Go BackGeometry and Fifteen Fundamental Properties
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 appear again and again in things which have life, and concluded that these are the ways in which centers can help each other in space. The fifteen fundamental properties act as a glue in creating a unified and connected whole.
Thoughts and Arguments Explored and Developed
The fifteen fundamental properties
The fifteen properties in nature
Centers and local symmetries
The density of local symmetries
Simplicity
Symmetry, simplicity, and just what is required
References
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Christopher Alexander - The Search for a New Paradigm in Architecture
1983
Dr. Stephen Grawbow, Director of the Architecture Program at the University of Kansas, had been closely associated with Alexander and, in full collaboration with him, has produced a biographical and philosophical study, which examines the development of Alexander’s ideas, from ...
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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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The Nature of Order - An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe.
Book One - The Phenomenon of Life
2002
“The Phenomenon of Life”, the first volume of “The Nature of Order” series proposes a scientific view of the world in which all space-matter has perceptible degrees of life and sets this understanding of order as an intellectual basis for ...
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Chapter 15. Emergence of Formal Geometry, 10 / A Generative Process for Middle-Ranfe Order in the Building Structure
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Chapter 15. Emergence of Formal Geometry, 11 / What Seems as an Imposition of Geometry is Necessary as a Part of Every Living Process
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15. Emergence of Formal Geometry, 2 / Formation of Brutal and Massive Chunks in the Visitor Center at West Dean
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Etna Street Cottage
1974
Experimental building project, two-story 400 sq. ft. cottage, with a hollow wooden structure filled with concrete and featherweight concrete vaults. Completed in ten weeks, without a building permit at the back of the C.E.S. office on Etna Street, and was ...
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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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House for John and Mara Lighty
1981 to
1989
Terraced house built for a couple; the house consists of six building volumes, gracefully positioned on a wooded slope among white oak trees, and includes the living room - kitchen volume, the studio volume, the bedroom - library volume, a ...
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Tile with white slips on black glaze
1980
Porcelain tile glazed in black with white slips; made at the same tile with the Linz café and resembles the painting on its interior walls.
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Alhambra tile fragment in the Alexander collection
Tile fragment from Alhambra purchased by Christopher Alexander in the early 1980s for its beauty of geometry and color, and for advancing his research on Geometry and its Fundamental Properties.
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Tile with dark bluish glaze and green eyes
1984
Ornamental repeating tiles from Christopher Alexander's workshop; ceramic paint on white porcelain tile.
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Linz Café: "Aperiodic" grid of the timber post and beam structural frame
1980
Post and beam structural system which fits the structure of the spaces initially conceived, and is based on a structural grid with differentiated spacing of the grid lines in both directions, long and short, keeping the variations regular. The use ...
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Fireplace
1981
Count Rumford all concrete fireplace, has a flat and broad fire chamber, a very wide opening and a curved fire back; the flatness results form the exceptionally narrow hearth, which is the cause for the high heat effectiveness.
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Sala House: Ornaments on the east and south facing walls of the house
1982
White precast concrete ornaments embedded in the rose colored concrete walls; secured on the formwork during the concrete pouring. A series of small ornaments spaced in equal intervals in the rose perimeter concrete band running on top of the windows; ...
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Introduction to Geometry
1979
Three part course: 1) Structure of space with harmony and order in it; 2) Fundamental properties of space, the necessary and sufficient preconditions for this order to occur; 3) Designs which have this harmony and order in them.
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Advanced Topics on Geometry and Wholeness
1980
Topics studied: 1) How to generate and attain wholeness; 2) Definiton of “whole”; 3) Centering process; 4) Simplicity seeking process and not-separateness; 5) Geometric properties.
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Independent Study Course in City Planning and Psychology Departments
1980
Course organized between the City Planning and Psychology Departments, attended by Alexander’s students.
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Lecture on "The Nature of Order", given during Fall 1991
19/09/1991
Cassette tape of the seventh Fall semester lecture by Christopher Alexander on the first part of “Structure of Space – Geometric Properties,” part of a series of lectures on “The Nature of Order”; the duration of the lecture is one ...
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Lecture on "The Nature of Order", given during Fall 1991
24/09/1991
2-sided cassette tape of the eight Fall semester lecture by Christopher Alexander on the second part of “Structure of Space – Geometric Properties”, part of a series of lectures on “The Nature of Order”; the duration of the lecture is ...
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Lecture on "The Nature of Order", given during Fall 1991
26/09/1991
Cassette tape of the ninenth Fall semester lecture by Christopher Alexander on “The Geometric Properties in Nature”, part of a series of lectures on “The Nature of Order”; the duration of the lecture is about one hour and fiftten minutes.
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The Campus of Eishin - High School: Design Development Drawings of College Building D - Floor plans
2 2) Second floor plan
27/04/1984
Two drawing sheets with floor plans.
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The Campus of Eishin - High School: Design Development Drawings of College Building D - Sections
27/04/1984
Drawing sheet with three sections, one longitudinal and two cross section.
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The Campus of Eishin - High School: Design Development Drawings of College Building D - Framing plan
27/04/1984
Drawing sheet with framing plans of the ground and second floor ceilings.
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Etna street Cottage: Photographs of the building
1 1) Viewed among trees with the recessed second floor
01/01/1974
Two images depicting the front view of the cottage.
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Photographs of sketches
01/01/1977
The first sketch of Martinez, a pencil sketch of the side elevation of the house, drawn by Christopher Alexander.
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The Linz Café: Photographs of Christopher Alexander at work
01/01/1980
Two photographs of Christopher Alexander at the time the building was under construction, working on the geometry of the café alcove while testing shape, dimensions and the feel of comfort.
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Arch 280, Winter 1977 - The Relative "Oneness": Review of Results, Axioms, Assumptions
01/03/1977
8-page notes with 60 bullet points starting with the statement “There are some buildings which have more feeling than others” and through a series of sequential statements introduces certain recognizable geometric properties, and further continuing the trail of thought on ...
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The Identification of Good Buildings and their Physical Geometrical Properties: Test No. II
01/06/1980
40-page paper to be given to various experts who would decide if they agree upon the four proposed concepts: 1) Structural Hierarchy of Centers, 2) Symmetries, 3) Contrast, 4) Positive-Negative Space – Figure-Ground Relation. It contains analysis of the concepts ...
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Arch. 207, Spring 1980 - Advanced Topics in Geometry & Special Problems: Different versions of the Centering Process
02/04/1980
A compilation of fifty pages on the centering process approached through six different ways: 1) Definition of Centering Process, Fall 1979; 2) Example of Centering Process, Fall 1978, with shirt-tail design; 3) A Simplicity Seeking Process; 4) The Presence of ...
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