The Gatemaker Project

1997 to 2000
Other, Designed
The Gatemaker project provides an enlightening lens through which to examine the interplay of ideas between Christopher Alexander and computing, over the last half-century. Interest in his work became intense by 1996, so his team secured funding for a research project: a computer-based design tool for improving the built-environment, which treats feeling as an objective metric. The application made significant progress along these lines, unfortunately unmatched in any other computer project since. There is much confusion about the program, within both computing and architectural circles. This is because, like many of Alexander's projects, Gatemaker unveiled a battle between different systems of thought.
C.E.S. staff:
Christopher Alexander, Greg Bryant, Olga Volchkova, Peter Gabriel
Sponsor:
Bill Joy, Sun Microsystems' co-founder
References