Go BackUsers Involved in the Construction of their Project
The benefits of the involvement of the users in the actual construction of their houses under the guidance and management of the architect-builder or the contractor, besides the obvious economical, are manifested in the personal qualities and feeling of these houses, which is utterly absent in low income mass produced housing. Alexander was involved in low income housing projects and in low cost experimental construction techniques, trying in each one to improve the building process and techniques, which would lead to good buildings without increasing costs. The projects in Mexico, Colombia and Peru demonstarte his progress in this area. Alexander's experiments for low cost construction techniques led him to spent several weeks in a row, working on the building sites of projects he was their user. .
Thoughts and Arguments Explored and Developed
The human rhythm of the process
References
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The Production of Houses
1985
The fifth volume in “The Center for Environmental Structure Series” on architecture published by Oxford University Press, “The Production of Houses” puts Alexander’s theories to the test and shows what sort of production system can create the kind of environment Alexander ...
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The Nature of Order - An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe.
Book Two - The Process of Creating Life
2002
“The Process of Creating Life”, the second volume of “The Nature of Order” series presents a dynamic theory of living structure. It begins with an analysis of transformations, which occur in nature, and the distinction between structure-preserving transformations, responsible for ...
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Chapter 5. Examples of Living Process in The Modern Era, 2 / A Wide Range of Structure-Preserving Processes and Living Processes / House-Proud Owner, Mexicali, Mexico
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Chapter 5. Examples of Living Process in The Modern Era, 2 / A Wide Range of Structure-Preserving Processes and Living Processes / The Upham House, Berkeley, California
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Chapter 11. Further Dynamics of a Growing Neighborhood, 1 / The Stuff of Life
Chapter 11. Further Dynamics of a Growing Neighborhood, 2 / The Essential Reason for Dynamic Thinking
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Village School in Bavra
1962
Four- room school for the village, made by four arched walls and a ribbed vaulted roof, and built by Christopher Alexander and the villagers, at the minimum available budget of less than $1000.
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Etna Street Cottage
1974
Experimental building project, two-story 400 sq. ft. cottage, with a hollow wooden structure filled with concrete and featherweight concrete vaults. Completed in ten weeks, without a building permit at the back of the C.E.S. office on Etna Street, and was ...
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Low Cost Houses for Mexicali
1975 to
1977
A cluster of houses for large families, with a builders yard, built by the families themselves with the help of students from the Universidad Autonoma of Mexico, and a team of builders from the Center for Environmental Structure. Each house ...
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Low Cost Houses for Mexicali: Photographs of people during construction
01/01/1976
Seventeen photos with people during the project construction, working, celebrating events, resting or just posing. The first image shows the project staff and householders celebrating a birthday; then, there are five photos of householders and their kids; one image of ...
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Low Cost Houses for Mexicali: Photographs of people during construction
01/01/1976
Ten photos with people working on the project. One photo with “Posting works to be accomplished daily”; three images with people working on beam construction; two images with people doing wood works and two more with people building foundations and ...
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Neighborhood of Seventy Low-Cost Houses: Photographs of people during construction
01/11/1989
Five images of families doing excavation works after having laid stakes and stretched strings.
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