Chapter 3. The Hulls of Public Space, 9 / The Hulls of Public Space: Implementation

Christopher Alexander

The Center for Environmental Structure Publishing, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

697 pp

Design and Building Process

Structure Preserving Transformations

Design and Building Process

Structure Preserving Transformations

Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

Higashino High School - Hisae Hosoi, Managing Director

Christopher Alexander, Hans-Joachim Neis, Gary Black, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King, Artemis Anninou, Astrid Chwoika, Neville Mathias, Eleni Coromvli, Ken Petermann, Robert M. Walsh, Randall Schmidt, Hajime Odagiri, Kohsuke Izumi, Hiroshi Nakano, Takeshi Ishikubo, Tamio Shiohara

Fujita Corporation, Tokyo, Japan

$11,000,000 in 1985 $14,000,000 in 1988

The work on the design and construction of the project performed by C.E.S. was divided in five phases. 1) Creation of a pattern language; 2) Layout on the site; 3) Design of the individual buildings; 4) Working drawings; 5) Construction 1) The first step in the project was to create a pattern language for the school. This was achieved by spending a total of 1200 man-hours discussing the many requirements with the various teachers, professors and staff of the Eishin School. The results of these interviews and discussions were condensed into a coherent vision, which was written up in the form of patterns (a written documentation that describes a physical reality). A copy of the pattern language that was created had been included as part of the submission to the client. 2) The next step in the process was to lay out the various buildings and outdoor spaces on the site. The main goal in this step was to position the buildings so that they form positive outdoor spaces, and to use stakes to mark the corners so that all of the concerned parties can get an actual physical sense of how the site will feel when the buildings were built. When the site felt as though it was laid out just right, the position of each building was recorded. From this record an overall site plan was drawn. At the same time that this process was going on, a large-scale site model was under continuous development in the C.E.S. office in Japan, where the users could see it and discuss it, day by day, as the work proceeded. This played an important role in helping to establish a direct connection between the users, and the site plan of the finished campus. 3) The third step in the process was the design of the individual buildings. In the Eishin School project, 35 buildings in all were designed. During this phase, various types of construction were considered which could capture the vision of the project. Some of the buildings were designed as concrete block, some were plastered concrete, and others were constructed out of heavy timber. 4) In the fourth stage, preparation of working drawings and permission, C.E.S. did its own engineering and construction estimation. Many of the buildings have unique engineering behavior, which was developed on the C.E.S. computer programs by the C.E.S. engineering staff. C.E.S. also did extensive full-scale mock-ups of crucial materials and construction details during this stage, to guarantee that the final buildings would have the emotional reality with project staff was seeking. 5) In the construction phase of the project C.E.S. worked with Fujita Construction Company, the sixth largest construction company in Japan. During this phase, C.E.S. kept a full scale on-site office in place throughout the work, and had its own staff working closely with the details of the buildings, every single day. Many on-site changes, decisions and details of the buildings were made as the construction proceeded. Because of our method of cost accounting, these changes were made without increasing the cost of the finished project.

Pattern language for the project by clients and C.E.S. Layout on the site by clients and C.E.S. Generic rules for urban growth process Use of full scale mock-ups Design Development and Construction Drawings done after layout Construction management a

Agate Street, Eugene, OR, U.S.A.

The University of Oregon - Mr. Chris Ramey, Campus Planner

Christopher Alexander, Hansjoachim Neis, James Maguire, Gary Black, Chuck Han

Center for Environmetal Structure, …

Layout on the site by clients and C.E.S. Design Development and Building Permit drawings done after layout Direct construction management and on-site design decisions

Samarkand, Uzbekistan

Christopher Alexander, Robert M. Walsh, Hansjoachim Neis, students

Aga Khan Foundation

Christopher Alexander wrote the following ‘‘poem’’ — a list of partially formed centers — at the very beginning of the work on the Samarkand city center, almost the day they began, long before they had worked it through. 1. It is a sequence of public squares, gardens, and buildings, which will form the new center of the city of Samarkand, uniting historic and traditional buildings and quarters. 2. There is a new dimension here, a center of spiritual life. It is not a commercial center, not a cultural center, not a religious center in the old idea. It is not a convention center. Somehow, this new center of the city of Samarkand, unites old and new, weaves together the thread of the silk road, the tomb of Timur the Great, with the modern world, and a vision of the world in which comfortable human concern, and a spiritual awareness of the importance of life, is visible, felt, and active. 3. It is an inspiring place to go. A place of pilgrimage, which will receive visitors from the five continents, in increasing thousands. 4. A network of beautiful paths, formed by columns, colonnades, brick walls, buildings, gardens. This network of paths, which passes across the whole area, is formed by the building masses which arise out of it, and by formal gardens. 5. Do the paths open into courtyards, ponds, gardens, hidden places? Are they formed only by mysterious buildings, rising in color, tile, and marble? Are there figures, statues, animals, Gods, people, statues standing at the places where the paths cross? 6. Are the animals themselves covered with mysterious animals? 7. Is there any reference to voyages? 8. The main thing one is aware of is a network of green and beautiful jewel-like streets. Each has lush trees, seats, platforms, streams. 9. These green streets, made by their trees, benches, sitting platforms, and edges, form a lacework of places to walk. They are like parks, long and narrow, you can explore for many hours, walking around these streets. 10. Each one of the streets arrives on some new treasure. Each building is like a treasure, arrived at by the green streets. 11. Samarkand, historically, and in the time of Ulugh Beg, was a crossroads of the world. In the Tang dynasty period, every conceivable exotic substance, or idea, or artifact, or art on earth, came through Samarkand. No matter where it went, or where it came from, it went through Samarkand. 12. Somehow, then, one may imagine these green heavenly paths, as a network—almost a mythical bazaar in which reference to these many exotic sub­stances exists. 13. The blue tile work of the Timurids, the hand-painted blue tiles, with small black, yellow, and white detail, on mud brick—these tiles, and the yellow bricks are in evidence on walls, domes, courtyards throughout the center. It is a thread which connects. 14. The whole network of paths is almost like a forbidden city. A place which is walled, punctured at very occasional places which allow one to enter, a special area that contains its own magic.

Pattern language for project by C.E.S. Concept Design