Article

The Atoms of Environmental Structure

01/01/1966

Paper

Authors:

Christopher Alexander, Barry Poyner

Publisher:

Ministry of Public Buildings and Works - Directorate of Research and Development, London, U.K.

References

Scientific Research

Good Fit between Form & Context

Areas of focus:

Quality and Values

Guiding idea:

Goodness of Fit

Christopher Alexander states in the "Notes on the Synthesis of Form" that the object of design is form, and consequently the problem of design is to fit the form with its context. Form is the part of the world which ...
Decomposition Process and the Diagrams

Areas of focus:

Structure of Space

Guiding idea:

Early Mathematical Approach

The prevailing idea being the search for goodness of fit between form and its context, Alexander postulated that in today's selfconscious design process, in order to attain a good design there must be an underlying correspondence between the structure of ...
Theory of Patterns and Pattern Languages

Areas of focus:

Structure of Space

Guiding idea:

Patterns and Pattern Languages

In 'The Timeless Way of Building' Christopher Alexander postulates that the quality in buildings cannot by made, but only generated, indirectly, by the ordinary actions of the people. He asserts that people can shape buildings for themselves, and have done ...

Articles

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Course Material

Cumulative Growth in Architecture 01/12/1967

Academic, Student Work, Paper

Authors:

Franklin Hammer, University of California Berkeley, Department of Philosophy, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.

Unfinished 23-page paper on the hopes and prospects for progress in architecture, for Prof. Abraham Kaplan, Philosophy of Science; regards Christopher Alexander’s article “The Atoms of Environmental Structure”.