The Timeless Way of Building
01/01/1979“The Timeless Way of Building” is the opening work in “The Center for Environmental Structure Series” on architecture published by Oxford University Press. Here Alexander introduces the ideas behind the succeeding books.
The book lays the foundation of the series. It presents a new theory of architecture, building and planning which has, at its core, that age-old process by which the people of a society have always pulled the order of their world from their own being. It forms, in essence, the basis for a new post-industrial architecture, created by the people…
Alexander writes, “There is one timeless way of building. It is thousands of years old, and the same today as it has always been. The great traditional buildings of the past, the villages and tents and temples in which man feels at home, have always been made by people who were very close to the center of this way. And as you will see, this way will lead anyone who looks for it to buildings which are themselves as ancient in their form as the trees and hills, and as our faces are.”.
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A Pattern Language, The Timeless Way of Building, and The Oregon Experiment: Publisher Löcker Verlag expressing interest to produce a German edition of each one of the three books
21/03/1980
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"A Pattern Language" and "The Timeless Way of Building": Personal gratitude for the guidance received from Christopher Alexander's books, while designing and building their own home
30/10/1984
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Requesting from Christopher Alexander to review and critique an attached rough summary written about the book "trilogy" of 'The Timeless Way of Building', 'A Pattern Language' and 'The Oregon Experiment' for being informally discussed in a university course, in anticipation of Artemis Anninou visit to Brazil regarding the San Carlos housing project
17/03/1984
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Pattern Language: Book early version
01/01/1967
Versions of early thoughts discussing concepts relating to the nature of a universal pattern language which would be able to create wholeness in the built environment. The Table of Contents lists the following chapters: 1) What is a Whole Environment: Wholeness ...
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The Timeless Way of Building - Part 3: Book early version titled "The Way" (referenced as Book 3)
01/01/1973
Typewritten draft and notes, including what seems to be commentary from someone else for “Book Three – The Way”.
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The Timeless Way of Building - Part 2: Book early version titled "The Gate" (referenced as Book 2)
01/01/1973
Compilation of hand and typewritten comments, defects, changes related to “The Timeless Way of Building – Part 2: The Gate”.
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Fall 1967 Environmental Design 190: Transcript of lecture 2
04/10/1967
Begins with an overview of Environmental Structure as the basis for understanding organic wholeness; the ideas of recurrency and functionality are well articulated.
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Fall 1967 Environmental Design 190: Transcript of lecture 3
06/10/1967
Discussion of how structures come to being and how they require maintenance. Further discusses spatial relational structures and varying descriptions of how they are derived: Purely functional, results of rules and regulations and the third by images literally pictured ...
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Fall 1967 Environmental Design 190: Transcript of lecture 5
11/10/1967
Discusses the evolution of a pattern language over time. Examples are given and comparisons made to the evolution of organisms. Stocks of patterns and pattern languages are discussed as the central process for controlling out environment, improving the environment by ...