George House: Photographs of building and gardens

01/01/1998

Exterior View, Garden View

Outdoor room and terrace of the house; the character of this outdoor room has been affected by its position. It arose from the site, a saddle on the hill and the great trees around it, it was a natural point of confluence for movement through the site. The steps, the walls, the kitchen windows, the ballustrade, the place under the biggest tree, were then derived from the room’s position to establish contents and fine structure.

Photographer:

Randall Schmidt/C.E.S., Pleasant Hill, CA, U.S.A.

Source:

Digital

Characteristics:

Color

Content of

Project

George House 1997 to 1998

Pleasant Hill, CA, U.S.A.

Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1998

Client:

Mr. & Mrs. Brian and Xilin George

C.E.S. staff:

Christopher Alexander, Randall Schmidt

House and cottage with large outdoor terraces with custom concrete walls.

References

Scientific Research

Geometry and Fifteen Fundamental Properties

Areas of focus:

Structure of Space

Guiding idea:

Centers and Fields of Centers

Christopher Alexander recognized the importance of the geometry of centers and for years he was looking for the common structural features among buildings, paintings, streets, carpets, doors, windows, etc. which have "life" and "wholeness". He identified fifteen structural features which ...
Strong Centers in all Levels of Scale

Areas of focus:

Design and Building Process

Guiding idea:

Structure Preserving Transformations

A building can only amount to something as a living thing when the various physical elements which appear in it are profound centers. The dominant feature of the process that is working correctly is that new centers are formed, and ...