Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 9 / Smooth Unfolding of Construction

“A Vision of a Living World”, the third volume of “The Nature of Order” series, presents, for the first time, a full spectrum of Alexander’s and CES built and unbuilt works. The book describes hundreds of buildings, plans, neighborhoods, drawings, ...

One of the main topics of research, included in every building project, was to identify, early on in the design process, the material and techniques of construction. This would re-establish building as an art, and allow rapid shaping and adaptation, ...

Construction of an ultra-lightweight concrete vault, built over box columns and beams filled with concrete. Two different methods were used; lightweight concrete over woven basket, lath and burlap for solid vaulted roofs, and burlap impregnated with fiberglass resin, over woven ...

Flexible and low-cost construction techniques consisted of a hollow wooden structure of columns and beams, filled with lightweigth concrete, and a simple foundation made of concrete blocks, with rebars embeddedand ready to receive slab mesh.

Construction of basket and groin vaults with light weight pumice concrete laid over woven basket and applied on top of burlap and lath, both stapled into the wooden ribs of the interwoven basket.