The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth: A Struggle Between Two World-SystemsThe purpose of all architecture, writes Christopher Alexander, is to encourage and support life-giving activity, dreams, and playfulness. But in recent decades, while our buildings are technically better--more sturdy, more waterproof, more energy efficient-- they have also became progressively more sterile, rarely providing the kind of environment in which people are emotionally nourished, genuinely happy, and deeply contented. Using the example of his building of the Eishin Campus in Japan, Christopher Alexander and his collaborators reveal an ongoing dispute between two fundamentally different ways of shaping our world. One system places emphasis on subtleties, on finesse, on the structure of adaptation that makes each tiny part fit into the larger context. The other system is concerned with efficiency, with money, power and control, stressing the more gross aspects of size, speed, and profit. This second, "business-as-usual" system, Alexander argues, is incapable of creating the kind of environment that is able to genuinely support the emotional, whole-making side of human life. To confront this sterile system, the book presents a new architecture that we--both as a world-wide civilization, and as individual people and cultures--can create, using new processes that allow us to build places of human energy and beauty. The book outlines nine ways of working, each one fully dedicated to wholeness, and able to support day-to-day activities that will make planning, design and construction possible in an entirely new way, and in more humane ways. An innovative thinker about building techniques and planning, Christopher Alexander has attracted a devoted following. Here he introduces a way of building that includes the best current practices, enriched by a range of new processes that support the houses, communities, and health of all who inhabit the Earth. |
What people are saying - Write a review
We haven't found any reviews in the usual places.
Contents
THE CAMPUS OF EISHIN GAKUEN | 15 |
A NECESSARY | 51 |
INNER ASPECTS OF THE TWO PRODUCTION SYSTEMS | 63 |
2 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
able actual adaptation architect architecture asked battle beautiful became become began buildings built campus centers chapter clear color columns comes completely concrete configuration connections construction continuous cost course created creation described Direct Management discussion drawings effect Eishin elements entrance environment example exist experience fact faculty feeling felt final flags Fujita gardens gate geometry give going Hall happen high school Hosoi human idea important inner Japan Japanese kind lake land later living looking Management materials means method nature necessary needed organization pattern language physical position possible practical present problem production result rooms scale shape social society space street structure system-B teachers things thinking transformation understand University wall wanted wholeness
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth: A Struggle Between Two World-Systems Center for Environmental Structure series |
| Authors | Christopher Alexander, Hans Joachim Neis, Maggie Moore Alexander |
| Contributors | Hans Joachim Neis, Maggie Moore Alexander |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | OUP USA, 2012 |
| Original from | the University of California |
| Digitized | Mar 3, 2017 |
| ISBN | 0199898073, 9780199898077 |
| Length | 505 pages |
| Subjects | › › Architecture / Buildings / Public, Commercial & Industrial Architecture / Criticism Architecture / General Political Science / Public Policy / City Planning & Urban Development |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |