Go BackThe Unfolding of Public Space and Gardens as Positive Space
Outdoor space is positive when it is shaped just as a room is shaped. It has a contained character, it is bounded by walls, fences, natural vegetation, enclosure of some kind. It looks into other positive spaces, some larger, some smaller. Each space individually is a strong center, each one has a boundary, one feels its substance when moving through them.
Outdoor space is a world by itself, where people enjoy walking along paths and avenues of trees, through gates, gardens, doorways, stairs; it is a connected world, not kept too isolated from cars, but still protected and peaceful. Specific patterns address the issue of how the cars can be accommodated best, without affecting the feeling of pedestrian space.
Thoughts and Arguments Explored and Developed
The hulls of public space come naturally from structure preserving transformations
Shaped public space forms living centers
Positive outdoor space is formed volumetrically before the buildings are designed, and the building are then shaped to form the space
References
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A New Theory of Urban Design
1987
The sixth volume of “The Center for Environmental Structure Series” on architecture published by Oxford University Press, “A New Theory of Urban Design” attempts to recapture the process by which cities develop organically. The venerable cities of the past, such ...
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The Nature of Order - An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe.
Book Three - A Vision of a Living World
2005
“A Vision of a Living World”, the third volume of “The Nature of Order” series, presents, for the first time, a full spectrum of Alexander’s and CES built and unbuilt works. The book describes hundreds of buildings, plans, neighborhoods, drawings, ...
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Chapter 3. The Hulls of Public Space, 4 / Shaped Public Space Forming Living Centers
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Chapter 3. The Hulls of Public Space, 5 / The Spine Structure of the Eishin School
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Chapter 3. The Hulls of Public Space, 6 / The Hulls of Public Space for a Community of Families in Texas: Unexpected Centers in a Piece of Land
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Housing Plan for Guasare New Town
1981 to
1983
The project focused on the housing component of the master plan for the new town of Guasare, in the state of Maracaibo, Venezuela, planned to accomodate several thousand workers. The design of its neighborhoods, each one for about 250 families, ...
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Sala House
1981 to
1983
Three-story tower, 20 feet by 20 feet in plan on each floor, on a wooded, sloping site. The interior structure of the house is wood post and beam with pine panelling and hand-painted surfaces, and the exterior is a red ...
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Eishin Campus - High School and College Complex
1982 to
1987
The project was envisioned to be a new combined High School and College Complex for the Eishin Gakuen Foundation, in Saitama prefecture, outside Tokyo, and was designed as such. The campus was to be the working environment of a population ...
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Design III: The San Francisco Waterfront Project
1979
The Spring 1979 design studio course was an experimental project on the San Francisco Waterfront. The experiment consisted of a simulated process of urban growth, carried out by about twenty people. The simulation included 90 projects, to be developed on ...
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Theory III: On Urban Design
1979
The Spring 1979 theory studio course was complementary to the design studio on the San Francisco Waterfront experimental project. Its focus was on the development, elaboration and testing of a series of theoretical assumptions on the process of urban growth, ...
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Design II: Morphology and Design of Large Buildings & Towns - Multi-storey Public Buildings
1979
Preparatory work for the San Francisco Waterfront Spring 1979 studio, which included the following assignments: Design of a multi-storey office buildings, street elevations, construction systems.
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Pasadena Zoning Ordinance for Multi-Family Housing
1 1st copy
06/08/1987
159-page draft of the 16-Nov-1987 project report in two parts. Part One: Philosophy and Intent, with the following four chapters, 1) Intent of the Ordinance; 2) The Coherence of the Neighborhood; 3) Examples of Individual Projects; 4) Density. Part Two: ...
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Pasadena Zoning Ordinance for Multi-Family Housing: Draft
16/11/1987
103-page draft of the 16-Nov-1987 project report in three chapters. Its chapter and subchapter titles are different but the contents are similar and include extensive editing on text and suggestions on language tone. It is organized as follows: Chapter 1) ...
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Pasadena Zoning Ordinance for Multi-Family Housing: Section Two: Residential Design Standards
20/11/1987
38 pages of the “Section Two: Residential Design Standards” in which the following design aspects are explained: 1. Open space standards in which, tables with minimum required areas for surface parking, parking with dwelling over, fully, and partially subterranean parking ...
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Master Plan for the University of Oregon: Preliminary Design Drawings - Diagnosis for Positive Outdoor Space
2 2nd diagnosis map
01/01/1972
Two diagnosis maps. The first drawing includes the whole site, and identifies the places of the campus which are “not working”. The second drawing contains a detailed and complete analysis of a smaller area at the nortwestern corner of the ...
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Housing Plan for Guasare New Town: Preliminary Design Drawings - Neighborhood Plans
2 2nd simulation plan
01/01/1982
Two simulation plans of the detailed internal structure of two neighborhood areas.
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Sweet Potatoes Offices and Workshops: Presentation Drawing - Layout process sequence
8 8th step
01/03/1985
Sequence of eight sketches which describe the layout process for the design of office space by its users.
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Pasadena Zoning Ordinance for Multi-Family Housing
16/11/1987
138-page draft of the Pasadena Zoning Ordinance, which includes sequences of design which have been omitted from the submitted ordinance. The document is organized in four chapters: Chapter 1) Intent of the Ordinance, with three sections; Chapter 2) Ordinance Standards, ...
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Pasadena Zoning Ordinance for Multi-Family Housing: Pasadena Design Ordinance for Multi-Family Housing - A City of Gardens
25/04/1988
46-page final draft of the Ordinance submitted to the Pasadena Multi-Family Task Force. New zoning ordinance for the city’s multi-family housing areas that would permit high intensity development to continue in a way which is in keeping with Pasadena’s heritage. ...
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Reconstruction of an Urban Neighborhood: A New Vision for Flagler Heights/Progresso, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
01/05/1996
33-page project proposal which dwells on the transformation of the existing neighborhood by a sequence of design and construction small actions carried out over many years, gradually, in order to establish and/or improve its pedestrian network, gardens, roads, communal life ...
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Master Plan for the University of Oregon: Photographs of drawing
2 2) Diagnosis map of the northwestern corner of the campus, with proposals
01/01/1972
Images of two colored diagnosis drawings for the University plan development, illustrating the places of the campus which are “not working” and the places which are “working” harmoniously, accompanied with brief notes of what is wrong and concrete proposals of ...
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Housing Plan for Guasare New Town: Photographs of drawings
01/01/1982
Drawing of a typical house with the courtyard as its main center.
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Housing Plan for Guasare New Town: Photographs of project model
4 4) Third close-up view of the model
01/01/1982
Four photographs of a small scale simulation model out of balsa wood, for testing the main rules for the layout of house volumes, gardens and garden walls, and the parallel formation of roads. The positive space of gardens is shown ...
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