book to, it’s like a text for no one and everyone. Idk, I liked it.
The main point here is that all design is vibe based. You can consider that a good or bad thing. Architecture has become a discipline based of charts and data. Boring! It’s all about how you feel about a building, or place, or environment.
At the core of this main point is that we humans are nothing, but from that nothingness is everything.
I tried to explain this book to several people as I was reading it and I couldn’t do it. It’s complicated and multi-dimensional, and really more philosophical than anything. I read another review that said this book reads like it was written in a dream, and they were correct.
I can’t think of anyone to recommend this book to, it’s like a text for no one and everyone. Idk, I liked it.
April 10, 2020
This book on architecture is actually about information, because buildings bear meaning. Alexander sees architecture as a language that is beautiful when it says something we can understand: Materials, shapes, perspectives serve a purpose, and perfection lies in serving us well.
May 21, 2023
Will never stop re-reading this one. How can a book about architecture possibly hold such deep wisdom about design and programming?
April 29, 2020
An amazing, profound book that teaches you how to see things, create things, and live a quality life. Not all chapters are equally exciting, but it's worth reading from beginning to end.
February 16, 2024
Reread Addition: the first few chapters which were incomprehensible the first read thru make prefect sense after reading the rest of the book. Chapter 5 'Patterns of Space really has me lost though. I listened to multiple parts multiple times in a row and still have not absorbed much meaning from them. I guess the point of this chapter is that "space" becomes a false construction when we try to separate it from the network of patterns that it consists of and helps to make up. Like, an example of this might be that kitchens in different cultures tend to be very different and if you're used to a studio apartment kitchenette, you wouldn't have the mental framework to cook in an outdoor kitchen issuing open flame, or even a rambling farmhouse kitchen? Honestly I'm just guessing tho.
Not sure if I can really say I fully read this. I definitely nodded off to it a few times when I was in Caliornia, but I'd want to reread anyways. It's essentially the Tao of building, and explains how to build in a way that's truly in touch with human needs from buildings. The parts where he talks about work building a medical center were really inspiring because it was one of the first times I've seen a holistic approach brought to a type of construction that's normally so "utilitarian" as to completely ignore human needs.
I took a class with a very successful architect last summer who's really into A Pattern Language, the better known of Alexander's books, and after reading The Timeless Way of Building, I kind of feel like he missed the point. The idea isn't to become fully invested in the language set out by Alexander because that's just a sample. It also isn't to create a "complete" space for a wealthy client. The point is to model a method of building guided by the community that responds organically to collective needs.
I honestly have no criticisms of this book because the author is operating so far beyond my own experience level. So much of what he says about the purpose of building resonated deeply with me and I expect will influence my work down the road. It's all very common sense but it's nice to have it laid out because, as Alexander says, we've become alienated from our inherent likes and dislikes by the pressure to build for appearances sake, rather than utility.
Not sure if I can really say I fully read this. I definitely nodded off to it a few times when I was in Caliornia, but I'd want to reread anyways. It's essentially the Tao of building, and explains how to build in a way that's truly in touch with human needs from buildings. The parts where he talks about work building a medical center were really inspiring because it was one of the first times I've seen a holistic approach brought to a type of construction that's normally so "utilitarian" as to completely ignore human needs.
I took a class with a very successful architect last summer who's really into A Pattern Language, the better known of Alexander's books, and after reading The Timeless Way of Building, I kind of feel like he missed the point. The idea isn't to become fully invested in the language set out by Alexander because that's just a sample. It also isn't to create a "complete" space for a wealthy client. The point is to model a method of building guided by the community that responds organically to collective needs.
I honestly have no criticisms of this book because the author is operating so far beyond my own experience level. So much of what he says about the purpose of building resonated deeply with me and I expect will influence my work down the road. It's all very common sense but it's nice to have it laid out because, as Alexander says, we've become alienated from our inherent likes and dislikes by the pressure to build for appearances sake, rather than utility.
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