Alistair Humphreys, author and adventurer, tells a story about the moment he realized that his galavanting around the world was taking a toll on his family life. If he wanted to be present in the life of his two sons and his wife, he would have to give up his epic adventure to the South…
Early in his career as an architect Christopher Alexander began to notice that certain buildings, plazas, and parks had a transcendent quality. They were more interesting to look at, and felt better to be a part of, than many other buildings. There was a vibrancy and presence to this structures that set them apart. But…
This is the fourth part of an extensive four part essay by Christopher Alexander, exploring the deep fundamentals of architecture, especially what gives a building a transcendent feeling of being “alive.” In this fourth book introduces a second aspect of living structure, and that’s the essence of the “Self.” When a building or a work…
This is the third part of an extensive four part essay by Christopher Alexander, exploring the deep fundamentals of architecture, especially what gives a building a transcendent feeling of being “alive.” In this third book he presents practical examples of projects that he has participated in. He shares experimental processes and methods. At the heart…
This is the second part of an extensive four part essay by Christopher Alexander, exploring the deep fundamentals of architecture, especially what gives a building a transcendent feeling of being “alive.” In this second book he goes into more detail about the unfolding process and how certain changes of form will preserve the inherent structure…
This is the first part of an extensive four part essay by Christopher Alexander, exploring the deep fundamentals of architecture, especially what gives a building a transcendent feeling of being “alive.” In this first book he explores this quality of life, and how it can be found in everything from forests to minerals. For example,…
There is a distinction between life and things that are alive. Life includes things that are are alive, cats. It also includes things that are not alive but are the byproducts of life processes – sofas. And in between are viruses – organisms that have no homeostasis and cannot reproduce without host cells – meaning…
If we think about structure and space in different ways than we are accustomed to, we start to see that structures that we previously regarded as inanimate actually do have degrees of life. In fact there is not a clear distinction between things that are alive and things that are not alive. It is actually…
If we want to build structures that feel alive we will have to get past the idea that “form follows function,” a mechanistic notion that mainly considers physics, and start thinking of life and order as essential properties of structure. This new view will take into consideration the wholeness of the structure, not just how…
All space and matter has some degree of life in it. This is the proposition that Christopher Alexanader makes in The Nature of Order, Book One, the Phenomenon of Life. This life is observable and testable. There seems to be a nearly universal agreement among people when they see particular works of architecture, art, elements…
Doing one true thing at a time will intensify the life of that location where you are working. To know if it is a true thing, follow the feeling in your heart. If you do one thing at a time – just a true thing that comes from a carefully considered feeling – that means,…
The goal of architecture (and presumably other aspects of human creation) should be to create life. Alexander makes a distinction between creating life and preserving nature which is generally accomplished by leaving areas untouched, such as in wildlife preserves. Nor is it simply trying to make structures that are compatible with nature. He gives the…
