The Timeless Way of Building, Volume 8The theory of architecture implicit in our world today, Christopher Alexander believes, is bankrupt. More and more people are aware that something is deeply wrong. Yet the power of present-day ideas is so great that many feel uncomfortable, even afraid, to say openly that they dislike what is happening, because they are afraid to seem foolish, afraid perhaps that they will be laughed at. Now, at last, there is a coherent theory which describes in modern terms an architecture as ancient as human society itself. The Timeless Way of Building is the introductory volume in the Center for Environmental Structure series, Christopher Alexander presents in it a new theory of architecture, building, and planning which has at its core that age-old process by which the people of a society have always pulled the order of their world from their own being. Alexander writes, "There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. And as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills, and as our faces are." |
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Page xii
... terns make our surroundings live , or not , by recog- nizing how they make us feel . 16. Once we have understood how to discover indi- vidual patterns which are alive , we may then make a language for ourselves for any building task we ...
... terns make our surroundings live , or not , by recog- nizing how they make us feel . 16. Once we have understood how to discover indi- vidual patterns which are alive , we may then make a language for ourselves for any building task we ...
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Contents
II | 3 |
III | 15 |
IV | 17 |
VI | 39 |
VII | 53 |
IX | 73 |
XI | 99 |
XIII | 121 |
XXIX | 275 |
XXX | 303 |
XXXII | 323 |
XXXIV | 347 |
XXXV | 349 |
XXXVI | 363 |
XXXVII | 383 |
XXXIX | 401 |
XV | 135 |
XVII | 153 |
XVIII | 155 |
XIX | 165 |
XXI | 191 |
XXIII | 209 |
XXV | 223 |
XXVII | 241 |
XLI | 425 |
XLIII | 453 |
XLV | 473 |
XLVI | 491 |
XLVIII | 509 |
XLIX | 527 |
LI | 529 |
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Common terms and phrases
according act of building aisle alcoves alive arcade barn beautiful become BUILDING EDGE building live built chapter character Christopher Alexander columns common land complete concrete configuration conflict connection context corner course courtyard create define egoless elements ENTRANCE TRANSITION exactly example fact FARMHOUSE KITCHEN feel feet flowers freeway front door functionally complete genetic code grow guage HALF-HIDDEN GARDEN happens herent images imagine individual inside kind kitchen larger patterns light look MAIN ENTRANCE mind modular mon language morphological nature neighborhood OUTDOOR ROOM paths pattern of events pattern of relationships perhaps person porch possible problem purlins repair repeat resolve roof ROOF GARDEN rules seat sense sequence shape simple space stair street structure system of forces terns terrace thing timeless tion towns and buildings tree true tween unique vaults wall WINDOW PLACE
Popular passages
Page x - IX own lives, is the central search of any -person, and the crux of any individual -person's story. It is the search for those moments and situations when we are most alive.
Page xv - Indeed this ageless character has nothing, in the end, to do with languages. The language, and the processes which stem from it, merely release the fundamental order which is native to us. They do not teach us, they only remind us of what we know already, and of what we shall discover time and time again, when we give up our ideas and opinions, and do exactly what emerges from ourselves, (ppix-xv) The excerpted text is the detailed Table of Contents from Christopher Alexander, TheTimetess Way of...