C.E.S. Office – Martinez House: Terrazzo floor with squares, diamonds and crosses; paper mock-up #6

Red, yellow and blue polished terrazzo floor with squares, diamonds and crosses made on a 400 sq. ft of a living room; with styrofoam lost form technique.

Christopher Alexander postulated that centers and the field of centers they create are the building blocks from which wholeness is made. However, he further argued that geometry alone is not sufficient, and that color is the way wholeness comes to ...

Ornament arises as part of the design process, when a person is making and seeks to embellish this "something" while making it. It arises as a result of the latent centers in the uncompleted thing requiring still more centers, requiring ...

The second building completed on the Martinez site, was a 2,000 square feet house. A gunite all-concrete building as well, it was the first sizable and fully functional project in which C.E.S. used gunite, while applying all permit and specification ...

Seven color drawings of various designs for the terrazzo floor of the kitchen room; variations on the red, yellow and blue color patterns.

Photograph of the finished floor in the main room.

Close-up photo of the floor pattern in main room floor.

Photographs of the watercolor mock-ups by Christopher Alexander, illustrating the four alternative designs for the terrazzo floor.