The Environment / Pattern Language: Book early version

01/01/1967
Book Early Version, Partial Manuscript

Two verions of early manuscripts with dense editing by Christopher Alexander, dealing with the idea of the environment, wholeness and patterns, which ultimately evolved into two books and were published as “A Pattern Language” and “The Timeless Way of Building”.
The first 33-page draft manuscript titled “The Environment” contains a table of contents and the two versions of the book summary. The first summary is organized in two volumes “The Problem” with four parts and “The Solution” with five parts. The second summary is organized in three volumes “The Problem” with four parts, “Patterns Languages” with four parts, and “The Solution” with two parts. Each one of the summaries outlines the chapters in each one of the parts with a brief and comprehensive statement.
The second 142-page draft manuscript is organized in nine parts as per the table of contents, some similar with the first version. The nine parts are 1) What is a Whole Environment; 2) Pattern Language; 3) Universal Pattern Language; 4) A Pattern; 5) Pattern Language; 6) Synthesis; 7) Functional Validity; 8) Changes in the Profession; 9) Poem. Out of its forty chapters there are drafts for seven of them, written as letters addressed to “Marie Anne”, providing detailed descriptions and explanations of the new concepts; occasionally there are two versions of the same chapter. .

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