Abstract
Christopher Alexander published his longest and arguably most philosophical work, The Nature of Order, beginning in 2003. Early criticism assessed that text to be a speculative failure; at best, unrelated to Alexander’s earlier, mathematically grounded work. On the contrary, this review presents evidence that the newer work was a logically consistent culmination of a lifelong and remarkably useful inquiry into part-whole relations—an ancient but still-relevant and even urgent topic of design, architecture, urbanism, and science. Further evidence demonstrates that Alexander’s practical contributions are remarkably prodigious beyond architecture, in fields as diverse as computer science, biology and organization theory, and that these contributions continue today. This review assesses the potential for more particular contributions to the urban professions from the later work, and specifically, to an emerging “science of cities.” It examines the practical, as well as philosophical contributions of Alexander’s proposed tools and methodologies for the design process, considering both their quantitative and qualitative aspects, and their potential compatibility with other tools and strategies now emerging from the science of cities. Finally, it highlights Alexander’s challenge to an architecture profession that seems increasingly isolated, mired in abstraction, and incapable of effectively responding to larger technological and philosophical challenges.
Highlights
It has been widely acknowledged, even among his most hostile critics, that Christopher Alexander was one of the most influential architectural theorists of the second half of the 20th Century [1,2,3]
After an essential summary of Alexander’s early work leading up to A Pattern Language, we will turn to the distinct contributions of The Nature of Order, exploring some of the philosophical parallels, and the ancient and contemporary human problems for which he proposes solutions
After studies in physics and mathematics at Cambridge (UK), Alexander turned his attention to architecture, getting the first PhD in architecture at Harvard
Summary
It has been widely acknowledged, even among his most hostile critics, that Christopher Alexander was one of the most influential architectural theorists of the second half of the 20th Century [1,2,3]. His work sought to develop useful new design tools to affect the genesis and transformation of these parts and wholes toward more successful results, from a human point of view. Evidence for his success—including that of his later work—comes in large part from the useful application of his ideas by many other designers and investigators in fields as disparate as computer science, engineering, organisation management, service design, educational curriculum, biology, and a dizzying number of other subjects. After an essential summary of Alexander’s early work leading up to A Pattern Language, we will turn to the distinct contributions of The Nature of Order, exploring some of the philosophical parallels, and the ancient and contemporary human problems (like those of mereology) for which he proposes solutions. We can note that Alexander’s long career, spanning from Gropius’ 1950s Harvard to the digital world of Wikipedia that he helped to shape, reveals as much about the modern history of planning and architecture, and the philosophical issues hardly confronted, let alone resolved, as it does about Alexander’s own diverse, often difficult, but (as evidence presented here will show) still-useful and relevant corpus
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