Description
Book SynopsisAlexander presents a living world that is of necessity generated by processes to create locally adapted spontaneous structure. He shows us how to do for buildings and cities what DNA does for grass on hills and trees in forests: allowing each thing to become what it needs to be, as it arises from its own circumstances.
Trade Review...Alexander's approach presents a fundamental challenge to us and our style-obsessed age. It suggests that beautiful form can come about only through a process that is meaningful to people...""- Thomas Fisher, Former Editor,
Progressive Architecture;
""Alexander's genetic scripts are likely to... play a role so fundamental in the future,that their widespread use cannot even be imagined today. This will change the world as effectively as the advent of printing changed the world.""- Doug Carlston, Co-founder, Broderbund Software, Founder & CEO, icPlanet.com;
""...I can think of no one, certainly no one in the last thirty or so years, who has produced a deeper, more profoundly meaningful, visionary and lasting body of work that both unifies and transcends science and spirituality, than Christopher Alexander.""- Andy Ilachinsky,
Theoretical Physicist;
""Five hundred years is a long time, and I don't expect that many of the people I interview will be known in the year 2500. Alexander may be an exception.""- David Creelman, Author, Interviewer, and Editor,
HR Magazine""...I believe Alexander is likely to be remembered most of all, in the end, for having produced the first credible proof of the existence of God...""- Eric Buck, Department of Philosophy, University of Kentucky
Table of Contents
- PART ONE: Structure-Preserving Transformations
- 1. The Principle of Unfolding Wholeness.
- 2. Structure-Preserving Transformations.
- 3. Structure-Preserving Transformations in Traditional Society.
- 4. Structure-Destroying Transformations in Modern Society.
- INTERLUDE
- 5. Living Process in the Modern Era: Twentieth-century Cases Where Living Process did Occur.
- PART TWO: Living Processes
- 6. Generated Structures.
- 7. A Fundamental Differentiating Process.
- 8. Step-by-Step Adaptation.
- 9. Always Helping to Enhance the Whole.
- 10. Always Making Centers.
- 11. The Sequence of Unfolding.
- 12. Every Part Unique.
- 13. Patterns: Rules for Making Centers.
- 14. Deep Feeling.
- 15. Emerging of Formal Geometry.
- 16. Form Language.
- 17. Simplicity.
- PART THREE: A New Paradigm for Process in Society
- 18. The Character of Process in Society.
- 19. Massive Process Difficulties.
- 20. The Spread of Living Processes Throughout Society.
- 21. The Architect in the Third Millennium.
- APPENDIX: An Example of a Living Process: Building a House.
