 "The Nature of Order, and A New Kind of Science" | 2009-08-14 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2QSASNKFJUS8U |
In his book The Phenomenon of Life, Christopher Alexander explains how some "centers" (animate and/or inanimate objects or environments) have more "life", have more wholeness, and have more of a feeling of self than other centers. The more life there is in a center, the more people will be satisfied with such a center, and the more life people will have. The concepts of life, of wholeness, of self, are not well defined by Alexander, but one can kind of grasp it from the many examples given in his four books of The Nature of Order.
The aim of an architect or artist should be to create centers with the most life. Many of today's mechanically designed buildings and art are lacking of life, while buildings and art based on long traditions often have much more life. Alexander explains how fifteen properties or transformations help us to create buildings and art with more life.
For readers of A New Kind of Science (ANKOS) by Stephen Wolfram, I want to float an alternative definition of Alexander's "life". Here it goes: The life of a center is its relative amount of "free will" as defined in ANKOS p. 750-753. Free will is the complexity, the irreducibility and unpredictability of a center, even while this center obeys some transformational rules. With free will, we are not able to predict the behavior of the center; we must wait and see how a center develops. With the fifteen transformations, more free will or life will result. This free will or life can be about how the center has arrived at its present state (e.g. a work of art), or about its potential for future development (e.g. a social situation).
Alexander's fifteen transformations of centers are like ANKOS's rules. The fifteen transformations will result in interesting complexities, instead of the less interesting states of repetition, simple nesting or randomness. Alexander's centers are like ANKOS's structures or features. Alexander's life is like ANKOS's complexity or free will. Following is a quote from ANKOS, p. 559 on aesthetics:
"If we can find no simple features whatsoever--as in the case of perfect randomness--then we tend to lose interest. But somehow the images that draw us in the most--and typically that we find the most aesthetically pleasing--are those for which some features are simple for us to describe, but others have no short description that can be found by our standard process of visual perception." Centers with Alexander's fifteen properties are of the second category, and are the most aesthetically pleasing.
I am not sure whether Alexander would agree with this definition, but this interpretation has helped me to better appreciate Alexander's series of The Nature of Order.
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 "Interesting Thesis" | 2008-09-07 |
| - Reviewed By User: AY7ZS03I9M3PY |
I've read both of Alexander's "A Pattern Language" and "The Timeless Way of Being". "The Nature of Order" is similar. Alexander has spent a good part of his life developing a philosophy of aesthetics as it relates to structure. I am not an architect but I tend to deal with project design and many of the ideas he presents as applied to architecture can be applied in other areas as well. The notion of what constitutes "goodness" is universal.
I have posted his 15 principles on my filing cabinet and intend to give his arguments some thought before going ahead to the second book. It is interesting to consider that what we appreciate most, be it an inanimate object such as a rock or a piece of music, the layout of a building or the complexities of human relationship is the degree to which each exhibit "life". Alexander took years to come up with his categorizations and conclusions so it is natural that one should take a bit of time to digest what he says. I do hope the publisher keeps this series in print so that I can return to it later. (Judging by the # of comments on and sales rank of successive volumes 2-4 I sense a dwindling audience or at least cautious audience.)
I recommend this book to artists, architects, those interested in the philosophy of aesthetics, and designers of all kinds. Alexander's work is poetic and mystical and relies heavily on internal insights and so will not appeal to everyone, however I regard myself as fairly grounded in realism, spreadsheets and decision making and find his work worthy of consideration.
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| "Some of these reviews are flawed" | 2005-12-03 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1ZCG6FQVI4C1F |
| Anne Broadbent's review below is completely unjustified. She writes "At the beginning of the first book, Alexander shows a beautiful pagoda - but I still think I wouldn't want to have one near me, in the guise of a shopping centre, school, house, gym, restaurant, bank or whatever: I'd rather see it in its original cultural setting." Alexander agrees completely with this point. His whole theory involves local adaptation following the fundamental properties and transformations that he has outlined in these books. Nowhere does he suggest that we should use the pagoda's form in any other cultural context. If you look at some of the examples he gives from nature you will understand this. He discusses the way sand dunes form following some of the fundamental properties. Does this mean he claims we should create sand dunes in the jungle? Of course not. Examples of buildings, places, and natural phenomena, are used as a means of displaying these fundamental properties and how these properties occur universally in phenomena which the majority of humans, and all other life forms would agree contain the quality of life. Throughout the series of books, Alexander provides hundreds of examples of human creations and natural creations to support his thesis. This may or may not be news to Miss Broadbent, but this is widely acknowledged as good scientific method. |
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 "Dissapointing" | 2005-11-16 |
| - Reviewed By troubledloner |
I very much enjoyed 'Pattern Language' and had great hopes for this series, however, after finishing book one, I am not sure I will invest in further volumes. I give the author credit for the time and effort spent in trying to develop his 'unified field theory' of good design, but unlike some of the common sense examples in Pattern language, this book moves to a level of metaphysical abstraction that seems to stretch the ideas past their breaking point. Not-Separateness? The Void? Though he makes a valiant effort, I just couldn't shake the fact that I was reading an after-the-fact justification of the authors pre-conceived tastes. Which essentially boil down to: old = good, new = bad.
Most off-putting also, were the scrawled, barely legible sketches that were meant to illustrate some of the principles. They are so poorly rendered as to be distracting and not very helpful to boot. I would expect more graphic sense from someone purporting to explain the universal secrets of good design. I really wanted to love this book, but I find it simply frustrating. |
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 "The actual physical book is not up to the ideals of the content" | 2005-08-02 |
| - Reviewed By justacoder |
I haven't finshed reading the content of this book - this is more a comment on the delivery medium...
The 'hardcover' book more closely resembles a cardboard cover book. Mine is easily bent and permanently warped in multiple dimensions - makng it much more like your typical large paperback book than a $75 hardback book. It seems harder and harder for publishers to strike that balance between quantity and quality of pictorial content on the one hand, and quality and flashiness of the cover on the other. |
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| "This book changed the way I look at everything..." | 2005-07-10 |
| - Reviewed By hestia6 |
As a total amateur, I have no design training. I am fascinated by architecture and design, but really only "know what I like". I read "A Pattern Language" when working on object oriented computer systems and find it fascinating - I still re-read it. So, when I saw this book, I was hoping that it would be interesting.
It is way beyond interesting. It completely changed the way I look at the world. It deserves to be read carefully, slowly, savored. Alexander makes his work accessible to both architects and lay people alike.
Bravo.
Even with two kids in college, I am going to spring for book 2. Higher praise could not be given. |
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