Christopher Alexander is one architect with one view. I used to think he was the end all but he's not. There are or ought to be as many approaches to architectu

Christopher Alexander is one architect with one view. I used to think he was the end all but he's not. There are or ought to be as many approaches to architecture as there are architectural projects – because architecture is a practice that first and foremost fits a solution to a context, if there ought to be a solution whatsoever. Fundamentally architecture is about synthesizing integrative visions: everything else follows from this. Patterns are not necessarily wrong, but presume a universality in architectural problems from the outset that can narrow your perception of what ought to be done too quickly. Alexander's "avoid symmetry-breaking" as a design principle is germane across almost all styles of architecture though. Whether or not an architect likes to obey, ignore, or disrupt symmetries is the big tell as to what school of thought they subscribe to.