The Timeless Way of Building

The Timeless Way of Building

Author: Christopher Alexander

Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press

Published: 1979

Total Pages: 588

ISBN-13: 9780195024029

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This introductory volume to Alexander's other works, A Pattern of Language and The Oregon Experiment, explains concepts fundamental to his original approaches to the theory and application of architecture.


Book Synopsis The Timeless Way of Building by : Christopher Alexander

Download or read book The Timeless Way of Building written by Christopher Alexander and published by New York : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1979 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This introductory volume to Alexander's other works, A Pattern of Language and The Oregon Experiment, explains concepts fundamental to his original approaches to the theory and application of architecture.


The Timeless Way of Building

The Timeless Way of Building

Author: Christopher Alexander

Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press

Published: 1979

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780195022483

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This introductory volume to Alexander's other works, A Pattern of Language and The Oregon Experiment, explains concepts fundamental to his original approaches to the theory and application of architecture.


Book Synopsis The Timeless Way of Building by : Christopher Alexander

Download or read book The Timeless Way of Building written by Christopher Alexander and published by New York : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1979 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This introductory volume to Alexander's other works, A Pattern of Language and The Oregon Experiment, explains concepts fundamental to his original approaches to the theory and application of architecture.


The Timeless Way of Building

The Timeless Way of Building

Author: Christopher Alexander

Publisher:

Published: 1973

Total Pages: 884

ISBN-13:

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Book Synopsis The Timeless Way of Building by : Christopher Alexander

Download or read book The Timeless Way of Building written by Christopher Alexander and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 884 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


A Pattern Language

A Pattern Language

Author: Christopher Alexander

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-09-20

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 0190050357

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You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, The Oregon Experiment, and this book, A Pattern Language. At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people. At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment. "Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (How high should a window sill be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.


Book Synopsis A Pattern Language by : Christopher Alexander

Download or read book A Pattern Language written by Christopher Alexander and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-09-20 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You can use this book to design a house for yourself with your family; you can use it to work with your neighbors to improve your town and neighborhood; you can use it to design an office, or a workshop, or a public building. And you can use it to guide you in the actual process of construction. After a ten-year silence, Christopher Alexander and his colleagues at the Center for Environmental Structure are now publishing a major statement in the form of three books which will, in their words, "lay the basis for an entirely new approach to architecture, building and planning, which will we hope replace existing ideas and practices entirely." The three books are The Timeless Way of Building, The Oregon Experiment, and this book, A Pattern Language. At the core of these books is the idea that people should design for themselves their own houses, streets, and communities. This idea may be radical (it implies a radical transformation of the architectural profession) but it comes simply from the observation that most of the wonderful places of the world were not made by architects but by the people. At the core of the books, too, is the point that in designing their environments people always rely on certain "languages," which, like the languages we speak, allow them to articulate and communicate an infinite variety of designs within a forma system which gives them coherence. This book provides a language of this kind. It will enable a person to make a design for almost any kind of building, or any part of the built environment. "Patterns," the units of this language, are answers to design problems (How high should a window sill be? How many stories should a building have? How much space in a neighborhood should be devoted to grass and trees?). More than 250 of the patterns in this pattern language are given: each consists of a problem statement, a discussion of the problem with an illustration, and a solution. As the authors say in their introduction, many of the patterns are archetypal, so deeply rooted in the nature of things that it seemly likely that they will be a part of human nature, and human action, as much in five hundred years as they are today.


The Oregon Experiment

The Oregon Experiment

Author: Christopher Alexander

Publisher: Center for Environmental Struc

Published: 1975

Total Pages: 228

ISBN-13: 9780195018240

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Focusing on a plan for an extension to the University of Oregon, this book shows how any community the size of a university or small town might go about designing its own future environment with all members of the community participating personally or by representation. It is a brilliantcompanion volume to A Pattern Language.


Book Synopsis The Oregon Experiment by : Christopher Alexander

Download or read book The Oregon Experiment written by Christopher Alexander and published by Center for Environmental Struc. This book was released on 1975 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on a plan for an extension to the University of Oregon, this book shows how any community the size of a university or small town might go about designing its own future environment with all members of the community participating personally or by representation. It is a brilliantcompanion volume to A Pattern Language.


The Nature of Order: The phenomenon of life

The Nature of Order: The phenomenon of life

Author: Christopher Alexander

Publisher: Nature of Order

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 492

ISBN-13: 0972652914

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In Book Oneof this four-volume work, Alexander describes a scientific view of the world in which all space-matter has perceptible degrees of life, and establishes this understanding of living structures as an intellectual basis for a new architecture. He identifies fifteen geometric properties which tend to accompany the presence of life in nature, and also in the buildings and cities we make. These properties are seen over and over in nature and in the cities and streets of the past, but they have almost disappeared in the impersonal developments and buildings of the last hundred years. This book shows that living structures depend on features which make a close connection with the human self, and that only living structure has the capacity to support human well-being.


Book Synopsis The Nature of Order: The phenomenon of life by : Christopher Alexander

Download or read book The Nature of Order: The phenomenon of life written by Christopher Alexander and published by Nature of Order. This book was released on 2002 with total page 492 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Book Oneof this four-volume work, Alexander describes a scientific view of the world in which all space-matter has perceptible degrees of life, and establishes this understanding of living structures as an intellectual basis for a new architecture. He identifies fifteen geometric properties which tend to accompany the presence of life in nature, and also in the buildings and cities we make. These properties are seen over and over in nature and in the cities and streets of the past, but they have almost disappeared in the impersonal developments and buildings of the last hundred years. This book shows that living structures depend on features which make a close connection with the human self, and that only living structure has the capacity to support human well-being.


How Buildings Learn

How Buildings Learn

Author: Stewart Brand

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1995-10-01

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1101562641

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Buildings have often been studies whole in space, but never before have they been studied whole in time. How Buildings Learn is a masterful new synthesis that proposes that buildings adapt best when constantly refined and reshaped by their occupants, and that architects can mature from being artists of space to becoming artists of time. From the connected farmhouses of New England to I.M. Pei's Media Lab, from "satisficing" to "form follows funding," from the evolution of bungalows to the invention of Santa Fe Style, from Low Road military surplus buildings to a High Road English classic like Chatsworth—this is a far-ranging survey of unexplored essential territory. More than any other human artifacts, buildings improve with time—if they're allowed to. How Buildings Learn shows how to work with time rather than against it.


Book Synopsis How Buildings Learn by : Stewart Brand

Download or read book How Buildings Learn written by Stewart Brand and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1995-10-01 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Buildings have often been studies whole in space, but never before have they been studied whole in time. How Buildings Learn is a masterful new synthesis that proposes that buildings adapt best when constantly refined and reshaped by their occupants, and that architects can mature from being artists of space to becoming artists of time. From the connected farmhouses of New England to I.M. Pei's Media Lab, from "satisficing" to "form follows funding," from the evolution of bungalows to the invention of Santa Fe Style, from Low Road military surplus buildings to a High Road English classic like Chatsworth—this is a far-ranging survey of unexplored essential territory. More than any other human artifacts, buildings improve with time—if they're allowed to. How Buildings Learn shows how to work with time rather than against it.


The Production of Houses

The Production of Houses

Author: Christopher Alexander

Publisher:

Published: 1985

Total Pages: 385

ISBN-13: 0195032233

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As an innovative thinker about building and planning, Christopher Alexander has attracted a devoted following. His seminal books--The Timeless Way of Building, A Pattern Language, and The Oregon Experiment--defined a radical and fundamently new process of environmental design. Alexander now gives us the latest book in his series--a book that puts his theories to the test and shows what sort of production system can create the kind of environment he has envisioned. The Production of Houses centers around a group of buildings which Alexander and his associates built in 1976 in northern Mexico. Each house is different and the book explains how each family helped to lay out and construct its own home according to the family's own needs and in the framework of the pattern language. Numerous diagrams and tables as well as a variety of anecdotes make the day-today process clear. The Mexican project, however, is only the starting point for a comprehensive theory of housing production. The Production of Houses describes seven principles which apply to any system of production in any part of the world for housing of any cost in any climate or culture or at any density. In the last part of the book, "The Shift of Paradigm," Alexander describes, in detail, the devastating nature of the revolution in world view which is contained in his proposal for housing construction, and its overall implications for deep-seated cultural change.


Book Synopsis The Production of Houses by : Christopher Alexander

Download or read book The Production of Houses written by Christopher Alexander and published by . This book was released on 1985 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As an innovative thinker about building and planning, Christopher Alexander has attracted a devoted following. His seminal books--The Timeless Way of Building, A Pattern Language, and The Oregon Experiment--defined a radical and fundamently new process of environmental design. Alexander now gives us the latest book in his series--a book that puts his theories to the test and shows what sort of production system can create the kind of environment he has envisioned. The Production of Houses centers around a group of buildings which Alexander and his associates built in 1976 in northern Mexico. Each house is different and the book explains how each family helped to lay out and construct its own home according to the family's own needs and in the framework of the pattern language. Numerous diagrams and tables as well as a variety of anecdotes make the day-today process clear. The Mexican project, however, is only the starting point for a comprehensive theory of housing production. The Production of Houses describes seven principles which apply to any system of production in any part of the world for housing of any cost in any climate or culture or at any density. In the last part of the book, "The Shift of Paradigm," Alexander describes, in detail, the devastating nature of the revolution in world view which is contained in his proposal for housing construction, and its overall implications for deep-seated cultural change.


A New Theory of Urban Design

A New Theory of Urban Design

Author: Christopher Alexander

Publisher: Center for Environmental Struc

Published: 1987

Total Pages: 263

ISBN-13: 0195037537

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The venerable cities of the past, such as Venice or Amsterdam, convey a feeling of wholeness, an organic unity that surfaces in every detail, large and small, in restaurants, shops, public gardens, even in balconies and ornaments. But this sense of wholeness is lacking in modern urban design, with architects absorbed in problems of individual structures, and city planners preoccupied with local ordinances, it is almost impossible to achieve. In this groundbreaking volume, architect and planner Christopher Alexander presents a new theory of urban design which attempts to recapture the process by which cities develop organically. To discover the kinds of laws needed to create a growing whole in a city, Alexander proposes here a preliminary set of seven rules which embody the process at a practical level and which are consistent with the day-to-day demands of urban development. He then puts these rules to the test, setting out with a number of his graduate students to simulate the urban redesign of a high-density part of San Francisco, initiating a project that encompassed some ninety different design problems, including warehouses, hotels, fishing piers, a music hall, and a public square. This extensive experiment is documented project by project, with detailed discussion of how each project satisfied the seven rules, accompanied by floorplans, elevations, street grids, axonometric diagrams and photographs of the scaled-down model which clearly illustrate the discussion. A New Theory of Urban Design provides an entirely new theoretical framework for the discussion of urban problems, one that goes far to remedy the defects which cities have today.


Book Synopsis A New Theory of Urban Design by : Christopher Alexander

Download or read book A New Theory of Urban Design written by Christopher Alexander and published by Center for Environmental Struc. This book was released on 1987 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The venerable cities of the past, such as Venice or Amsterdam, convey a feeling of wholeness, an organic unity that surfaces in every detail, large and small, in restaurants, shops, public gardens, even in balconies and ornaments. But this sense of wholeness is lacking in modern urban design, with architects absorbed in problems of individual structures, and city planners preoccupied with local ordinances, it is almost impossible to achieve. In this groundbreaking volume, architect and planner Christopher Alexander presents a new theory of urban design which attempts to recapture the process by which cities develop organically. To discover the kinds of laws needed to create a growing whole in a city, Alexander proposes here a preliminary set of seven rules which embody the process at a practical level and which are consistent with the day-to-day demands of urban development. He then puts these rules to the test, setting out with a number of his graduate students to simulate the urban redesign of a high-density part of San Francisco, initiating a project that encompassed some ninety different design problems, including warehouses, hotels, fishing piers, a music hall, and a public square. This extensive experiment is documented project by project, with detailed discussion of how each project satisfied the seven rules, accompanied by floorplans, elevations, street grids, axonometric diagrams and photographs of the scaled-down model which clearly illustrate the discussion. A New Theory of Urban Design provides an entirely new theoretical framework for the discussion of urban problems, one that goes far to remedy the defects which cities have today.


Building a Timeless House in an Instant Age

Building a Timeless House in an Instant Age

Author: Brent Hull

Publisher: BrownBooks.ORM

Published: 2014-08-01

Total Pages: 163

ISBN-13: 1612542034

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The author of Traditional American Rooms examines the evolution of home construction, making a case against mass-produced homes. HISTORY®’s Lone Star Restoration star, Brent Hull is a master craftsman, and hands-on preservationist. Hull—a Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Finalist for architectural non-fiction—challenges us to consider the impact our decisions will have when building a house. What do our homes say about us? What stories are they telling? Are they declarations of integrity, beauty, and heritage? Or do they suggest we have lost our sense of value, craft, and harmony? Nationally recognized as an authority on historic design, architecturally correct moldings, and millwork, Hull is uniquely qualified to speak to the craft of building and art of design. In an age of “instant”‘ homes, how do we build something timeless that weaves a tale of character, values, history, and heart? The decisions we make for our homes are not inconsequential. What we build defines us. In fact, the contrast between the way we build today and how structures used to be built has become only more vivid. What happened to craft? What happened to the art of building? Our values and what we believe about life have changed as well. We have come to see houses as a tradable commodity. We live in a time that is obsessed with “what’s next?” We need to be careful of fooling ourselves into thinking that a bottom-line mentality is the best way to approach building a home. Now is the time to examine ourselves, our motives, and our hearts. Praise for Building a Timeless House in an Instant Age “Part call to action, part exploration of technique, the result is a persuasive and enjoyable reminder that our homes are reflections of ourselves . . . . A pleasing, educational look at traditional home construction.” —Kirkus Reviews


Book Synopsis Building a Timeless House in an Instant Age by : Brent Hull

Download or read book Building a Timeless House in an Instant Age written by Brent Hull and published by BrownBooks.ORM. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of Traditional American Rooms examines the evolution of home construction, making a case against mass-produced homes. HISTORY®’s Lone Star Restoration star, Brent Hull is a master craftsman, and hands-on preservationist. Hull—a Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Finalist for architectural non-fiction—challenges us to consider the impact our decisions will have when building a house. What do our homes say about us? What stories are they telling? Are they declarations of integrity, beauty, and heritage? Or do they suggest we have lost our sense of value, craft, and harmony? Nationally recognized as an authority on historic design, architecturally correct moldings, and millwork, Hull is uniquely qualified to speak to the craft of building and art of design. In an age of “instant”‘ homes, how do we build something timeless that weaves a tale of character, values, history, and heart? The decisions we make for our homes are not inconsequential. What we build defines us. In fact, the contrast between the way we build today and how structures used to be built has become only more vivid. What happened to craft? What happened to the art of building? Our values and what we believe about life have changed as well. We have come to see houses as a tradable commodity. We live in a time that is obsessed with “what’s next?” We need to be careful of fooling ourselves into thinking that a bottom-line mentality is the best way to approach building a home. Now is the time to examine ourselves, our motives, and our hearts. Praise for Building a Timeless House in an Instant Age “Part call to action, part exploration of technique, the result is a persuasive and enjoyable reminder that our homes are reflections of ourselves . . . . A pleasing, educational look at traditional home construction.” —Kirkus Reviews