Neighborhood of Five Houses: Goddu House

Cluster 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 ...

Timber thick columns and shaped capitals were developed after a series of cardboard mock-ups until size, proportions and shape got right.

Exposed wooden beam coffered ceiling in the living rooms, with a cross shaped wooden ornament at the intersection of the beams.

18-page report providing detailed information including property description, location, maps, pictures, etc. which results in estimating market value and a guide for Federally-related loans.

2-page signed agreement that the attorney represents only the lender in the matters required by the loan processes and will prepare all legal instruments and documents necessary. The undersigned understands and accepts all rules set forth in the document including ...

3-page affidavit given to Life Savings Bank, to induce lender to make the disbursement to borrower under the certain and spelled out promissory note; a list of six rules is set forth.

Photographs of two sketches for the Goddu house; the first is an axonometric and the second a rough floor plan.

Five prohographs of the Goddu house, the first four showing the front view characterized by its front curved porch, while the last one is a close up of the house entrance with the steps.

Two views of the Goddu house living room, with an elaborate ceiling framing.

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

“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, ...

A full scale mockup of the living room ceiling ornaments.

Images of three cardboard mockups, testing the size and shape of the timber column capitals, to be used in the porches of the houses; the first one depicts a rather fat capital, the second one a shallow one, while the ...

Two images of the Goddu house curved porch with the colums and their capitals as built for this house.

Two images of the exposed timber coffered ceilings with cross shaped ornaments at the intersection of the beams. The first image is from the Goddu house, while the second from the Heisey.