Architectural Lecture Series: The Growth of Order from Small Acts

06/02/1974

Lecture Course, Lecture Transcript

Lecture given in the Department of Architecture at UC Berkeley in 1974. Alexander talked about order and growth, using examples of biological growth, followed by descriptions of several projects that he was working on, and making the point that urban design should follow a process of incremental growth which succeeds in creating ordered larger wholes though small acts.

Authors:

Christopher Alexander, University of California Berkeley, College of Environmental Design, Department of Architecture, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Content of

Academic Course

Architectural Lecture Series: 6-Feb-1974 lecture 1974

University Program:

Architecture Lecture Series

Course type:

Lecture Course

Instructors:

Christopher Alexander

The topic of the lecture was “The Growth of Order from Small Acts”.

References

Scientific Research

Master Planning as a Dynamic Process - Organic Order and Piecemeal Growth

Areas of focus:

Design and Building Process

Guiding idea:

Step by Step Process

It is simply not possible to fix today, in a Master Plan, what the environment should be like in the future, and then to steer the piecemeal process of development toward that fixed, imaginary world. Instead, planning and construction will ...