Go BackColor 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 life. Inner light is the color quality which arises as something comes to life, and occurs almost everywhere in nature. .
Thoughts and Arguments Explored and Developed
Color as an essential feature of reality
The eleven color properties
Color comes from the geometry
Colors create light together
Color as a necessary part of buildings
Color which unfols from the configuration
References
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The Linz Café, Das Linz Café
1981
“The Linz Café”, a bilingual book, both in German and English, is the fourth in “The Center for Environmental Structure Series” on architecture published by Oxford University Press. The book describes the application of the theory to a single building commissioned by ...
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The Production of Houses
1985
The fifth volume in “The Center for Environmental Structure Series” on architecture published by Oxford University Press, “The Production of Houses” puts Alexander’s theories to the test and shows what sort of production system can create the kind of environment Alexander ...
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A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art - The Color and Geometry of very Early Turkish Carpets
1993
The seventh volume of “The Center for Environmental Structure Series” on architecture published by Oxford University Press is a book about carpets. Alexander assembled what many believe to be one of the finest collections of early Turkish carpets in the ...
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Low Cost Houses for Mexicali
1975 to
1977
A 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
The 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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Linz Café
1980
Built 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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Color sketch of the alcove fronts for the Linz Café project
1980
Gouache on wood panel, 5"x5"; it was used on the front jacket of "The Linz Café" book.
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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
The 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
Watercolor 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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Low Cost Houses for Mexicali: Choice of colors
1976
White washed exterior walls faintly tinged with green, and sky blue painted cornices with a golden green hairline above the blue, took a series of color experiments and mockups for two weeks until the mixing of colors was just right ...
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Linz Café: Hand-painted walls with flowers as ornament
1980
Exterior 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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Sala House: Hand-painted children's bedroom alcoves
1983
The 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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The Sala House: Hand-painted children's bedroom alcoves
01/01/1983
A series of paper mockups for testing the color harmony and the patterns to be used for the painting of the alcoves. Eight different trial tests with slight variations on the two colors to be used; testing patterns, distribution of ...
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Terrazzo floor with squares, diamonds and crosses; paper mock-up #1
01/01/1984
Full-scale paper mock-up with gouache paint, depicting the first alternative for the terrazzo floor of the main room — a geometric pattern composed by squares, diamonds and crosses, in green, red and white.
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Terrazzo floor with squares, diamonds and crosses; paper mock-up #2
01/01/1984
Full-scale paper mock-up with gouache paint, depicting the second alternative for the terrazzo floor of the main room — a geometric pattern composed by grey stripes with blue crosses and white squares with a blue central detail.
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The Linz Café: Sketch of alcove front
01/01/1980
Two pages with three watercolor sketches of the alcove front wall and a few pattern fragments.
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The Julian Street Inn - Shelter for the Homeless: Exterior wall cladding with hand-painted and hand-glazed tilework - Original tile painting and sketch
01/01/1988
Two original tile-paintings; the first depicts the actual tile size with the final pattern and colors painted on it, and the second an earlier study of a different tile pattern in which blue is also used. .
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The Linz Café: Photographs of building interior
01/01/1980
Three photographs of the café interior, focusing on the café alcoves and the hand painted walls with its ornaments.
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The Linz Café: Photographs of building interior
01/01/1980
View of the first floor sitting alcoves of the café. The photo was exhibited during the 10th Annual Louis Kahn Memorial Lecture in 1992, where Christopher Alexander was invited to give a lecture.
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Low Cost Houses for Mexicali: Exterior color details of buildings and fountain - Photographs
01/01/1976
Three photos depicting the use of color on exterior building details and fountain tiles.
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