Go BackMaster Planning as a Dynamic Process – Organic Order and Piecemeal Growth
It is simply not possible to fix today, in a Master Plan, what the environment should be like in the future, and then to steer the piecemeal process of development toward that fixed, imaginary world. Instead, planning and construction will be guided by a process which allows the whole to emerge gradually from local acts. And the construction undertaken in each budgetary period will be weighted overwhelmingly towards small projects... Each new building is not a "finished" thing... They are never torn down, never erased; instead, they are always embellished, modified, reduced, enlarged, improved. This attitude to the repair of the environment has been common place for thousands of years in traditional cultures; we may summarise the point of view behind this attitude in one phrase: piecemeal growth. The same approach is also applicable to mass production industrial processes.
Thoughts and Arguments Explored and Developed
The principle of organic order vs. master plans
The principle of piecemeal growth vs. large lump development
The principle of diagnosis
The principle of coordination
References
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Master Planning Process for the Town of Marsta
1972
Master Plan based on the fundametal idea of a planning process which allows the planning office of Sigtuna Marsta commune together with representative users to make planning decisions for themselves. The process, organized on the basis of four elements "Pattern ...
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Canary Island Tourist Resort
1973
Development plan for a tourist resort for 80,000 people. Formulation of a project specifc pattern language for creating real and active communities all year round; it included 45 patterns which defined the preservation of land, the sites for building, relative ...
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Tourist Development for Malaga
1974
The project intent was to solve the deterioration of the tourist areas in the community of Andalusia. The proposal was to untertake a combined program of research, development and construction, which would create a workable model for the repair of ...
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People Rebuilding Berkeley
1974
Development of a planning process for the City of Berkeley in which individual neighborhoods had the responsibility for their own improvement through a process based on the use of patterns at a very local scale .
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People Rebuilding Berkeley
1974
Development of a planning process for the City of Berkeley in which individual neighborhoods had the responsibility for their own improvement through a process based on the use of patterns at a very local scale .
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User Designed Apartments
1975
The project assignment was a simulation for testing a situation in which each family is designing their own apartment on the basis of specific rules, as defined in the C.E.S. project ‘The New Apartment House’. The primary target was to ...
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The Oregon Experiment: Early book version
01/01/1973
149-pages unbound copy of an earlier draft version of the book. It includes foreword, introduction, 6 chapters and acknowledgements, and only code indications for the placement of the book illustrations.
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The Oregon Experiment - Volume 3: Book draft
01/01/1974
226-page semi bound copy of the book manuscript with illustrations, including Introduction, Chapter 1: Organic Order, Chapter 2: Participation, Chapter 3: Piecemeal Growth, Chapter 4: Patterns, Chapter 5: DIagnosis, Chapter 6: Coordination and Acknowledgments. “Volume 3” on its title ...
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Master Plan for the University of Oregon: Preliminary Design Drawings - Piecemeal Growth of the School of Education
7 7) School of Education - Piecemeal growth 3rd increment; support, repair & enhancement of spatial qualities over the years
01/01/1971
Seven drawings through which the concept of “piecemeal growth” is being illustrated in comparison to the “large lump development” approach.
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Master Plan for the University of Oregon: Preliminary Design Drawings - Coordination of Administrative Services Project
2 2) The campus development gets disconnected from the administrative services project
01/01/1971
Two sketches simulating the growth of the campus over thirty years in relationship to the distribution of its administrative services.
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Master Planning Process for the Town of Marsta: Sketches - Repair of an existing building and its surroundings
9 7th pattern for Music school 'Student Faculty Mix'
01/01/1972
The Music School of the University of Oregon was used as an example for demonstrating the process of repair of an exisitng building. Ten sketches illustrate the sequential steps followed for the diagnosis of existing problems and the solutions proposed ...
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Master Plan for the University of Oregon: Theory and Practice
01/08/1971
403-page second draft of a project report on the preparation of a master plan for the University of Oregon. The report has to halves; Part 1 deals with theory and Part 2 deals with practice. Part 1 outlines the theoretical ...
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Master Plan for the University of Oregon: A Planning Process for the University of Oregon
01/04/1971
38-page first draft of the master plan for the University of Oregon. It includes Preface, Introduction, six chapters and two appendices. Chapter 1 on “Balance”, Chapter 2 on “Piecemeal Growth”, Chapter 3 on “Participation”, Chapter 4 on “Morphological Integration”, Chapter ...
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People Rebuilding Berkeley - The Self-Creating Life of Neighborhoods
20/11/1974
201-page report which includes a 3-page “Memorandum to the Master Plan Revision Committee, City of Berkeley”. It demonstrates an early approach to the idea of piecemeal development applied to the organic fabric of streets in a town. It proposes the ...
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The University of Oregon Student Union Project: Proposal for the ERB Addition
01/01/1969
Short description, an introduction to the current needs for additional space of the Student Union building, due to the increase of the student population.
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Master Plan for the University of Oregon: Alternative Proposal for the Student Union
01/01/1970
Assessment of the problem at hand and a preliminary proposal of project development; probably not complete.
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Master Plan for the University of Oregon: Alternative Proposal for the Student Union
01/01/1970
6-page revised proposal, which includes a detailed analysis of the six problems diagnosed and a proposal for addressing the solution of all six problems. It includes proposals for the distribution of money, the areas to be developed and the squre ...
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Master Plan for the University of Oregon - Simulation of University development: Photographs of drawings
4 4) Growth of campus during the 1990's
01/01/1969
Four images of site plan drawings illustrating how the entire University of Oregon could grow over a period of thirty years by accumulating hundreds of projects, all compatible with the diagnosis that would emerge throughout these years and during each ...
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Master Plan for the University of Oregon: Photographs of drawings
01/01/1972
Image of an outline drawing of the plan for the School of Music which includes proposed areas of development.
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Master Planning Process for the Town of Marsta - Repair of an Existing Area / Music School in the University of Oregon used as an example: Photographs on design process
9 7th pattern for Music school 'Student Faculty Mix'
01/01/1972
Eleven images of sketches depicting the steps followed for the diagnosis of existing problems and the solutions proposed by the user group applying relevant patterns. The Master Plan for the University of Oregon, and specifically the Music School project, had ...
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Architectural Lecture Series: The Growth of Order from Small Acts
06/02/1974
27-page transcript of a lecture given in the Department of Architecture at UC Berkeley in 1974. Alexander talked about order and growth, using examples of biological growth, followed by descriptions of several projects that he was working on, and making ...
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Ph.D. Qualifying Examination: Housing Production Process: Principles for a Process which Introduces Human, Organic and Personal Qualities in the Production of Housing
01/06/1982
129-page response to the question asked by the committee for the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination. The committee consisted of Sara Ishikawa – Chair, Christopher Alexander, Fernando Kusnetzoff, Roslyn Lindheim, Michael Teitz.
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The Unified Building Process: Variables which Produce a Coherent Structure of Space
01/11/1986
378-page doctoral dissertation in nine chapters, based on the fundamental assumption that “wholeness”, as geometric quality of space, is dependent upon the process that generates it. Chapter 1: Design and Construction as a Unified Act. Chapter 2: Feeling and actuality. ...
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