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What do you guys think of Christopher Alexander?

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BKM

Cyburbian
Messages
6,463
Points
29
The "15 principles" seem rather simple and vague, but we all know buildings that violate them.

Has anyone purchased or even seen the Magnum Opus discussed in the Wired article?
 
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The Irish One

Member
Messages
2,267
Points
25
I've asked this question before and haven't really been satisfied with responses. So when in doubt I go to the lowest ranked on the Amazon.com ratings With all of his books there really is no low ranking, automatically I'm suspicious and skeptical, it does seem fancy. Seems like some Architecture review site might give a wider spectrum of opinion.
 
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Lee Nellis

Cyburbian
Messages
1,369
Points
29
Christopher Alexander is one of the few truly original thinkers in architecture and planning. His vision, as expressed in The Pattern Language, starts at the regional level and ends up including individual rooms and architectural details. Of all his maixms, I like "buildings over 4 stories make people crazy" best, but you can disagree with many of his individual conclusions, while respecting the breadth of his vision, which definitely includes a particular view of how society should work that some may disagree with. Whether you disagree or not, you won't find many other thinkers of such scope.
 
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SGB

Cyburbian
Messages
3,388
Points
26
In a graduate land use design course, our instructor had our class split into teams to design a community on a 500+ acre property.

My team actually designed our portion of the project according to Alexander's Pattern Language principles. Our instructor was skeptical, but we pulled it off.

Of course, I haven't designed a subdivision since......

I like A Pattern Language, but have no interest in the new 4 volume publication. It seems to me that the target market on this is libraries and academics....
 
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