7 ms·

Some Notes on Christopher Alexander (2008)

49 points by ics 6y ago

readthenotes 6y ago
He missed that Notes on the Synthesis of Form inspired the software design perspectives of coupling and cohesion
- stareatgoats 6y ago
  source?
  - ics 6y ago
    They may be referring to the mention on C2. ----- (https://wiki.c2.com/?NotesOnTheSynthesisOfForm https://wiki.c2.com/?NotesOnTheSynthesisOfForm) I'm struck by the resemblance between the rule of CouplingAndCohesion and Alexander's formal treatment of the "main" problem of design - hierarchical decomposition of the set M of misfit variables (the "things which might possibly break") into subsets which maximize the connections between their components (high cohesion) but also are minimally connected with each other (low coupling) In other words, the issue of CouplingAndCohesion isn't just central to software design - it is central to all design, if Alexander is to be believed.
  - readthenotes 6y ago
    An article in Ieee's Software taht included a reflection by Constantine on where he was inspired (by reading Notes on...) I appear to have thrown the article away. But it was 2012+/-5 years.
downerending 6y ago
This page seems to omit it, but there was a third book in the Pattern Language series where he applies the ideas to a small complex in a city in Oregon. Sadly, I read somewhere that this got tangled in local politics and was ultimately crushed. The ideas of anyone as truly gifted as Alexander are doomed to failure, at least within their lifetimes. One look at our current celebrated architecture fills me with mourning for what could have been.
- 1123581321 6y ago
  He also published The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth after this page was made (apologies if I overlooked the reference.) It’s about a more successful project, a Japanese college campus. The difficulties he faced were very interesting, especially from bureaucratic insistence on going over budget (Alexander advocates realistic cost discipline as necessary to humane design.)
- lidHanteyk 6y ago
  Where did you read that? The book you are thinking of is "The Oregon Experiment" [0], the "small complex" is the University of Oregon [1], and the project was broadly successful. To quote WP: > In the late 1960s and early 1970s, students and faculty at the University of Oregon protested against log trucks driving through campus; against the destruction of a 19th-century cemetery; against the military draft and the invasions and occupations in Southeast Asia; and against the idea that the University was acting in place of students' parents.[4] On top of this, buildings created since the end of World War II included Brutalist architecture, which was aesthetically polarizing. I grew up in Eugene and can confirm all of this. Following the restructuring of Franklin Boulevard, there are no longer any logging or gravel trucks driving through the Ferry Street, downtown, or university areas. The cemetery grounds across from McArthur Court [2] are preserved and maintained. Many of Alexander's buildings and courtyards are still there, along with some of the older brutalist buildings as well as some of the newer buildings built with donor money [3][4]. I would say that the University is tangled not with local politics, but with multinational money. Nike has had a strong grasp on the University's spending habits for many decades, and their influence twists and distorts everything in the area. Despite Nike's attempts to stop it, though, the University still has an excellent architecture program to this day, and the campus is beautiful and walkable. I would say that the experiment succeeded beyond expectations. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregon_Experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregon_Experiment [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oregon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oregon [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McArthur_Court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McArthur_Court [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield-Dowlin_Complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield-Dowlin_Complex [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Knight_Arena https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Knight_Arena
afc 6y ago
I just read A City is not a Tree, linked somewhere here (http://www.patternlanguage.com/archives/alexander1.htm http://www.patternlanguage.com/archives/alexander1.htm) and found it quite interesting.
- rgrau 6y ago
  Santa Fe Institute has a podcast on complex systems. There's a chapter on cities that might be interesting if you liked 'A City is not a Tree': https://complexity.simplecast.com/episodes/4 https://complexity.simplecast.com/episodes/4 .
hosh 6y ago
Alexander’s books have been on my bucket list for a while. He is one of the few thinkers bridging between traditional and modern, and designing lived experience. It is no accident his work extends beyond building design and into human user experience and software architecture.
- skilesare 6y ago
  Don't wait. The timeless way of building can be finished in an afternoon and is worth your time.
  - hosh 6y ago
    Thanks for the encouragement. I was also eying his other books because I realized that the principles of those design also extends to society, community, and governance. Meaning, with the right living architecture, we can have permissionless community, a lot of similarities to the "Te" chapters of the Tao Te Ching. I know one of the things that keep coming up is how can one balance between global and local concerns. Our society is coming apart at the seams with a culture war, and the pandemic highlights that tension between global and local. Everything I have read about Alexander's work suggests that he cracked open a way to pull that off.
thdrdt 6y ago
Recently I had to think about Alexander when I saw the empty streets of New York. Without people you will notice much more how the buildings overwhelm and cast shadow everywhere. This is exactly what Alexander was fighting against: building structures that go against human nature. I read a couple of his books and saw some of his talks. It sometimes makes me a little sad to see through his eyes how we are building today.
- abjKT26nO8 6y ago
  Shadows aren't bad. They're the best thing that can happen during summer. Well... Them and the wind.
skilesare 6y ago
I'd recommend Thriving System Theory by Leslie J. Waguespack that integrates Alexander's Ideas across the development of systems. - https://amzn.to/3bdoSxA https://amzn.to/3bdoSxA I also wrote a book where I took a number of Alexander's ideas and applied them to creating a crypto based economic system. - https://amzn.to/2RGhfIf https://amzn.to/2RGhfIf - Probably not interesting unless you are really into crypto or really into pattern languages. I was in Berkeley a couple of years ago and went on a bit of a pilgrimage up the hill to find some of the house that he designed. I ended up running into some of his family and felt like an ass for invading their privacy(I had no idea they still lived in one of the houses), but was able to speak with one of his daughters and he was apparently not doing so well back then. Every time I see his stuff come up on here I worry that it is bad news.

49 points by ics 6y ago

readthenotes 6y ago

He missed that Notes on the Synthesis of Form inspired the software design perspectives of coupling and cohesion

stareatgoats 6y ago
source?
- ics 6y ago
  They may be referring to the mention on C2. ----- (https://wiki.c2.com/?NotesOnTheSynthesisOfForm https://wiki.c2.com/?NotesOnTheSynthesisOfForm) I'm struck by the resemblance between the rule of CouplingAndCohesion and Alexander's formal treatment of the "main" problem of design - hierarchical decomposition of the set M of misfit variables (the "things which might possibly break") into subsets which maximize the connections between their components (high cohesion) but also are minimally connected with each other (low coupling) In other words, the issue of CouplingAndCohesion isn't just central to software design - it is central to all design, if Alexander is to be believed.
- readthenotes 6y ago
  An article in Ieee's Software taht included a reflection by Constantine on where he was inspired (by reading Notes on...) I appear to have thrown the article away. But it was 2012+/-5 years.

downerending 6y ago

This page seems to omit it, but there was a third book in the Pattern Language series where he applies the ideas to a small complex in a city in Oregon. Sadly, I read somewhere that this got tangled in local politics and was ultimately crushed. The ideas of anyone as truly gifted as Alexander are doomed to failure, at least within their lifetimes. One look at our current celebrated architecture fills me with mourning for what could have been.

1123581321 6y ago
He also published The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth after this page was made (apologies if I overlooked the reference.) It’s about a more successful project, a Japanese college campus. The difficulties he faced were very interesting, especially from bureaucratic insistence on going over budget (Alexander advocates realistic cost discipline as necessary to humane design.)
lidHanteyk 6y ago
Where did you read that? The book you are thinking of is "The Oregon Experiment" [0], the "small complex" is the University of Oregon [1], and the project was broadly successful. To quote WP: > In the late 1960s and early 1970s, students and faculty at the University of Oregon protested against log trucks driving through campus; against the destruction of a 19th-century cemetery; against the military draft and the invasions and occupations in Southeast Asia; and against the idea that the University was acting in place of students' parents.[4] On top of this, buildings created since the end of World War II included Brutalist architecture, which was aesthetically polarizing. I grew up in Eugene and can confirm all of this. Following the restructuring of Franklin Boulevard, there are no longer any logging or gravel trucks driving through the Ferry Street, downtown, or university areas. The cemetery grounds across from McArthur Court [2] are preserved and maintained. Many of Alexander's buildings and courtyards are still there, along with some of the older brutalist buildings as well as some of the newer buildings built with donor money [3][4]. I would say that the University is tangled not with local politics, but with multinational money. Nike has had a strong grasp on the University's spending habits for many decades, and their influence twists and distorts everything in the area. Despite Nike's attempts to stop it, though, the University still has an excellent architecture program to this day, and the campus is beautiful and walkable. I would say that the experiment succeeded beyond expectations. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregon_Experiment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Oregon_Experiment [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oregon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oregon [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McArthur_Court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McArthur_Court [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield-Dowlin_Complex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield-Dowlin_Complex [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Knight_Arena https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Knight_Arena

afc 6y ago

I just read A City is not a Tree, linked somewhere here (http://www.patternlanguage.com/archives/alexander1.htm http://www.patternlanguage.com/archives/alexander1.htm) and found it quite interesting.

rgrau 6y ago
Santa Fe Institute has a podcast on complex systems. There's a chapter on cities that might be interesting if you liked 'A City is not a Tree': https://complexity.simplecast.com/episodes/4 https://complexity.simplecast.com/episodes/4 .

hosh 6y ago

Alexander’s books have been on my bucket list for a while. He is one of the few thinkers bridging between traditional and modern, and designing lived experience. It is no accident his work extends beyond building design and into human user experience and software architecture.

skilesare 6y ago
Don't wait. The timeless way of building can be finished in an afternoon and is worth your time.
- hosh 6y ago
  Thanks for the encouragement. I was also eying his other books because I realized that the principles of those design also extends to society, community, and governance. Meaning, with the right living architecture, we can have permissionless community, a lot of similarities to the "Te" chapters of the Tao Te Ching. I know one of the things that keep coming up is how can one balance between global and local concerns. Our society is coming apart at the seams with a culture war, and the pandemic highlights that tension between global and local. Everything I have read about Alexander's work suggests that he cracked open a way to pull that off.

thdrdt 6y ago

Recently I had to think about Alexander when I saw the empty streets of New York. Without people you will notice much more how the buildings overwhelm and cast shadow everywhere. This is exactly what Alexander was fighting against: building structures that go against human nature. I read a couple of his books and saw some of his talks. It sometimes makes me a little sad to see through his eyes how we are building today.

abjKT26nO8 6y ago
Shadows aren't bad. They're the best thing that can happen during summer. Well... Them and the wind.

skilesare 6y ago

I'd recommend Thriving System Theory by Leslie J. Waguespack that integrates Alexander's Ideas across the development of systems. - https://amzn.to/3bdoSxA https://amzn.to/3bdoSxA I also wrote a book where I took a number of Alexander's ideas and applied them to creating a crypto based economic system. - https://amzn.to/2RGhfIf https://amzn.to/2RGhfIf - Probably not interesting unless you are really into crypto or really into pattern languages. I was in Berkeley a couple of years ago and went on a bit of a pilgrimage up the hill to find some of the house that he designed. I ended up running into some of his family and felt like an ass for invading their privacy(I had no idea they still lived in one of the houses), but was able to speak with one of his daughters and he was apparently not doing so well back then. Every time I see his stuff come up on here I worry that it is bad news.