West Dean College Gardens Visitor’s Center – Arches in the transverse load bearing walls: Photographs of sketches with arches and their curves

Photographs of two early sketches by Christopher Alexander depicting the emergence of the arches; the first is a sketch of a cross-wall, made on a piece of scrap wood, after it became possible to judge the presence, scale and effect of the arches in these walls. The other depicts arch curves, very exactly drawn, made on a wall of the construction site, which have slightly different radius and span. The templates of the curve used to build the forms were copied from these sketches; the top sketch gave the best line for the bigger arches, and the central, inner sketch gave the line for the smaller openings. Finally, there is also a hardline drawing of the floor plan, with the four cross-walls, shown in black, pierced with arches.