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the_timeless_way_of_building [2007-07-11 16:18] – nik | the_timeless_way_of_building [2023-11-06 17:29] (current) – [The breakdown of language] 2600:1700:8ec2:111f:c8df:f95f:4ba0:1656 | ||
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- | ==== The Timeless Way of Building ==== | + | ===== The Timeless Way of Building |
by Christopher Alexander 1979 ISBN 0-19-502248-3 | by Christopher Alexander 1979 ISBN 0-19-502248-3 | ||
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- | + | ==== a summary | |
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- | a summary | + | |
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There is a timeless way of building , it's a process through which the order of a building or a town grows out directly from the inner nature of the people, and the animals, and plants, and matter which are in it. Without the help of architects or planners , if you are working in the timeless way's town will grow under your hands, as steady as the flowers in your garden. When we have seen deep into the process to make a building or a town alive, it turns out that this knowledge brings us back to that part of ourselves which is forgotten. | There is a timeless way of building , it's a process through which the order of a building or a town grows out directly from the inner nature of the people, and the animals, and plants, and matter which are in it. Without the help of architects or planners , if you are working in the timeless way's town will grow under your hands, as steady as the flowers in your garden. When we have seen deep into the process to make a building or a town alive, it turns out that this knowledge brings us back to that part of ourselves which is forgotten. | ||
+ | ==== The Quality ==== | ||
+ | There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named. | ||
- | The Quality | + | The quality of places is never twice the same, because it always takes its shape from the particular |
- | There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named. | ||
- | The quality of places is never twice the same, because it always takes its shape from the particular | ||
+ | ==== Being alive ==== | ||
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- | Being alive | ||
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- | Patterns of events | + | ==== Patterns of events |
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- | Patterns of space | + | ==== Patterns of space ==== |
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Isn't it true that the features which you remember in a place are not so much pecularities, | Isn't it true that the features which you remember in a place are not so much pecularities, | ||
- | | + | exicting, the qualities which make Venice special, the qualities which make an eighteenth century |
A barn gets its structure from its patterns. | A barn gets its structure from its patterns. | ||
- | Is has a cetrain | + | Is has a certain |
The number of patterns out of which a building or a town is made is rather small. | The number of patterns out of which a building or a town is made is rather small. | ||
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- | The patterns which are alive | + | ==== The patterns which are alive ==== |
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- | The multilicity of living patterns | + | ==== The multilicity of living patterns |
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- | + | ==== The quality itself | |
- | The quality itself | + | |
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The idea that a building can-and ought- to be made of modular units is one of the most pervasive assumptions of twentieth-century architecture. Nature is never modular. Nature is full of almost similar | The idea that a building can-and ought- to be made of modular units is one of the most pervasive assumptions of twentieth-century architecture. Nature is never modular. Nature is full of almost similar | ||
- | 1. the same broad features keep recurring over and over again. | + | 1. the same broad features keep recurring over and over again. |
2. in their detail appearance these broad features are never twice the same. | 2. in their detail appearance these broad features are never twice the same. | ||
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The repetition of patterns is quite a different thing from the repetition of parts. When two physical windows are identical the relationship which they have to their surroundings are different, because their surroundings are different. But when the relationships of their surroundings-their patterns- are the same, the windows themselves will all be different, because the sameness of the patterns, interacting with the difference of the contexts, makes the windows different. | The repetition of patterns is quite a different thing from the repetition of parts. When two physical windows are identical the relationship which they have to their surroundings are different, because their surroundings are different. But when the relationships of their surroundings-their patterns- are the same, the windows themselves will all be different, because the sameness of the patterns, interacting with the difference of the contexts, makes the windows different. | ||
- | In a place which is alive, the right angles are rarely exact; the spacing of parts is hardly ever perfectly even. One column is a little thicker than another, one angle is a little larger than a right angle, one doorway is just a little smaller | + | In a place which is alive, the right angles are rarely exact; the spacing of parts is hardly ever perfectly even. One column is a little thicker than another, one angle is a little larger than a right angle, one doorway is just a little smaller |
- | The cahracter | + | The character |
No matter how much the person who makes a building is able to understand the rhythm of regularity, it will mean noting so long as he creates it with the idea that it must be preserved because it is so precious. If you want to preserve a building, you will try to make it in materials which last forever. You will try to make sure that this creation can be preserved intact, in just its present state, forever. Canvas must be ruled out because it has to be replaced; tiles must be so hard that they will not crack, and set in concrete, so that they cannot move, and so the weed will not grow up to split the paving; trees must be nice to look at, but not bear fruit, becauses the dropped fruit might offend someone. | No matter how much the person who makes a building is able to understand the rhythm of regularity, it will mean noting so long as he creates it with the idea that it must be preserved because it is so precious. If you want to preserve a building, you will try to make it in materials which last forever. You will try to make sure that this creation can be preserved intact, in just its present state, forever. Canvas must be ruled out because it has to be replaced; tiles must be so hard that they will not crack, and set in concrete, so that they cannot move, and so the weed will not grow up to split the paving; trees must be nice to look at, but not bear fruit, becauses the dropped fruit might offend someone. | ||
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+ | ==== The gate==== | ||
- | The gate | ||
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- | The breakdown of language | + | ==== The breakdown of language |
- | But in our time the langauges | + | But in our time the languages |
- | In the PL every facet of human experience was covered, in one way or another, by the patterns in the language. | + | In the PL every facet of human experience was covered, in one way or another, by the patterns in the language. |
- | All the experts as raodplanners | + | All the experts as road planners |
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Each pattern is a three part rule, which expresses a relation between a certain context, a problem, and a solution. It is both a process and a thing; both a description of a thing which is alive, and a description of the process which will generate that thing. | Each pattern is a three part rule, which expresses a relation between a certain context, a problem, and a solution. It is both a process and a thing; both a description of a thing which is alive, and a description of the process which will generate that thing. | ||
- | Patterns do excist | + | Patterns do exist at all scale; for instances; |
- | ENTRANCE | + | ENTRANCE TRANSITION resolves a conflict |
MOSAIC OF SUBCULTURES resolves a conflict among social and psychological forces | MOSAIC OF SUBCULTURES resolves a conflict among social and psychological forces | ||
- | WEB OF SHOPPING | + | WEB OF SHOPPING |
- | Suppose we are in a place. And we have a general sense that something is 'right'there, something feels good; and we want to identify this " | + | Suppose we are in a place. And we have a general sense that something is "right there", something feels good; and we want to identify this " |
- | What, exactly is his something | + | What, exactly is this something |
Why, exactly, is this something helping to make the place alive | Why, exactly, is this something helping to make the place alive | ||
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And When, or Where, exactly, will this pattern work | And When, or Where, exactly, will this pattern work | ||
- | You first have to define some physical feature of the plale, which seems worth abstracting | + | You first have to define some physical feature of the place, which seems worth abstracting |
- | Next , you must define the problem, or the field of forces which this patterns brings into balance. Finally, we must define the range of contexts where this system of forces exists and where this pattern of physical relationships will indeed actually bring it into balance. | + | Next, you must define the problem, or the field of forces which this patterns brings into balance. Finally, we must define the range of contexts where this system of forces exists and where this pattern of physical relationships will indeed actually bring it into balance. |
- | We see in summary, that very pattern we define must be formulated in the form of a rule which establishes a relationship | + | We see in summary, that very pattern we define must be formulated in the form of a rule which establishes a relationship |
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- | The statement that the pattern is alive, is not a matter of taste, or culture, or point of view. It establishes, | + | The statement that the pattern is alive, is not a matter of taste, or culture, or point of view. It establishes, |
The statement of the problem and the forces helps us to sharpen the pattern which is responsible for making the system of forces come to equilibrium. | The statement of the problem and the forces helps us to sharpen the pattern which is responsible for making the system of forces come to equilibrium. | ||
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- | Each pattern should be a source of life, a geneative, | + | Each pattern should be a source of life, a geneative, |
- | It comes about because our feelings always deel with the totality of any system. If there are hidden forces, hidden conflicts, lurking in a pattern, we can fell them there. And when a pattern feels good to us, it is because it is a genuinely | + | It comes about because our feelings always deel with the totality of any system. If there are hidden forces, hidden conflicts, lurking in a pattern, we can fell them there. And when a pattern feels good to us, it is because it is a genuinely |
- | When you see a pattern, you will be able to tell almost at once, by intuition, whether | + | When you see a pattern, you will be able to tell almost at once, by intuition, whether |
It is not the same as asking someone his opinion, someones taste or what a person thinks of an idea. In short, the scientific accuracy of the patterns can only come from direct assessment of people' | It is not the same as asking someone his opinion, someones taste or what a person thinks of an idea. In short, the scientific accuracy of the patterns can only come from direct assessment of people' | ||
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- | The structue | + | The structure |
- | Each pattern itself is a part of some larger pattern-it is born out of these larger patterns through the forces which occur there, and the conditions which allow these fores to be in ahrmony. And each pattern itself gives birth to smaller patterns which, once again, through forces which must also be in harmony, gives birth to smaller patterns again created by the conditions which put the lower level forces into harmony. | + | Each pattern itself is a part of some larger pattern-it is born out of these larger patterns through the forces which occur there, and the conditions which allow these forces |
So the real work of any process of design lies in this task of making up the language, from which you can later generate the one particular design. You must make the language first, because it is the structure and the content of the language which determine the design. The individual buildings which you make, will llive, or not. Acoording to the depth and wholeness of the language which you use to make them with. But of course, once you have it, this language is general. If it has the power to make a single building live, it can be used a thousand times, to make a thousand buildings live. | So the real work of any process of design lies in this task of making up the language, from which you can later generate the one particular design. You must make the language first, because it is the structure and the content of the language which determine the design. The individual buildings which you make, will llive, or not. Acoording to the depth and wholeness of the language which you use to make them with. But of course, once you have it, this language is general. If it has the power to make a single building live, it can be used a thousand times, to make a thousand buildings live. | ||
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- | + | Local Symmetries | |
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- | Local Symmetries | + | |
Organic, small-scale symmetry works better than precise, overall symmetry. | Organic, small-scale symmetry works better than precise, overall symmetry. | ||
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