Abstract
To identify and evaluate architect Christopher Alexander’s theory of wholeness, this article draws on the work of British philosopher J.G. Bennett, who developed a conceptual method—what he called systematics—to clarify phenomena by drawing upon the qualitative significance of number. A central assumption of systematics is that there is something inherent in number itself that is fundamental to the way the world is and the way we can understand it. For Bennett, each whole number provides different but complementary modes for examining any phenomenon; thus, one-ness relates to the wholeness of the phenomenon; two-ness, to complementarity; three-ness, to relatedness, and so forth. This article draws on Bennett’s interpretation of four-ness, summarized by a diamond-shaped symbol that he called the tetrad. Bennett claimed that the tetrad provides an interpretive means for understanding any activity directed toward a focused outcome, for example, writing a book, designing a building, or planning a new city district. The tetrad is used in this article to probe and evaluate Alexander’s conceptual and practical efforts to recognize and fabricate wholeness, drawing on evidence from his Nature of Order and New Theory of Urban Design. The article first discusses the tetrad broadly and then considers how it helps to clarify Alexander’s efforts to understand and make wholeness.
Highlights
Since the late 1960s, architect Christopher Alexander has sought to understand and make a particular manner of order that he calls wholeness, which, whether in natural or human-made settings, is the “source of coherence in any part of the world” [1] (p. 90)
Alexander contends that, when actualized appropriately, wholeness offers a sense of harmony that “fills and touches us” [1] (p. 15)
Alexander argued that, when these 10 actions work rightly, they facilitate a design process that: always starts from the wholeness as it currently exists at that moment . . . At the moment, we take a new step—introducing one new bit of structure into the whole
Summary
Since the late 1960s, architect Christopher Alexander has sought to understand and make a particular manner of order that he calls wholeness, which, whether in natural or human-made settings, is the “source of coherence in any part of the world” [1] (p. 90). Alexander’s first book-length efforts to understand wholeness were The Timeless Way of Building (1979), his earliest extended explication and justification of wholeness [2]; and A Pattern Language (1977), a co-authored work that identified specific designable qualities of the built environment that contribute to both human and place wholeness [3]. “levels of scale” argues that, for a particular geometric structure, its scalar gradations must not be too great; ideally, no more in size than half any larger structures or no more in size than twice any smaller structures Of these 15 properties, the most important is strong centers, which refer to any manner of spatial concentration, organized focus, or place of more intense pattern or activity, for example, a well-proportioned carpet pattern, a handsomely crafted window, or an elegant building entry in which all the architectural parts interrelate in an appropriate, harmonious placement [1]
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