The Patterns, Construction, Mortarless Block Wall

The second of Alexander’s early works published by the Center for Environmental Structure, lays out the process of creating the pattern language for a group of houses designed for an experimental housing competition in Lima, Peru in 1969. It ...

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, ...

Bearing walls, shear walls and ground floor partitions are cavity walls of interlocking, self-aligning concrete blocks, moulded on site. The block is self-supporting up to a height of three floors. Vertical edges, corners and horizontal upper edges are either poured ...