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I've only read Alexander's Synthesis of Form once, and it was a few years ago. Thoughtful reading, no doubt. I think you may be confusing design requirements w
by breckenedge 14y ago
I've only read Alexander's Synthesis of Form once, and it was a few years ago. Thoughtful reading, no doubt.
I think you may be confusing design requirements with patterns. His "no more than four stories" was a requirement for healthy human development, not a pattern. His 'patterns' were reusable chunks that fit a situation's requirements.
Patterns in programming only add value to the developers and architects.
Edit - and architects.
- mbrock 14y agoThis seems like the central misunderstanding of Alexander's work. His patterns are about involving the inhabitant with the work of architecture. This is why Alexander's work is humanistic and beautiful, while stuff like the GoF patterns book is utterly uninteresting for anyone who's not a programmer.
- brudgers 14y agoThe process described in Notes on the Synthesis of Form is 180 degrees from that advocated in his later work. It is top down and all at once. His later work advocates many hands working incrementally from the bottom up. I would also suggest that his work is about the user interface of buildings and thus has implications for the design of analogous interfaces for software.
- breckenedge 14y agoSounds like I have a bit more reading to do. Thanks