The Nature of Order – An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe.
Book Three – A Vision of a Living World
“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, rooms, gardens, engineering structures, and construction techniques. All these examples include some 600 pages of illustrated material, and more than 200 color pictures.
All this is done in the context of Alexander’s attempt to demonstrate the kind of buildings, and the kind of world, which will necessarily follow from the application of the living processes he has defined in Book 2. The text not only describes the ways in which these many projects, and their form, follow necessarily from the living processes and techniques that Alexander advocates. At the end of each chapter, he presents a short summary in which the underlying morphological invariants, present in any living environment, appear as a consequence of the living processes he has described, and as they must arise in any use of living processes to create the world.
The book was exhibited at Locus Manifesto-exposition “Re-enchant the World: Architecture and the City facing society´s transitions”, together with others in Science Cabinet #1.
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The Morphology of Living Architecture, 2 / A Collection of Examples
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The Morphology of Living Architecture, 3 / Process and Geometry: The Origin of Archetypal Form
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The Morphology of Living Architecture, 4 / Centers and Symmetries
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The Morphology of Living Architecture, 5 / The Feeling-Symmetry Principle within these Examples
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Chapter 10. "Belonging" in High-Density Housing
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Chapter 11. Further Dynamics of a Growing Neighborhood, 1 / The Stuff of Life
Chapter 11. Further Dynamics of a Growing Neighborhood, 2 / The Essential Reason for Dynamic Thinking
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Chapter 11. Further Dynamics of a Growing Neighborhood, 3 / Santa Rosa de Cabal, Colombia
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Chapter 11. Further Dynamics of a Growing Neighborhood, 5 / Laying out a Larger Neighborhood by a Dynamic Process - A Fully Generated Plan
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Chapter 11. Further Dynamics of a Growing Neighborhood, 6 / Moshav Shorashim in the Galilee
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Chapter 11. Further Dynamics of a Growing Neighborhood, 7 / The Fort Mason Bench
Chapter 11. Further Dynamics of a Growing Neighborhood, 8 / Doing Work Together
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Chapter 12. The Uniqueness of People's Individual Worlds: 10 / Office Layout Process
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Chapter 12. The Uniqueness of People's Individual Worlds: 11 / Mass-Housing Where Each Family Make Their Own House Plan for Themselves
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Chapter 12. The Uniqueness of People's Individual Worlds: 2 / Three Houses by Telephone
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Chapter 12. The Uniqueness of People's Individual Worlds: 3 / A House for Geoffrey and Linda Gioja
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Chapter 12. The Uniqueness of People's Individual Worlds: 4 / A House for Jim and Sylvia Heisey
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Chapter 12. The Uniqueness of People's Individual Worlds: 5 / A House for Mike and Patricia Goddu
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Chapter 12. The Uniqueness of People's Individual Worlds: 8 / Mass Housing with Unique Apartments
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Chapter 12. The Uniqueness of People's Individual Worlds: 9 / A Factory and its Individual Workspaces
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Chapter 13. The Character of Rooms, 1 / What Makes a Good Room
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Chapter 13. The Character of Rooms, 10 / Tranquility even in the Huge
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Chapter 13. The Character of Rooms, 2 / Position: How Living Process May be Used to Shape a Room Through its Position
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Chapter 13. The Character of Rooms, 3 / Position: Starting with the Most Important Room
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Chapter 13. The Character of Rooms, 4 / Position: The Living Room of the Medlock House
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Chapter 13. The Character of Rooms, 5 / The Main Centers of a Room: Internal Elements which Create the Room's Life
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Chapter 13. The Character of Rooms, 6 / The Main Centers of the Carpet Gallery at the San Francisco Museum
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Chapter 13. The Character of Rooms, 7 / Fine Structure which Determines the Internal Coherence and Feeling in the Room
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Chapter 13. The Character of Rooms, 8 / Fine Structure: The Berryessa Staircase
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Chapter 14. Construction Elements as Living Centers, 6/ Unfolding Building Details from the Fundamental Process
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Chapter 15. All Building as Making: 10 / Working on Integrated Wholes
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Chapter 15. All Building as Making, 12 / Wabi-to-Sabi: The balance of Rough and Smooth
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Chapter 15. All Building as Making, 4 / The Most Basic Feature of Living Structure
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Chapter 15. All Building as Making, 6 / The Social Philosophy of Making
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Chapter 15. All Building as Making, 7 / The Nearest Tenth of an Inch
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Chapter 15. All Building as Making, 8 / Detailed Shape and Size of Capitals at Back-of-the-Moon
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Chapter 15. All Building as Making, 9 / Money and Contracts
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Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 10 / The Paradigm of Smooth Unfolding as a Target for Every Construction Technique
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Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 11 / Monocoque Construction
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Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 3 / What Matters is that we Have Techniques of Construction Which Help us Make Living Centers
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Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 4 / An Innovation for Village Construction - Stacked Tile Vaults
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Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 5 / Cheap and Beautiful Ways of Forming Concrete
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Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 5A / Wood and Concrete Combinations
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Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 6 / Heavy Wood Construction
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Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 7 / New Forms of Brick and Block Construction
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Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 8 / Sophisticated May Mean Adavanced or it May Mean Primitive in appearance but Advanced in Content
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Chapter 16. Continuous Invention of New Materials and Techniques, 9 / Smooth Unfolding of Construction
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Chapter 17. Production of Giant Projects Through High-Speed Adaptive Production, 10 / Fabrication of Luminous Glass Ceiling
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Chapter 17. Production of Giant Projects Through High-Speed Adaptive Production, 2 / High-Speed Adaptative Production: Technical Problems that Must Be Solved
Chapter 17. Production of Giant Projects Through High-Speed Adaptive Production, 3 / Slowly Created Harmony in a Massive project: The Example of the Athens Megaron
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Chapter 17. Production of Giant Projects Through High-Speed Adaptive Production, 4 / The Core of the Solution: A Combination of Large Numbers, High Speed, Minute Adaptation, Craft and Cost Control
Chapter 17. Production of Giant Projects Through High-Speed Adaptive Production, 5 / Adaptative Design Emerging within the Whole
Chapter 17. Production of Giant Projects Through High-Speed Adaptive Production, 6 / The Water- jet Cutter
Chapter 17. Production of Giant Projects Through High-Speed Adaptive Production, 7 / Prefabrication of Marble on Fberglass Mats Following by On-site Modification and Context Determined Design Adjustment
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Chapter 18. Ornament as Part of all Unfolding, 10 / In a Living Building, Everything is Ultimately Ornament
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Chapter 18. Ornament as Part of all Unfolding, 2 / Ornament as Detail Which Emerges Directly from the Process of Making
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Chapter 18. Ornament as Part of all Unfolding, 3 / Black-and-White Marble Floors and Surfaces
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18. Ornament as Part of all Unfolding, 4 / Making a Colored, Ornamented Floor
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Chapter 18. Ornament as Part of all Unfolding, 5 / Other Kinds of Ornament
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Chapter 18. Ornament as Part of all Unfolding, 6 / Hand-Glazed Tilework
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Chapter 18. Ornament as Part of all Unfolding, 7 / Making Lifelike Animals and Plants in the Fabric of the Building
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Chapter 18. Ornament as Part of all Unfolding, 8 / Simplicity of Ornamental Human Figures
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Chapter 18. Ornament as Part of all Unfolding, 9 / Structural Qualities Created by the Fundamental Process in all Ornament
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Chapter 19. Color Which Unfolds from the Configuration, 1 / The Unfolding which Produces Inner Light
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Chapter 19. Color Which Unfolds from the Configuration, 2 / The Painted Kitchen
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Chapter 19. Color Which Unfolds from the Configuration, 3 / Paint and Color Materials
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Chapter 19.Color Which Unfolds from the Configuration, 4 / The Surprising Nature of the Color that Unfolds
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Chapter 19. Color Which Unfolds from the Configuration, 5 / The Blue of the Kaiser House
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Chapter 19.Color Which Unfolds from the Configuration, 6 / Another case of the Surprising Nature of Color that Unfolds
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Chapter 19. Color Which Unfolds from the Configuration, 7 / How Can it be that Color and Design Come from Unfolding
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Chapter 2. Our Belonging to the World, 10 / Paintings and Photographs of the Blissful State
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Chapter 3. The Hulls of Public Space, 4 / Shaped Public Space Forming Living Centers
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Chapter 3. The Hulls of Public Space, 5 / The Spine Structure of the Eishin School
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Chapter 3. The Hulls of Public Space, 6 / The Hulls of Public Space for a Community of Families in Texas: Unexpected Centers in a Piece of Land
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Chapter 3. The Hulls of Public Space, 7 / Shaping the Hulls for Parts of a New Town in Greater Frankfurt
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Chapter 3. The Hulls of Public Space, 8 / A New Approach to Urban Design: First Forming a Three Dimensional Plan of Hulls
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Chapter 3. The Hulls of Public Space, 9 / The Hulls of Public Space: Implementation
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Chapter 4. Large Public Buildings, 11 / The Intricacy of Detail in a Living Process. Memos on Construction Method
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Chapter 4. Large Public Buildings, 12 / Conceptual Vision of a still Larger Process
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Chapter 4. Large Public Buildings, 13 / Setting up a Design / Management / Construction Organization for a $16 Million Building
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Chapter 4. Large Public Buildings, 14 / Conclusion. Geometric Features Follow from the Use of Living Process in the Making of Large Buildings
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Chapter 4. Large Public Buildings, 2 / The Great Hall: A Multitude of Living Centers
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Chapter 4. Large Public Buildings, 3 / Intimacy of Design Within the Huge
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Chapter 4. Large Public Buildings, 4 / Mountain View Civic Center: Differentiation of a Large Building as a Jewel, Made by Successive Transformations of the Space where it Exists
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Chapter 4. Large Public Buildings, 5 / Tokyo Forum: Unfolding of a Massive Building
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Chapter 4. Large Public Buildings, 8 / Even in the Biggest Building, People Must be the Core. The Building Genuinely Comes from the Inspiration and Deep Feeling of the Users
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Chapter 5. The Positive Pattern of Space and Volume in Three Dimensions of the Land, 4 / The Millenium Church
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Chapter 5. The Positive Pattern of Space and Volume in Three Dimensions of the Land, 5 / Emergenceof Complex Space and Volume on a Small Piece of Land in California
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Chapter 5. The Positive Pattern of Space and Volume in Three Dimensions of the Land, 6 / Building a Five-Story Building in Tokyo to Make Harmonious Space and Volume
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Chapter 5. The Positive Pattern of Space and Volume in Three Dimensions of the Land, 7 / Laying out a Very Large Building Complex: The Eishin Campus
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Chapter 5. The Positive Pattern of Space and Volume in Three Dimensions of the Land, 7A / The Completion of Design and Construction on the Eishin Campus
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Chapter 5. The Positive Pattern of Space and Volume in Three Dimensions of the Land, 8 / A Secondary Structure-Enhancing Process Which Further Forms the Shape of Spaces and Volumes
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Chapter 5. The Positive Pattern of Space and Volume in Three Dimensions of the Land, 9 / Emergence of Building Volumes in a More Repetitive Project
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Chapter 6. Positive Space in Engineering Structure and Geometry, 10 / Each Step uses the Fundamental Process to Unfold an Earlier Wholeness
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Chapter 6. Positive Space in Engineering Structure and Geometry, 11 / Appropriate Structural Order for a Large Apartment Building
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Chapter 6. Positive Space in Engineering Structure and Geometry, 5 / The Three-Dimensional Formation of Positive and Negative
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Chapter 6. Positive Space in Engineering Structure and Geometry, 6 / The Great Hall at Eishin
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Chapter 6. Positive Space in Engineering Structure and Geometry, 8 / Using the Fundamental Process to Get the Design of a Concrete Truss
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Chapter 6. Positive Space in Engineering Structure and Geometry, 9 / Going on with the Unfolding Process for the Truss: Finite Element Analysis
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Chapter 7. The Character of Gardens
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Chapter 8. People Forming a Collective Vision of their Neighborhood, 4 / Start of a Collective Vision in Fort Lauderdale
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Chapter 8. People Forming a Collective Vision of their Neighborhood, 6 / A Collective Vision Growing in Chikusadai
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Chapter 8. People Forming a Collective Vision of their Neighborhood, 8 / A Collective Vision Achieved in Eishin
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Chapter 8. People Forming a Collective Vision of their Neighborhood, 9 / We Created: They Created
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Chapter 9. The Reconstruction of an Urban Neighborhood
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Preface: Living Process Repeated Ten Million Times, 4 / Examples of Life-Creating Processes from our Era
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The Process of Urban Design and the Formation of Larger Urban Wholes
Theoretical basis and key assumptions for the process of urban growth, tested initially in the San Francisco Waterfront experimental project in 1979, in which the formation of larger urban wholes was highlighted as an overriding rule. This process was further ...
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The Unfolding of Public Space and Gardens as Positive Space
Outdoor space is positive when it is shaped just as a room is shaped. It has a contained character, it is bounded by walls, fences, natural vegetation, enclosure of some kind. It looks into other positive spaces, some larger, some ...
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Geometry and Fifteen Fundamental Properties
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 ...
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Design and Construction is one Integrated Making Process
The design process of a project and its construction process are united into one continuous and intertwined making process, unfolding in a step-by-step sequence. Design ends together with the completion of the construction process. "Making" is a conception of the ...
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The Layout Process of Buildings on the Land - Visualization at Full Scale on Site
Each act of building needs to have a positive effect on its surroundings; to complete them, preserve their structure, make them better, by creating strong centers in them and next to them. Each new building is more alive when it ...
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The Sequence of Unfolding - Generative Codes for the Design Process
In architecture, as in other things, the "right" sequence is of vital importance. It is a generative sequence of progressive differentiations, which allow space to unfold in the right order. Each differentiation acts on the product of the previous ...
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The Uniqueness of People's Individual Worlds, Always Respected and Manifested
In the last two centuries "modular" design has produced identical apartments, arranged in typical apartment blocks. The same is true for mass-produced furniture. Uniqueness, which expresses personal needs and whiches, and which springs from the need to adapt and connect ...
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Emergence of Geometric Order in Building Structure
Focusing primarily on the pure beauty of the geometric order, which comes, above all, from the building structure (columns, walls, beams, vaults and so forth), specifically from the aperiodic grids which form the abstract underpinning of the building structure.
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Color and Inner Light: The Eleven Color Properties
Christopher Alexander postulated that centers and the field of centers they create are the building blocks from which wholeness is made. However, he further argued that geometry alone is not sufficient, and that color is the way wholeness comes to ...
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Ornament and Function as Products of Unfolding
Ornament arises as part of the design process, when a person is making and seeks to embellish this "something" while making it. It arises as a result of the latent centers in the uncompleted thing requiring still more centers, requiring ...
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Unfolding of Wholeness in Large Buildings by Successive Transformations of the Space
Large building are not easy to design and keep the feeling of intimay in them. The way a large building can be given this quality is by succeeding in the creation of living centers throughout its fabric. The profusion and ...
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Strong Centers in all Levels of Scale
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 ...
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A New Approach to Design and Construction Management
A new kind of design/construction/management process, especially for large projects, is required, which will allow the building to be conceived, designed and built so that it comes to life. Below are the ground rules of such a process, already tried ...
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Innovative Construction Systems, Techniques and Materials
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, ...
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Participation of the Users in the Design Process - Testing and Applying Pattern Languages and Layout Rules
Christopher Alexander believed that people have a right to determine and shape their environment. The genuine and wholehearted involvement of the users in the shaping of their buildings contributes positively to good architecture. It gives life, identity and personal qualities ...
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Dynamics of a Growing Neighborhood - Rules and Patterns for Laying out a Neighborhood
Neighborhoods and communities grow and change over time, and the effect of time on the process of its adaptation on real needs is huge, and leads to types and styles of order quite different from any planned arrangement, based on ...
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Sketches of a New Architecture; only in the form of manuscripts. It was reconfigured as Book Three of "The Nature of Order"
The manuscripts of “Sketches of a New Architecture” present a timeline of Christopher Alexander’s works between 1961 and 1994, highlighting his main theoretical breakthroughs in parallel with the building projects, innovations in construction and works of art. “Projects and Essays”, ...
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The Nature of Order - An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe.
Book One - The Phenomenon of Life
2002
“The Phenomenon of Life”, the first volume of “The Nature of Order” series proposes a scientific view of the world in which all space-matter has perceptible degrees of life and sets this understanding of order as an intellectual basis for ...
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The Nature of Order - An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe.
Book Two - The Process of Creating Life
2002
“The Process of Creating Life”, the second volume of “The Nature of Order” series presents a dynamic theory of living structure. It begins with an analysis of transformations, which occur in nature, and the distinction between structure-preserving transformations, responsible for ...
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The Nature of Order - An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe.
Book Four - The Luminous Ground
2004
“The Luminous Ground” is the fourth and last volume of “The Nature of Order” series. In this volume, Alexander attempts to show the cosmological underpinning of the nature of order. The book has two goals. First, to show that the ...
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Etna Street Cottage
1974
Etna Street, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1974Experimental building project, two-story 400 sq. ft. cottage, with a hollow wooden structure filled with concrete and featherweight concrete vaults. Completed in ten weeks, without a building permit at the back of the C.E.S. office on Etna Street, and was ...
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Low Cost Houses for Mexicali
1975 to
1977
Mexicali, Baja California, MexicoLow Cost Housing, Realized , Construction completed in 1977A cluster of houses for large families, with a builders yard, built by the families themselves with the help of students from the Universidad Autonoma of Mexico, and a team of builders from the Center for Environmental Structure. Each house ...
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House
1977 to
1984
4207 Arthur Road, 94553, Martinez, CA, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1984The second building completed on the Martinez site, was a 2,000 square feet house. A gunite all-concrete building as well, it was the first sizable and fully functional project in which C.E.S. used gunite, while applying all permit and specification ...
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Moshav Shorashim New Settlement - Master Plan, Clusters of Houses and Public Buildings
1977 to
1983
Galilee, IsraelMaster Planning, Residential, Realized , Construction completed in Jul-1983Master Plan for a new settlement for Jewish immigrants with the social structure of a community, where land and work profits are owned collectively, but still each family has its own house. Unlike other master plans, it describes the life, the ...
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Linz Café
1980
Linz , AustriaCommercial, Realized , Construction completed in Jul-1980Built as part of the international exposition "Forum Design" and designed to be "portable". Wooden building overlooking the Danube, with the first floor of the building raised to clear the ten-foot-high river embarkment. Yellow and red exterior, three stories, 2,300 ...
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House for John and Mara Lighty
1981 to
1989
2675 Harness Drive, Berryessa Estates, Pope Valley, Napa County, CA, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in Aug-1989Terraced house built for a couple; the house consists of six building volumes, gracefully positioned on a wooded slope among white oak trees, and includes the living room - kitchen volume, the studio volume, the bedroom - library volume, a ...
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Housing Plan for Guasare New Town
1981 to
1983
Guasare, Maracaibo, VenezuelaNeighborhood Planning, Designed , Completed in May-1983The project focused on the housing component of the master plan for the new town of Guasare, in the state of Maracaibo, Venezuela, planned to accomodate several thousand workers. The design of its neighborhoods, each one for about 250 families, ...
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Sala House
1981 to
1983
700 Hillside, 94706, Albany, CA, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in Jun-1983Three-story tower, 20 feet by 20 feet in plan on each floor, on a wooded, sloping site. The interior structure of the house is wood post and beam with pine panelling and hand-painted surfaces, and the exterior is a red ...
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Sapporo Apartment Building
1981 to
1982
Minami-7-joh, Nish-2-chome, Chuo-Ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, JapanResidential, Designed , Not builtTen-story apartment building, with forty-five one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments, with shops and offices on the first three floors. The building, of concrete-encased steel, was to be built over an existing clinic. The structural frame consists of twenty enormous columns ran all ...
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Eishin Campus - High School and College Complex
1982 to
1987
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , The first largest part was completed in 1985, the second part in 1988, and one more building was added in 1995The project was envisioned to be a new combined High School and College Complex for the Eishin Gakuen Foundation, in Saitama prefecture, outside Tokyo, and was designed as such. The campus was to be the working environment of a population ...
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Eishin Campus - High School
1982 to
1995
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , The first largest part was completed in 1985, the second part in 1988, and one more building was added in 1995The High School is the part of the Eishin Campus that was constructed, with a total construction area of 12,000 square meters. It is a complex of thirty-five buildings, with pedestrian colonnaded streets, gates and gardens, and a lake with ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: Central Hall
1982 to
1985
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , Construction completed in 1985The Central Hall is located at the end of the homebase street. Α student gathering area with four-foot-thick concrete base walls and arched openings, with built-in benches, which double as entrances to the building. Arches and seats form alcoves, and ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: Great Hall - Auditorium
1982 to
1986
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , Construction completed in May-1986A large ceremonial building located at the main square and forming one edge of the lake. The main bridge that crosses the lake starts next to its massive podium. Its floor area is 14,000 square feet and has a three-story ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: Music School
1982 to
1985
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , Construction completed in 1985A small one-story building attached to the Great Hall, with its entrace set back from the main square. Its back side forms part of the lake edge.
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Eishin Campus - High School: Gymnasium
1982 to
1985
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , Construction completed in 1985The Gymnasium is a large, 11,340 square feet, wooden building, surrounded by the water of the lake and accessed through a bridge. The walls covered with black plaster, and the dark red metal roof give its exterior identity, and wood ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: Judo Hall
1982 to
1985
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , Construction completed in 1985The Judo Hall was initially part of the College Complex, located at the edge of the south ridge. It is a wooden building, with a floor area of 3,000 square feet, 80 feet long, 30 feet high, used for judo ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: Campus Pedestrian Streets Network
1986 to
1989
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , Construction completed in 1989The Eishin Campus pedestrian network includes a main square connected to the homebase wide street, narrow streets, arcaded alleys, paths and courtyards, fences, gates and terraces. It starts with a small square in front of the small gate, continues with ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: Campus Gardens and Landscape
1986 to
1989
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , Construction completed in 1989The 62-hectare Campus site is mostly covered by green areas and is organized with gardens, sport fields, trees, a grove, a lawn, and a large number of tea bushes in strategic positions, preserved as found on the site. A lake ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: College Buildings D and E
1982 to
1987
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , Construction completed in Jun-1987The two college buildings on the north side of the College Complex were incorporated into the High School; they are located to the right and left of the Central Hall, flanked by the Arts and Science buildings. Each two-storey college ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: Single Homebase Buildings
1982 to
1985
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , Construction completed in 1985The Homebase Buildings form the homebase street. They are two-story masonry buildings with pitched tiled roofs and concrete ornamental wall friezes. Each one has its own garden, with a stair leading to the second floor classrom. There are five such ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: Double Homebase Buildings
1982 to
1985
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , Construction completed in 1985The Homebase Buildings form the homebase street. They are two-story masonry buildings with pitched tiled roofs and concrete ornamental wall friezes. Each one has its own garden, with a stair leading to the second floor classrom. There are two double ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: Administration Building
1982 to
1985
Nihongi 112-1, Iruma-shi, Saitama Prefecture, JapanEducational, Realized , Construction completed in 1985The administration building is located on the main suare, opposite from the Great Hall. It is a masonry building with an intricate ornamental lattice-like pattern on its second floor exterior wall. Within its 5,430 square feet floor area, it includes ...
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Farmers' Market
1982 to
1985
North Blackstone Avenue and West Shaw Avenue, Fresno, CA, U.S.A.Commercial, Realized , Construction completed in 1985A trellised structure to form the main spine for the weekly Farmer's open air market in Fresno, with 6,000 square foot floor area. Redwood arched trusses, on concrete block piers, 120 feet long, and 40 feet wide. Floor of grey ...
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Fresno Market
1983 to
1984
Fresno, CA, U.S.A.Commercial, Designed , Not built12-acre site, intended for a place for community and vivid life with commercial buildings that were to be built around the trellised structure of the Farmer's Market.
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Fort Mason Bench
1984
Marina District, San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.Other, Realized , Construction completed in Jun-1984A three-tiered masonry public bench and centerpiece, on the Fort Mason pier, overlooking Alcatraz Island. It was built within three weeks as part of the "Spirit in Design" workshop, beginning on 24-Mar-1984 following an announcement in "CoEvolution Quarterly". The main intent ...
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Two Swimming Pools and House Extension
1984 to
1985
Sonoma, CA, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in Nov-1985Hot tub and cold tub hand-worked in yellow, green and white terrazzo, surrounded by a marble decked outdoor room with seats. Trellised walk, stairs and decking through the house gardens leading to the spa area.
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House for Ann Medlock and John Graham
1985 to
1988
Whidbey Island, Seattle, WA, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1988All wood 3,000 square feet house, with extended landscaping, gardens and driveways. Its exterior is heavy timber and cedar paneling. All interior structures with built-in furnishings, walls, floors, ceilings, lighting, cabinets, desks, chairs, tables, were custom fitted to user layout ...
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Offices and Workshops for Sweet Potatoes Children's Clothing Factory
1985 to
1986
1509A San Pablo Avenue, 94702, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.Offices & Workshops, Office Furniture, Realized , Construction completed in Apr-19862,300 square feet of interior office space for the management and administrative staff for "Sweet Potatoes" clothing factory to accommodate two partners and eleven employees. All interior furnishings, walls, floors, ceilings, lighting, built-in cabinets, desks, storage, chairs, tables, custom fitted ...
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Neighborhood of Seventy Low Cost Houses
1986 to
1991
Santa Rosa de Cabal, Risaralda, ColombiaLow Cost Housing, Realized , Construction completed in 1993; C.E.S. involvement ended in 1991Seventy low-cost houses in 4,2 acres, designed by families, and partially built by families, as part of the self help construction process of Construyamos, the largest self help cooperative in Colombia, with a total construction volume of 50,000 houses per ...
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Emoto Apartment Building
1986 to
1989
Tokyo, JapanResidential, Realized , Construction completed in 1989An apartment building laid out to enhance the two streets of the Komagone neighborhood, not far from downtown Tokyo. The site is surrounded with large buildings, and a local neighborhood behind, with lower buildings and much narrower streets. It is ...
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Julian Street Inn - Shelter for the Homeless
1986 to
1990
Julian St. & Montgomery St., San Jose, CA, U.S.A.Civic, Realized , Construction completed in 1989; final interior painting in 1990Design and construction of a shelter for homeless people, to serve 50 to 100 people, on a site of 13,000 sf. The building of 15,000 square feet includes offices, living areas with a dining hall, sleeping rooms, courtyards and gardens. ...
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Civic Center & Town Hall for Mountain View
1986
Mountain View, CA, U.S.A.Civic, Designed , Invited Competition, Not builtInvited design competition entry. One of five invited entries and winner of first round selection process. The project with 100,000 square feet of total area of construction included: a) the new City Hall building 65,000 sq.ft.; b) Community Theater with ...
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The Personal Workplace - New System of Office Furniture
1988 to
1990
Zeeland, MI, U.S.A.Office Furniture, Designed , Two personal offices with furniture prototypes built by C.E.S.Herman Miller, the second largest manufacturer of office furniture in the United States, commissioned C.E.S. to develop the "personal workplace", a new system of furniture, which aimed at changing the nature of the American workplace completely. The emphasis was on ...
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Nyingma Buddhist Monastery
1988 to
1989
Kathmandu, NepalCivic, Designed , Not builtTibetan Buddist Study Center, a monastic and educational facility for 300 monks, at the outskirts of Kathmandu, to be built by the monks themselves using 70% self help and 30% professional labor. Approximate area of construction 122,000 square feet, ...
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Plan and Process for Self-help Housing
1988 to
1991
Washington, D.C., U.S.A.Low Cost Housing, Designed , Completed in 1991Innovative process, introducing a system of user participation for the production of affordable single family housing for ownership, as a basis for improving quality of life. This program was intended to bring the insights and successes of various C.E.S. overseas ...
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Tokyo International Forum: Conference Center for City of Tokyo
1989
3-5-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, JapanCivic, Designed , Invited Competition, Not builtInvited design competition entry for a complex of conference halls, auditoria, exhibition halls, and other public facilities at a central site in downtown Tokyo, occupied by the City Hall, which was to be razed to make way for this project. ...
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House for Chris Upham and Stephanie Upham
1989 to
1994
37 Poppy Lane, Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1994Two-story family house, with 2,400 square feet floor area, designed with the participation of the clients. The construction of a massive 15 high foot high retaining wall and sewer reconstruction caused by unusual hill condition added $96,000 to the house ...
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Agate Street Married Student Housing
1990 to
1993
Agate Street, Eugene, OR, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1993Student Housing including four buildings with twenty apartments for married student families; first phase of construction of the Amazon Plan.
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Shiratori Plan - Low-Rise High-Density Housing
1990 to
1991
Nagoya, JapanNeighborhood Planning, Designed , Not builtThe Shiratori Plan in Nagoya asked for an integrated neighborhood for 550 families at an overall density of 80 families per acre, on a 6.24 acres site, with an average area of 72 square meters per unit and total area ...
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Sullivan House
1990 to
1994
Berkeley, CA, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1996House reconstruction design and construction management. Concrete, redwood, fruitwood, plaster, terrazzo tiled floors and hand made metal detailed interiors.
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Exhibition Galleries: Ancient Color and Geometry, De Young Museum
1990
San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.Other, Realized , Construction completed in Oct-1990Four gallery reconstruction and installation in the De Young Museum, San Francisco, including interior construction, color, lighting, and installation and hanging of the carpets.
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Student Housing for the University of Oregon
1991 to
1992
Eugene, OR, U.S.A.Master Planning, Educational, Residential, Designed , Not builtMaster plan for 300 units of low-budget student housing on the campus of the University of Oregon -- called the Amazon Plan, to be developed on a 7.5 acres of flat land by replacing 243 existing units. The project basic ...
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Mary Rose Museum
1991 to
1993
Portsmouth, Hampshire, U.K.Civic, Designed , Not builtMuseum for Henry VIII's ship, sank in 1547, raised in 1982, and then preserved in a dry dock next to HMS Victory. The museum, with an area of construction of about 8,000 square meters, was to be built over dry ...
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New Ryde Community
1991 to
1993
New Ryde, CA, U.S.A.Development Plan, Designed , Not builtLocated outside of Sacramento, California, in the Delta region, this community was intended to be an integrated development of affordable, middle-income residential and commercial buildings and public spaces, focused on creating a sense of community and cohesion.
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New City Center for Samarkand
1993
Samarkand, UzbekistanCivic, Designed , Design Competition, Not builtAga Kahn design competition for the new cultural center for the ancient city of Samarkand; the competition called for the reconstruction of a central city area about 1000 meters by 500 meters, which was to contain a great variety of ...
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Plan for Chikusadai - Low-Rise High-Density Housing
1992
Hazama & Kusunoki areas, Nagoya, JapanNeighborhood Planning, Designed , Not builtHigh-density and low-rise housing for 800 families, in the Hazama and Kusunoki areas of Nagoya.
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Neighborhood of Five Houses
1992 to
1995
Lake Travis, Austin, TX, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1995Cluster of five houses with common land and communal structures, located on Lake Travis, outside Austin, Texas; only three out of the initial five houses were built. The three house designs were made in close consultation with each family, which ...
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Neighborhood of Five Houses: Gioja House
1992 to
1996
Lake Travis, Austin, TX, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1995Design and construction of a family house for Geoffrey and Linda Gioja, with an area of 2.100 square feet.
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Neighborhood of Five Houses: Heisey House
1992 to
1996
Lake Travis, Austin, TX, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1995Design and construction of a family house for Jim and Sylvia Heisey, with an area of 2.000 square feet.
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Neighborhood of Five Houses: Goddu House
1992 to
1996
Lake Travis, Austin, TX, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1995Design and construction of a family house for Mike and Patricia Goddu, with an area of 2.500 square feet.
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West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center
1994 to
1996
Near Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.Civic, Realized , Construction completed in Nov. 1995The West Dean Center is a simple one-story masonry building with a large red-tiled roof and intricate brickwork for its thick walls. The building is surrounded by gardens, and its south facing wall has large arched windows overlooking the garden ...
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Frankfurt Parkstadt Housing Project
1995 to
1996
Hoechst, Frankfurt, GermanyResidential, Designed , Not builtThe Frankfurt Parkstadt Unterliederbach project included the development of a new urban neighborhood in a landscaped setting, for Hoechst Pharmaceutical in Frankfurt West, close to the international airport and the river Main, a housing project both for Hoechst employees and ...
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Reconstruction of an Urban Neighborhood
1996
Progresso, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, U.S.A.Neighborhood Planning, Designed , Completed in 1996Plan for the rejuvenation of the Flagler Heights/Progresso community, an urban neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, a congested slum-like, unprepossessing and disordered quite large area of the city, about half a mile by three-quartes of a mile. The project proposal ...
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George House
1997 to
1998
Pleasant Hill, CA, U.S.A.Residential, Realized , Construction completed in 1998House and cottage with large outdoor terraces with custom concrete walls.
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Church of the Holy Trinity
1997
London, England, U.K.Civic, ProposalProposal for the design of the Church of the Holy Trinity, on the South bank of the Thames, between the railroad tracksleading out from Victoria Station and Chelsea Bridge. The church was to capable of holding 500 people, and capable ...
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San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge
1999
San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.Civic, Designed , Not builtNew east span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Design is based on a system of prefabricated, precast, thin concrete shell elements.
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Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House
2001
Athens, GreeceCivic, Designed , Not builtIn 2002 Megaron Mousikis Athinon was the largest Concert Hall in Athens and was in the process of being extended further by a vast extension, including underground opera house, conference center, library and so on. Christopher Alexander was approached by ...
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Tile with white slips on black glaze
1980
Personal Work of Art, Hand-glazed TileworkPorcelain tile glazed in black with white slips; made at the same tile with the Linz café and resembles the painting on its interior walls.
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Black and white terrazzo floor
1981
Personal Work of Art, Terrazzo WorkThe first experiment for a marble-dust floor that Christopher Alexander had conducted.
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Painted wooden carved dolls
1984
Personal Work of Art, WoodworkingFour hand-carved dolls painted in gouache.
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Tile with dark bluish glaze and green eyes
1984
Personal Work of Art, Hand-glazed TileworkOrnamental repeating tiles from Christopher Alexander's workshop; ceramic paint on white porcelain tile.
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Blue carved horse with yellow stars
1985
Personal Work of Art, WoodworkingHand-carved horse painted in gouache.
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Watercolor sketches for the projects related with "The Personal Workplace - New System of Office Furniture": Six full page watercolor sketches from Christopher Alexander's notebook, conveying the form and feeling of personal workplaces
1985
Personal Work of Art, PaintingThe watercolor sketches by Christopher Alexander were inspired by the sought after qualities for the "Sweet Potatoes" project and then set a milestone for the feeiling of spaces to be achieved in the projects for a "New System of Office ...
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Color sketch for the marble terrazzo pools project
1985
Personal Work of Art, PaintingWatercolor sketch by Christopher Alexander, on real size, depicting his work for finding colors and pattern to be used in the construction of the marble terrazzo pools.
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Painting of the main courtyard for the "Mountain View Civic Center" competition entry
1986
Personal Work of Art, PaintingPen, ink and gouache final painting for the main interior courtyard of the Mountain View Civic Center, prepared for the invited design competition. The dominant feature of the painting is the frieze of the blue ceramic bas-relief horses around the ...
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Tile panel with green and red Seljuk pattern
1986
Personal Work of Art, Hand-glazed TileworkGreen and red Seljuk pattern tiles, on a 2' X 3' panel, hand-painted and hand-glazed in the Martinez office workshop; ceramic paint on white porcelain tile.
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Tile panel with green, red, yellow and blue star pattern
1986
Personal Work of Art, Hand-glazed TileworkTile panel with green, red, yellow and blue star pattern tiles, hand-painted and hand-glazed in the Martinez office workshop; ceramic paint on white porcelain tile.
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The Living Room, painting
1990
Personal Work of Art, PaintingOil painting on board, 38cm x 55cm.
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Repeating tiles with white flowers
1990
Personal Work of Art, Hand-glazed TileworkHand-painted and hand-glazed repeating tiles with white flowers on dark bluish background; ceramic paint on white porcelain tile.
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The Green Bird, painting
1991
Personal Work of Art, PaintingOil painting on wooden panel.
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Caribbean Light, painting
1992
Personal Work of Art, PaintingOil painting on board.
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The Blue Cupboard, painting
1993
Personal Work of Art, PaintingOil painting on wooden panel, 45"x65".
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Series of drinking glasses for Dutch Glassworks
1997
Personal Work of Art, GlassworkSeries of drinking glasses commissioned by Stichting Glasmanifestatie at Leerdam in The Netherlands in 1996, following an international glass event focused on the drinking glass.
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Bavra Village School: Domed vault made from layers of cone-tile stacked to form arches, and laid together to form a spherical vault
1962
Construction System, Vaulted Roof & CeilingFabrication of roof truncated cylindrical tiles and development of the vaulted roof ribs for the construction of the school roof. The guna-type roof ribs are made by cone-shaped tiles, each one about a foot long and 4" to 5" ...
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Etna Street Cottage: Basket vault with layers of ultra-lightweight concrete laid over burlap
1974
Construction System, Vaulted Roof & CeilingConstruction 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 ...
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Etna Street Cottage: Hollow wooden structure filled with lightweigth concrete
1974
Construction System, Timber FrameworkFlexible 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.
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Etna Street Cottage: Ornament in door frame
1974
Work of Art for Project, OrnamentS's cut with jig-saw after being drawn on one-inch planks; then filled with plaster.
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Low Cost Houses for Mexicali: Production of earth-cement interlocking blocks
1975
Construction System, Cement Interlocking BlocksProduction of earth-cement blocks in the builder's yard, vibrated and compressed in a block-making machine, and fabricated on the basis of specially designed and made steel molds for four different shapes of blocks; cylindrical blocks for free standing columns, corner ...
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Low Cost Houses for Mexicali: Step-by-step construction process using cement interlocking block for foundation and walls and light-weight concrete for vaults
1976
Construction System, Cement Interlocking Blocks, Vaulted Roof & CeilingTwentry three building operations, as an example of a step-by-step construction process, capable of allowing mass production of large number of houses which are all different without increasing costs. These operations are so defined that can be applied to each ...
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Low Cost Houses for Mexicali: Basket vault with pumice concrete laid over burlap and chicken-wire
1976
Construction System, Vaulted Roof & CeilingConstruction 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.
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Construction Yard: Experiments in spayed concrete
1977
Construction System, Sprayed Concrete, Sloped Roof & Vaulted CeilingSpayed concrete experiments and mockups, conducted with graduate students at the University of California, Berkeley, as a special study course. The mockups included the construction of vaults, walls, columns, floors, beams, arches, in sprayed concrete over steel armature .
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Outdoor walls and seat with balustrade in arches
1979
Construction System, Sprayed ConcreteThe seat with its balustrade, built next to the tile workshop in Martinez, were built solely with sprayed concrete. Styrofoam or polysterene cut-outs to shape were used and placed against a backing of sheetrock, providing an ultra-low-cost formwork. Then concrete ...
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Martinez Tile Glazing Workshop: The first experimental all-gunite concrete building, with vaulted ceiling and pitched roof
1979
Construction System, Sprayed Concrete, Sloped Roof & Vaulted CeilingBarrel vault ceiling and pitched roof, both made by using the gunite technique, constructed in six basic steps: 1) Fabrication of a full scale mockup of a section of the ceiling formwork, out of metal and plywood; 2) Construction of ...
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Construction experiment of octagonal freestanding concrete columns, with low-cost formwork, shot in gunite
1979
Construction System, Sprayed ConcreteConstruction technique for concrete columns, with base, capital and an elegant flare where the shaft meets the base, shot in gunite into a low-cost open form. The corners of the column shaft, with a flare where it meets the base, ...
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Martinez Tile Glazing Workshop: The first experimental all-gunite concrete building - construction of columns and beams
1979
Construction System, Sprayed ConcreteWalls, columns, vaults, beams, ceilings, all made by gunite shot on a light weight and low cost guidework of lightweight wooden frame. Gunite is a high-strength concrete made of sharp sand and concrete, carried in air under high pressure, shot ...
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Linz Café: Hand-painted walls with flowers as ornament
1980
Work of Art for Project, Hand-painted InteriorExterior walls painted yellow with some white and a touch of orange to light the orange of the canopy; hand-painted interior walls in green, apricot, yellow, red and green, with ornamental frieze and white flowers on the walls painted by ...
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Gunite all-concrete building
1980
Construction System, Sprayed ConcreteWalls, columns, beams, ceilings, all made by gunite shot on a light weight and low cost guidework of lightweight wooden frame. Gunite is a high-strength concrete made of sharp sand and concrete, carried in air under high pressure, shot dry ...
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Berryessa Terraced House: Wooden post and beam, load bearing structural frame combined with sprayed concrete exterior walls
1981
Construction System, Combination of Timber Framework and ConcreteTimber frame and concrete combination system: the vertical loads are taken by the interior post and beam system system, where columns and beams are simply pinned together by invinsible steel pins. All shear forces are taken by a one and ...
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Fireplace
1981
Work of Art for Project, All Concrete FireplaceCount Rumford all concrete fireplace, has a flat and broad fire chamber, a very wide opening and a curved fire back; the flatness results form the exceptionally narrow hearth, which is the cause for the high heat effectiveness.
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Wooden plank roof construction details
1981
Building Detail, Roof & EaveThe "Russian" type plank roof consists of two layers of long boards running from ridge to eave, with two grooves milled in each board; before being built on the house, its construction method and detailing was tried on the small ...
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Sala House: Ornaments on the east and south facing walls of the house
1982
Work of Art for Project, OrnamentWhite precast concrete ornaments embedded in the rose colored concrete walls; secured on the formwork during the concrete pouring. A series of small ornaments spaced in equal intervals in the rose perimeter concrete band running on top of the windows; ...
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Sala House: Concrete bracket and its formwork
1982
Building Detail, Low-cost FormworkLow-cost formwork for concrete brackets to support a bay window, made by attaching to the concrete formwork styrofoam fillers with the negative shape of the bracket.
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Sala House: Wooden post and beam, load bearing structural frame combined with red and grey cast concrete exterior walls
1982
Construction System, Combination of Timber Framework and ConcreteTimber frame and concrete combination system: the vertical loads are taken by the interior post-and-beam system system, where columns and beams are simply pinned together by invinsible steel pins. All shear forces are taken by a one and a half ...
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Sala House: Wooden post and beam, load bearing structural frame combined with red and grey cast concrete exterior walls
1982
Construction System, Combination of Timber Framework and ConcreteTimber frame out of 6"x6" douglas fir columns and beams for vertical loads only, which require pin connections only with 1/2'' rebars; wood corbels cut from six-by-six stock also enable beam to post connections with 1" bolts. The framework exposes ...
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Sapporo Apartment Building: Structural order in the concrete-encased steel load bearing structure
1982
Construction System, Steel StructureThis innovative structural scheme arose from the careful unfolding of the design with respect to user requirements, the impact of surrounding buildings, coupled with the fact that there was an untouchable small clinic on the site which had to be ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: Great Hall with massive columns and rather small space between them.
1983
Construction System, Reinforced ConcreteThe size and spacing of the columns in the Great Hall was determined primarily by working out the solid-void relationship, which was done in a 1:20 scale model of the building. The space between the columns came to play an ...
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Ornamental concrete layers on the exterior wall envelope
1983
Work of Art for Project, OrnamentOrnamental concrete layers, both vertical and horizontal, painted white, in contrast to the blue of the wall large surfaces. The vertical concrete layers were incorporated in the formwork of columns and shear walls, while the horizontal concrete layers were shot ...
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Interior beams, columns, column capitals and ceiling patterns
1983
Construction System, Sprayed ConcreteShaping building elements by shooting gunite into lightweigh open formwork; styrofoam fillers on a plywood form were used for details and ornaments.
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Sala House: Hand-painted children's bedroom alcoves
1983
Work of Art for Project, Hand-painted InteriorThe painting of the children's room with two bed alcoves, involved both Christopher Alexander and Andre Sala; it started with discussions about color between the two and continued with testing bits of cardboard painted and pinned up in the walls. ...
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Sala House: Concrete balustrade and its formwork
1983
Building Detail, Low-cost FormworkRose colored concrete balustrade made by pouring concrete into a low-budget assembly of two sheets of sheetrock, braced, and with hand-cut styrofoam fillers shaped to the form of the void in-between.
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Eishin Campus - High School: Dining Hall heavy timber structure with moment resisting frames
1984
Construction System, Heavy Timber Load Bearing StructureDining Hall wooden structure with moment resisting frames due to unusually large windows.
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Eishin Campus - High School: Central Hall exterior wall X-truss, connected to the interior roof truss
1984
Construction System, Heavy Timber Load Bearing StructureLongitudinal X-truss on the long direction exterior wall of the building below the roof, connected to the interior curved truss of the building with moment connections. .
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Eishin Campus - High School: Judo Hall heavy timber stepped truss
1984
Construction System, Heavy Timber Load Bearing StructureJudo Hall trusses stepped in form, following the line of a stepped flat ceiling.
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Eishin Campus - High School: Central Hall heavy timber truss with curved members
1984
Construction System, Heavy Timber Load Bearing StructureDouglas fir horse-shoe-shaped truss, a pure compression truss, with no interior bracing, but with a longitudinal exterior X-truss. The truss is connected to the massive concrete piers at the base with moment connections.
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Eishin Campus - High School: Gymnasium heavy timber hammerbeam trusses
1984
Construction System, Heavy Timber Load Bearing StructureGymnasium hammerbeam roof trusses, spanning 53 feet, with mortise and tenon connection details, and specially fabricated steel connections for joints.
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Eishin Campus - High School: Gymnasium window shaping and details
1984
Building Detail, Window ShapingA row of unsual shaped windows, creating positive space in alternation with the beautifully shaped wall segments, and coherent individual centers, small and large.
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Fresno Farmers' Market: Ornamental concrete tiles
1984
Work of Art for Project, Concrete Tilework6.000-square-foot ornamental concrete slab with special hand made fish-tail tiles. Each tile is about 15 inches long and 6 inches wide, in thin dense concrete about 1/2 inch thick. made by precasting 1/2" thick light blue fishtail tiles, cast on ...
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Fresno Farmers' Market: Redwood arched roof trusses
1984
Construction System, Heavy Timber Load Bearing StructureFresno Farmer's market redwood arched roof trusses with concrete columns. The timber arched trusses were prefabricated in the C.E.S. warehouse near Berkeley, about 200 miles from the site, then moved to the building site and raised and fixed to get ...
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Blue and white color for exterior walls
1984
Work of Art for Project, Hand-painted ExeriorChristopher Alexander started to work on the color of the building from the early stages of its construction, when the concrete formwork was completed. He started mixing and testing different blues on the Martinez site to get the right wall ...
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Terrazzo floor with squares, diamonds and crosses
1984
Work of Art for Project, Terrazzo WorkRed, yellow and blue polished terrazzo floor with squares, diamonds and crosses made on a 400 sq. ft of a living room; with styrofoam lost form technique.
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Fort Mason Bench: Ornamental terrazzo panels
1984
Work of Art for Project, Terrazzo WorkHand-made ornamental terrazzo panels with animal figures on the vertical surfaces of an outdoor bench.
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Eishin Campus - High School: Great Hall interior colored plasterwork
1985
Work of Art for Project, Hand-painted InteriorBlack, red, grey, purple and pale green interior plasterwork to cover 40.000 sq. ft of hand etched plasterwork for columns and beams, screen, walls and ceilings for the interior of the Great Hall.
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Eishin Campus - High School: Central Hall massive concrete piers
1985
Construction System, Heavy Timber Load Bearing Structure, Reinforced ConcrteFour-feet thick concrete base walls with arched openings create an alternating repetition between massive piers and deep openings, with positive space and good shape both on the piers and the arches. Arches and seats form alcoves, and the piers support ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: Ornamental wall frieze for the homeroom buildings
1985
Work of Art for Project, OrnamentCast concrete ornaments on the wall frieze of the Homeroom buildings.
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Eishin Campus - High School: Roof eave detail for the homeroom buildings
1985
Building Detail, Roof & EaveHeavy concrete cornice on the Homeroom buildings, when roof meets wall.
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Eishin Campus - High School: Gymnasium black shikkui plastered walls and roof detail
1985
Building Detail, Plasterwork, Roof & EaveGymnasium black shikkui plastered exterior walls, unusual shaped windows, roof eave and orange-painted steel bracket plates holding the roof rafters.
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Haworth New Office Furniture System: Upright desk / Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Executive desk
1985
Work of Art for Project, Office Furniture PrototypeRed automobile laquer sprayed over MDF to create high gloss surfaces for the desk frame and its upstand with shelves and pigeonholes, combined with a brown leather slightly sloping writing surface; available in prescribed colors in three sizes. Furniture prototype ...
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Haworth New Office Furniture System: Rolling Cabinet with Drawers
1985
Work of Art for Project, Office Furniture PrototypeRolling cabinet made of black lucite and heavy brass castors. Furniture prototype incorporated in the Center for Environmental Structure office.
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Haworth New Office Furniture System: Floor pattenrs / Sweet Potatoes Offices and Workshops: Floor pattenrs
1985
Work of Art for Project, Office Space Element, OrnamentFloor constructed of varnished pine blocks in a variety of patterns. Two different paterns were initially built for the Sweet Potatoes floors, and then developed as an office space element for the Haworth New Office Furniture System, with ornamental qualities.
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Martinez Heavy Timber Carpentry Workshop: Heavy timber load bearing frames and trusses
1985
Construction System, Heavy Timber Load Bearing StructureHeavy Timber Loading Bearing Frames and Trusses; 12"x12" columns and 8"x14" beams and trusses; all wood.
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Martinez Heavy Timber Carpentry Workshop: Heavy timber construction details
1985
Construction System, Heavy Timber Load Bearing StructureConcrete column base and timber column connection; timber capital where column, beam and braces meet and other timber connection details.
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Hot spa with marble terrazzo pools
1985
Work of Art for Project, Terrazzo WorkHand worked marble terrazzo pools, in yellow, green and white.
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Experiments and mock-ups for low-cost heavy timber house of 80 m2
1986
Construction System, Heavy Timber Load Bearing StructureExploring the possibilities for developing a cost-effective and sustainable heavy timber construction system, using a three-dimensional truss for the construction of the whole house.
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Eishin Campus - High School: College Buildings classroom window shaping
1984
Building Detail, Window ShapingWindows in the largest classrooms of the College Buildings, with harmonious internal organization in panes and glazing bars. Full-size mockups with various soft materials were developed until shapes and sizes worked harmoniously.
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Martinez Heavy Timber Carpentry Workshop: Giant white star
1986
Work of Art for Project, OrnamentGiant white star on the exterior wall of the carpentry workshop made of enamel painted wood.
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Pasadena Waldorf School: Plastered concrete on column for the application of ornament
1986
Work of Art for Project, OrnamentSketch model for the Waldorf Kindergarten Project, with "ropy" spiral columns to be made in plastered concrete .
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Pasadena Waldorf School: Blue archaic bird
1986
Work of Art for Project, OrnamentShaped tile fragments hand-molded out of clay and glazed, set into red plaster, for insert into wall panel.
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Berryessa Terraced House: Hand-painted exterior walls of entrance
1987
Work of Art for Project, Hand-painted ExeriorHand-painted entrance walls in light purplish blue, light blue and white door.
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Julian Street Inn - Shelter for the Homeless: Exterior wall made of repetitive recessed bays framed by massive columns
1987
Building Detail, Wall TreatmentA long wall along the main street; the first floor wall is organized as an alternating repetition of cast concrete columns and plain recessed wall bays, all on a thick wall base, in contrast with the second floor wall, all ...
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Julian Street Inn - Shelter for the Homeless: Column capitals with ornamental details
1987
Work of Art for Project, OrnamentHand-made cast-concrete column capitals with ornamental details, his mouth being the water flow hole.
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Potash-McCabe House: Hand-painted farm-house kitchen
1987
Work of Art for Project, Hand-painted InteriorHand-painted walls and built-in furniture in pale sea green, light transparent yellow, pale blackish red, very pale blue, and light yellowish green. Varnished gouache applied on wood surfaces prepared with gesso.
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Second Sala House: Concrete floor with leopard inserts
1987
Work of Art for Project, OrnamentRed concrete floor with yellow ceramic leopard inserts for the interior of second Sala House.
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Second Sala House: Leopard molds
1987
Work of Art for Project, OrnamentYellow painted wooden molds for the manufacturing of the clay leopards to be used as inserts in the colored concrete floor.
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Herman Miller New Office Furniture System: Wall lights & reflectors
1988
Work of Art for Project, Office Furniture PrototypeSystem of wall lights placed at the wall-celing interface, to form a lighting cornice. The wall lights are supplied with computerized colored reflecting surfaces, that can be installed either below or above the wall light. Full scale functioning light fixture ...
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Julian Street Inn - Shelter for the Homeless: Courtyard fountain with lion's head
1988
Work of Art for Project, OrnamentCast-concrete lion's head on the back wall of the tiled fountain located in the courtyard of the Julian Street Inn.
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Julian Street Inn - Shelter for the Homeless: Lacework concrete trusses with curved members shot in the air
1988
Construction System, Sprayed ConcreteThe dining hall of Julian street inn is the higher building volume of the complex; the hall, a sigle room, 30 feet wide and 50 feet long, was intended to seat about 100 people. When the shape of the volume ...
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Julian Street Inn - Shelter for the Homeless: Courtyard fountain with hand-painted and hand-glazed tilework
1988
Work of Art for Project, Hand-glazed TileworkTilework with diagonal squared pattern with four-petal flower in interchanging green and salmon, cladding the base wall of the fountain.
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House for Gail Kaiser and Mark Anderton: Choice of color for the house exterior
1990
Work of Art for Project, Hand-painted ExeriorThe choice of the color for the Kaiser house was a long process; the chosen color was a deep intense blue with a touch of green in it.
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Nyingma Buddist Monastery: Compound enclosure wall
1990
Building Detail, Wall TreatmentTen-foot high battered shape perimeter wall, made of bricks with cross reinforcements, plastered with medallion ornaments and colored; built as a full scale mockup ...
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House for Roger and Karuna Hodgson: New kind of wall construction
1991
Construction System, Structural WallMockups for innovative block techniques used the construction of structural walls made of concrete blocks laid out in a way allowing a fine line of marble to be inlaid in a chase.
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Mary Rose Museum: Arched trusses to span the 30-meter wide dry-dock where the ship was to be permanently housed
1991
Construction System, Reinforced ConcreteArched trusses, conceived and design early in the design process along with the foundation design. Deep pile foundationa on either side of the dry dock were designed to carry the arched trussesThe main arches were to be pierced tracery made ...
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Upham House: Wooden stair with complex shape
1991
Building Detail, Stair ShapingStair built in fir and pine board, cut and fitted in situ to complete and fit the complex shape.
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Upham House: The living room fireplace cladded with hand-glazed tiles
1992
Work of Art for Project, Hand-glazed TileworkHand-painted and hand-glazed green tiles with red asterisks used for cladding the fireplace front.
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West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center: Exterior wall with exposed herringbone brick pattern, alternating with exposed concrete bands and grey flint stones
1994
Building Detail, Wall TreatmentThe exposed surface of the perimeter thick wall is made of a combination of red bricks, exposed concrete and flint stones. there are several patterns of alternating repetition, the predominant one being the alteration between concrete bands and the herringbone ...
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West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center: Massive thick structural walls with poured concrete, blocks and bricks
1994
Construction System, Structural WallConstruction of perimeter and transverse structural walls, eighteen inches to two feet thick. The materials used was an integrated poured combination of bricks, concrete, flint, stone and massive blocks and insulation working together as a single structural wall, because of ...
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Back-of-the-Moon Community: Heisey house roof eave detail
1994
Building Detail, Roof & EaveLight rafter and sub-rafter structure for the roof eave. Shaped rafter tails form the roof edge and eave; the eave is more complex and makes a better center by the shape of the tails.
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Back-of-the-Moon Community: Column capital shape and size, built in the porch of the three houses
1994
Building Detail, Column ShapingTimber thick columns and shaped capitals were developed after a series of cardboard mock-ups until size, proportions and shape got right.
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West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center: Stone and tiles floor surface details
1995
Building Detail, HardscapeThe paving combined red color floor tiles in the shape of a fleur de lys against grey stone in different sizes; fitting them together, strong centers were formed. The gutter in the paths, at its edge with the grass, was ...
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West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center: Door and window shaping
1995
Building Detail, Window ShapingThe window shapes in relation to the treatment of surrounding wall formed strong centers. The window itself, beautifully shaped and specially made with curved sash. The window surround, cast concrete; beyond the cast concrete herringbone brickwork. Below the window, emphasizing ...
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Eishin Campus - High School: Club House new form of hollow, composite, wood and plywood columns and beams
1995
Construction System, Monocoque ConstructionConstruction system with structural members which are large, yet light, efficient and structurally sound; it is based on massive hollow beams and columns, about 24" by 24", built out of plywood and small section lumber, with frequent interior collars, thus ...
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Back-of-the-Moon Community: Gioja house window detail
1995
Building Detail, Window ShapingGioja house dining room bay window subdivision and detailing.
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Sullivan House: Blue and white terrazzo floor
1995
Work of Art for Project, Terrazzo Work850 hand-made tiles with flower, cast in blue and white terrazzo, ground and polished for the terrace floor; mockups and experimentation for developing the flower mold and the way of making them were developed in a construction course, and the ...
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Sullivan House: Fireplace nook details
1995
Building Detail, Wall TreatmentA wood-paneled fireplace nook, where upholstery is built into the hardwood arms of the structure.
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New Town for Hoechst Parkstadt-Unterliederbach: New kind of wall construction
1996
Construction System, Structural WallMockups for innovative block techniques used the construction of structural walls made of a mixture of concrete blocks and bricks. Normal concrete blocks used together with cast blocks which have special treatment with chases, reveals and ornaments in them.
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Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Colored glass panels for the curved vaulted ceiling of the concourse areas
2001
Work of Art for Project, Luminous Glass CeilingFabrication of experimental glass panels, for a ceiling 25 meters by 50 meters, made directly by a computer-model mechanical fabrication technique from a hand-drawn sketch, then transferred to Photoshop for further processing.
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Megaron Mousikis Athinon - Opera House: Multi-colored marble floors, consisting of various sizes and different color marble pieces in geometric and ornamental patterns
2001
Work of Art for Project, Prefabricated Marble FloorPrefabrication of marble floors for the concourse areas of about 8.000 m2, in sections of about two feet by four feet, assembled on a fiberglass matt, with the marble pieces being glued with epoxy to the mat. Individual pieces were ...
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Building Process Area of Emphasis: Series of lectures on "The Nature of Order" - Foundations of Architecture
1991
Academic,Lecture course for both graduate and undergraduate students. Twenty-four lectures to determine the foundation of all architecture, both on a theoretical and practical level. The intent of the course was to define the basic structure needed by any environment, which ...
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Building Process Area of Emphasis: Series of lectures on "The Nature of Order" - Foundations of Architecture
1992
Academic,Lecture course for both graduate and undergraduate students. Twenty-four lectures to determine the foundation of all architecture, both on a theoretical and practical level. The intent of the course was to define the basic structure needed by any environment, which ...
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Building Process Area of Emphasis: The Nature of Order - An Introduction to the Design and Building Process
1999
Academic,Lecture class for both graduate and undergraduate students, to provide students with a complete underpinning for the theory and practice of architecture. The intent of the course was to define the basic structure needed by any environment, which supports ...