Go BackWholeness as a Tangible and Objective Quality: The Mirror of the Self
In any process of design or making, the next step which is most structure-enhancing, is that step which most intensifies the feeling of the emerging whole. What ultimately matters in this process is that the work produced generates feeling in us.
Thoughts and Arguments Explored and Developed
Degree of life is measurable & objectively existing
The personal nature of order – wholeness and feeling
Wholeness as an objective condition of spatial configuration
The mirror of the self – Liking something from the heart
An empirical test for comparing the degree of life of different centers
References
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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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The Nature of Order - An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe.
Book Four - The Luminous Ground
2004
“The Luminous Ground” is the fourth and last volume of “The Nature of Order” series. In this volume, Alexander attempts to show the cosmological underpinning of the nature of order. The book has two goals. First, to show that 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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Civic Center & Town Hall for Mountain View
1986
Invited design competition entry. One of five invited entries and winner of first round selection process. The project with 100,000 square feet of total area of construction included: a) the new City Hall building 65,000 sq.ft.; b) Community Theater with ...
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Neighborhood of Five Houses: Heisey House
1992 to
1996
Design and construction of a family house for Jim and Sylvia Heisey, with an area of 2.000 square feet.
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Pine tea tray
1976
Tray with green oil stain, french polished, with hand painted ornaments.
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Timurid-Carpet pattern, painting
1990
Painting on photographic paper with red and yellow gouach; 20cm x 26cm, depicts a reconstruction of a 13th century carpet. Two illuminated negatives of the painting were exhibited in the De Young Memorial Museum "Ancient Color and Geometry: Very early ...
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Freeway at Night, painting
1991
Oil painting.
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C.E.S. Office - Martinez House: Outdoor walls and seat with balustrade in arches
1979
The seat with its balustrade, built next to the tile workshop in Martinez, were built solely with sprayed concrete. Styrofoam or polysterene cut-outs to shape were used and placed against a backing of sheetrock, providing an ultra-low-cost formwork. Then concrete ...
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Martinez Heavy Timber Carpentry Workshop: Giant white star
1986
Giant white star on the exterior wall of the carpentry workshop made of enamel painted wood.
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West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center: Massive thick structural walls with poured concrete, blocks and bricks
1994
Construction of perimeter and transverse structural walls, eighteen inches to two feet thick. The materials used was an integrated poured combination of bricks, concrete, flint, stone and massive blocks and insulation working together as a single structural wall, because of ...
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Value: An answer to Jean-Pierre Protzen's Article
15/11/1977
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Discord Over Harmony in Architecture: The Eisenman / Alexander Debate
01/05/1983
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Contrasti sul Concetto de Armonia in Architettura: Dibattito tra Christopher Alexander e Peter Eisenman / Contrasting Concepts of Harmony in Architecture: Debate between Christopher Alexander and Peter Eisenman
01/01/1983
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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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Design studio on "The Nature of Order"
1983
The focus of the studio was on “The Nature of Order”, at that time being a draft in one volume. Christopher Alexander distributed a xerox copy of his book manuscript to the students, for sharing with them his views on ...
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Lecture on "The Nature of Order", given during Fall 1991
03/09/1991
Cassette tape of the third Fall semester lecture by Christopher Alexander on the “Idea of Life, Value, Objectivity and Objective Geometric Structure”, part of a series of lectures on “The Nature of Order”; the duration of the lecture is about ...
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Lecture on "The Nature of Order", given during Fall 1991
01/10/1991
Cassette tape of the eleventh Fall semester lecture by Christopher Alexander on “The Mirror of the Self and the importance of using the empirical process for seeing, determining and understanding the levels of life existing in any man-made object ”, ...
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Lecture on "The Nature of Order", given during Fall 1991
08/10/1991
Cassette tape of the twelveth Fall semester lecture by Christopher Alexander on “10,000 Mirrors of the Self”, part of a series of lectures on “The Nature of Order”; the duration of the lecture is one hour and five minutes.
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West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center - Arches in the transverse load bearing walls: Sketches of interior arches
14/01/1995
Three simple hand-drawn sketches with elevations of the four arched load bearing walls, providing dimensions of the arched openings in the reception walls, in the kitchen and shop walls, and in the east facing restaurant wall. An additonal fourth sketch ...
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West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center - Arches in the transverse load bearing walls: Preliminary Design Drawings - Interior arch elevations
01/01/1995
Three small hardline drawings with specific dimensions for the arched openings and the arch-forming parts of the walls. The drawings illustrate the kitchen, the reception-restaurant and the shop load bearing walls.
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Low Cost Houses for Mexicali: Photographs of building details
01/01/1976
Seventeen photos of project details, like vaults, roofs, walls with cornices and windows, interior details: three pictures of vaulted roofs and domes and five more showing the connection between barrel vaulted roofs, walls and windows through perimeter cornices. Also two ...
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West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center: Photographs of the project during construction
01/01/1995
Three images depicting two views of the north elevation and one of the south elevation at various moments of the construction process.
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West Dean College Gardens Visitor's Center: Photographs of building interior
01/01/1996
Six images with the arched openings in the massive walls. The first two show the main dining room with its arched entrance and the column capitals as finally shaped, viewed while being in its lobby; the next two are views ...
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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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The Identification of Good Places and their Physical Properties
01/02/1980
42-page paper on a test conducted in a class by the authors, with the task to identify a common understanding of what people consider to be “good” places, beautiful towns, buildings and rooms which have a “spirit of place”. The ...