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Title:
The nature of order - an essay on the art of building and the nature of the universe. Book two : the process of creating life

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Summary:
Alexander examines the kinds of process that are capable of generating living structure. The unfolding of living structure in natural systems is first compared to the unfolding of buildings and town plans in traditional society, and then contrasted with present day processes. The comparison reveals deep and shocking problems which pervade the present day planning and construction of buildings. He describes the detailed character of living process needed to generate, design, plan, and build buildings with living structure. The character of living process is contrasted, repeatedly, with the character of present-day professional process, which departs, again and again, from present process, in order to meet the necessities inherent in any truly life-creating process. Pervasive changes needed to create a world in which living process – and hence living structure – are attainable only through a transformation of society. The dynamic methods of Book 2, focusing on process, give an entirely different picture of the facts and concepts presented in Book 1.

Title:
The nature of order - an essay on the art of building and the nature of the universe. Book four : the luminous ground

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Alexander addresses the cosmological implications of the theory he has constructed and presented. The book begins with a critique of current cosmological thinking, and its separation from personal feeling and value. The outline of a theory in which matter itself is more spirit-like, more personal in character, is sketched. The cosmological modifications presented in Book 4, are needed, to supplement the definition of the personal nature of matter, design, and form, and acts as a substrate for an attempt to implement living process. The book contains a long chapter, nearly one hundred pages long — almost a book in itself — in which Alexander presents his theory of color, as one ingredient of the new cosmological picture which he puts forward. This volume draws attention to new ways of looking at consciousness, and modifies physical theory so that the human person – what we know as self, and what Alexander calls the “I” — enters in as a fundamental and necessary ingredient of all matter.

Title:
The nature of order - an essay on the art of building and the nature of the universe. Book one : the phenomenon of life.

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Summary:
In "The Nature of Order," Alexander delves into the essential properties of life itself, highlighting a common set of well-defined structures that he believes are present in all order--and in all life--from micro-organisms and mountain ranges to the creation of good houses and vibrant communities. In "The Phenomenon of Life," the first volume in this masterwork, Alexander ponders the nature of order as an intellectual basis for a new architecture, proposing a well-defined scientific view of the world in which all space-matter has perceptible degrees of life. With this view as foundation, we can ask precise questions about what must be done to create life in the world--"whether in a single room...a doorknob...a neighborhood...even in a vast region." He presents the basic tenets of the concept, expanding on his theories of centers and of wholeness as a structure, and describes the fifteen properties from which he feels wholeness may be built. He also argues that living structure is at once both personal and structural, related not only to the geometry of space and how things work, but to human beings whose lives are ultimately based on feeling. Thus order, as the foundation of all things and as the foundation of all architecture, is both rooted in substance and rooted in feeling.

Title:
A pattern language : towns buildings construction

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$98.00
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Summary:
The second of three books published by the Center for Environmental Structure to provide a "working alternative to our present ideas about architecture, building, and planning," A Pattern Language offers a practical language for building and planning based on natural considerations. The reader is given an overview of some 250 patterns that are the units of this language, each consisting of a design problem, discussion, illustration, and solution. By understanding recurrent design problems in our environment, readers can identify extant patterns in their own design projects and use these patterns to create a language of their own. Extraordinarily thorough, coherent, and accessible, this book has become a bible for homebuilders, contractors, and developers who care about creating healthy, high-level design.

Title:
The timeless way of building

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$79.50
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Summary:
This volume provides the opening work in Christopher Alexander's seminal trilogy on architecture (continued in A Pattern Language and The Oregon Experiment). Here he provides a fascinating introduction to the ideas behind the succeeding two books. Alexander explains concepts fundamental to his original approaches to the theory and application of architecture.

Title:
Early and unpublished writings of Christopher Alexander: Thinking, building, writing

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$63.50
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Summary:
This book brings together key works of the noted architect and architectural theorist Christopher Alexander (1936–2022), many of which have not been published before. The book contains twenty-five essays and other works, many chosen from the newly organized Christopher Alexander archive, providing a window into the ideas and thought process of one of the most innovative architectural thinkers of the twentieth century. The items span Alexander’s fifty-year career, beginning with an early version of his PhD dissertation based on fieldwork in India, continuing to fifteen years in the development of "A Pattern Language", one of the best-selling books in the history of architecture, and proceeding to the writing of "The Nature of Order", Alexander’s four-volume masterwork, and beyond. The writings combine theory and descriptions of practice, and together support a blueprint for the development of a new, humane way of building, while also providing a window into the mind of an extraordinary thinker, teacher and professional.