RIP Christopher Alexander, architect and design theorist, 1936-2022
March 19, 2022 7:06 AM Subscribe
Christopher Alexander, a towering figure in architecture and urbanism—one of the biggest influences on the New Urbanism movement—died on Thursday, March 17 [2022], after a long illness, it was reported by Michael Mehaffy, a long-time collaborator and protege. Alexander was the author or principal author of many books, including A Pattern Language, one of the best-selling architectural books of all time. He is considered to be the father of the pattern language movement in software, which is the idea behind Wikipedia. In 2006, he was one of the first two recipients, along with Leon Krier, of CNU's Athena Medal, which honors those who laid the groundwork for The New Urbanism movement. [quoted from cnu.org]
In 1965, Alexander wrote a much-cited essay, A City Is Not a Tree, one of the earliest and most trenchant critiques of the dendritic, sprawl pattern of city planning and development. Other works include The Timeless Way of Building and A New Theory of Urban Design. Alexander was more than a theorist: In 2006, when he was awarded the Athena, it was reported he had designed and built more than 200 buildings around the world. In 2012, his The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth, tells the story of a school campus in Japan that was designed and built using the principles that he articulated (see photo at top).
In 1965, Alexander wrote a much-cited essay, A City Is Not a Tree, one of the earliest and most trenchant critiques of the dendritic, sprawl pattern of city planning and development. Other works include The Timeless Way of Building and A New Theory of Urban Design. Alexander was more than a theorist: In 2006, when he was awarded the Athena, it was reported he had designed and built more than 200 buildings around the world. In 2012, his The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth, tells the story of a school campus in Japan that was designed and built using the principles that he articulated (see photo at top).
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posted by crocomancer at 7:56 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by crocomancer at 7:56 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
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A pattern language is still my first book to hand someone when they want to design a building.
posted by q*ben at 7:58 AM on March 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
A pattern language is still my first book to hand someone when they want to design a building.
posted by q*ben at 7:58 AM on March 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
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posted by mumimor at 8:17 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mumimor at 8:17 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Wow. A brilliant industrial designer I knew a long time ago suggested Notes on the Synthesis of Form to me and I've returned to it occasionally in the twenty-plus years since then. A Pattern Language and A Timeless Way of Building were revelations, as if something had been unlocked in my mind. Here was a way (a vocabulary and a grammar) to describe why certain places felt right and others didn't.
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posted by jquinby at 8:37 AM on March 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
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posted by jquinby at 8:37 AM on March 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
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posted by paradise at 8:44 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by paradise at 8:44 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
small window with a view
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 8:46 AM on March 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 8:46 AM on March 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
light on two sides of every room
posted by Tom-B at 9:05 AM on March 19, 2022 [8 favorites]
posted by Tom-B at 9:05 AM on March 19, 2022 [8 favorites]
Alexander was a great inspiration, and it was lovely thinking about living in spaces and communities that met his ideals. At one point I had the thought that what A Pattern Language really was, was a manual for constructing Hobbiton. But.. If that's wrong, I don't want to be right.
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 9:13 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Mei's lost sandal at 9:13 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by skyscraper at 9:15 AM on March 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by skyscraper at 9:15 AM on March 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
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A Pattern Language is such a compelling synthesis of the poetical and the practical.
posted by oulipian at 9:22 AM on March 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
A Pattern Language is such a compelling synthesis of the poetical and the practical.
posted by oulipian at 9:22 AM on March 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
When I was starting out as a SW developer, I picked up A Pattern Language, thinking it would help me understand SW patterns, but it ended up changing my outlook on almost everything.
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posted by Harald74 at 9:23 AM on March 19, 2022 [6 favorites]
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posted by Harald74 at 9:23 AM on March 19, 2022 [6 favorites]
I had the thought that what A Pattern Language really was, was a manual for constructing Hobbiton
Pretty much, though with a lot more windows.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:25 AM on March 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
Pretty much, though with a lot more windows.
posted by Dip Flash at 9:25 AM on March 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
Not a lot of books change the way you look at the world. A Pattern Language did for me.
posted by adamrice at 9:37 AM on March 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by adamrice at 9:37 AM on March 19, 2022 [5 favorites]
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posted by echo target at 9:42 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by echo target at 9:42 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
Stewart Brand responds to Christopher Alexander's death. [Twitter] Alexander's work had a huge impact on Brand and his subsequent work on 'A Whole Earth Catalog' and 'How Buildings Learn'.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 9:43 AM on March 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 9:43 AM on March 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
I even read all four books of The Nature of Order, which are eccentric and occasionally woo and indefensible— but haunting and brilliant in his way. One of my heroes, and a major shaper of how I think, especially in taking on creative projects.
posted by argybarg at 10:35 AM on March 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by argybarg at 10:35 AM on March 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
Years ago, back during my software engineering days, I had a manager who walked up to me one day and handed me this small but really thick book. You have to read this, he said. A Pattern Language? Just read it, he said, it’s one of the most beautiful books ever written. And it was. I now have most of Alexander’s books. He gives you a new way of both looking at and understanding things and the relationships of things. “Wholistic” is such a popular word, but with Alexander you get to see that concept in action. I had a neighbor who I met up with frequently at a cafe who studied with Alexander at UC Berkeley. He loved the guy. One day he announced that he was off to go work with Alexander and he couldn’t be happier. Says a lot about Alexander.
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posted by njohnson23 at 10:43 AM on March 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
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posted by njohnson23 at 10:43 AM on March 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
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posted by kneecapped at 10:45 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by kneecapped at 10:45 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
All time favorite book -- got me into urban planning. I need to pick it up again to rekindle some inspiration.
posted by wolfpants at 11:12 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by wolfpants at 11:12 AM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
We built our house.
We started by reading A Pattern Language.
We've lent that book to so many people that I don't know where it is right now, which is how books like that should be treated.
posted by happyinmotion at 12:22 PM on March 19, 2022 [4 favorites]
We started by reading A Pattern Language.
We've lent that book to so many people that I don't know where it is right now, which is how books like that should be treated.
posted by happyinmotion at 12:22 PM on March 19, 2022 [4 favorites]
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posted by fimbulvetr at 1:04 PM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by fimbulvetr at 1:04 PM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
I did my PhD on software pattern languages, and was honoured to be able to meet Chris a couple of times when he was advisor to a research project around 2008. In person he was as friendly, creative and intelligent as his writing - his contribution to the world cannot be understated, and he will be greatly missed.
posted by offog at 1:16 PM on March 19, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by offog at 1:16 PM on March 19, 2022 [4 favorites]
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posted by mdoar at 1:57 PM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by mdoar at 1:57 PM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by ottereroticist at 3:07 PM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by ottereroticist at 3:07 PM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
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posted by Preserver at 3:31 PM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Preserver at 3:31 PM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
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Add me to the long list of folks who were profoundly affected by A Pattern Language. Christopher Alexander had a way of understanding structures as constellations in a four-dimensional universe, changing in usage and meaning as time and culture flow around them. He had the temerity to suggest that the people who inhabit a structure know more about what they need from their environment than the people who designed the building and for that I will always hold a special place in my heart for his ideas, as quaint and impractical as some of them are understood to be.
posted by Leeway at 4:18 PM on March 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
Add me to the long list of folks who were profoundly affected by A Pattern Language. Christopher Alexander had a way of understanding structures as constellations in a four-dimensional universe, changing in usage and meaning as time and culture flow around them. He had the temerity to suggest that the people who inhabit a structure know more about what they need from their environment than the people who designed the building and for that I will always hold a special place in my heart for his ideas, as quaint and impractical as some of them are understood to be.
posted by Leeway at 4:18 PM on March 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
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and Let Christopher Alexander design your life.
Pattern: Scattered Work – artificial separation of houses and work creates intolerable rifts in people’s inner lives.
If we only fixed this one thing, cities would be instantly more livable and healthy. An end to expensive, environmentally harmful, time-wasting commutes; more family and leisure time.....the works.
posted by storybored at 4:27 PM on March 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
and Let Christopher Alexander design your life.
Pattern: Scattered Work – artificial separation of houses and work creates intolerable rifts in people’s inner lives.
If we only fixed this one thing, cities would be instantly more livable and healthy. An end to expensive, environmentally harmful, time-wasting commutes; more family and leisure time.....the works.
posted by storybored at 4:27 PM on March 19, 2022 [3 favorites]
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posted by pipstar at 5:53 PM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by pipstar at 5:53 PM on March 19, 2022 [1 favorite]
I'm late to the party. I know I should read this and other people's works for my work - but I guess I'm a little burnt out on reading theory that tingles my brain with just-so explanations of how things should be, but without the modern data required to convince and motivate corporate behavior.
posted by rebent at 5:27 AM on March 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by rebent at 5:27 AM on March 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
Can anyone explain the wikipedia reference? Is it the quick markup language? The "crowdsourcing" (with problematic 'editor' curators) of knowledge?
>Pattern: Scattered Work – artificial separation of houses and work creates intolerable rifts in people’s inner lives.
>If we only fixed this one thing...
WFH was intolerable when it wasn't a choice. I move less, have fewer positive interactions with people and life is unnecesarily harder. Economies of scale, especially for workplace specialism is a pattern. "Just one thing" is an antipattern.
This doesn't recommend the author to me. (I'm sorry for the passing of this important figure.)
posted by k3ninho at 7:23 AM on March 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
>Pattern: Scattered Work – artificial separation of houses and work creates intolerable rifts in people’s inner lives.
>If we only fixed this one thing...
WFH was intolerable when it wasn't a choice. I move less, have fewer positive interactions with people and life is unnecesarily harder. Economies of scale, especially for workplace specialism is a pattern. "Just one thing" is an antipattern.
This doesn't recommend the author to me. (I'm sorry for the passing of this important figure.)
posted by k3ninho at 7:23 AM on March 20, 2022 [2 favorites]
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posted by JoeXIII007 at 8:33 AM on March 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by JoeXIII007 at 8:33 AM on March 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
. "Just one thing" is an antipattern.
This is not the spirit of A Pattern Language, or any of Alexander’s writing and I think it’s a bad spin by the Curbed article. APL is very much a set of interrelated small observations and isn’t a prescriptive One Truth kid of thing. Please, please don’t let this take prevent you from checking it out.
posted by q*ben at 2:12 PM on March 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
This is not the spirit of A Pattern Language, or any of Alexander’s writing and I think it’s a bad spin by the Curbed article. APL is very much a set of interrelated small observations and isn’t a prescriptive One Truth kid of thing. Please, please don’t let this take prevent you from checking it out.
posted by q*ben at 2:12 PM on March 20, 2022 [1 favorite]
A few years ago I checked a copy of A Pattern Language out of the library, and a blue index card with this written on it fluttered out:
254 - BOOKMARKS
a sturdy notecard can be used to keep your place in a library book
If you are the witty genius who planted it, please PM me so we can go have a drink in honor of Alexander in 90 - Beer Hall.
posted by apparently at 2:50 PM on March 21, 2022 [9 favorites]
254 - BOOKMARKS
a sturdy notecard can be used to keep your place in a library book
If you are the witty genius who planted it, please PM me so we can go have a drink in honor of Alexander in 90 - Beer Hall.
posted by apparently at 2:50 PM on March 21, 2022 [9 favorites]
This Friday happens to be the 27th anniversary of the very first wiki (at archive.org) - the Portland Pattern Repository. As you may know, Ward Cunningham established the PPR for a bunch of programmers who were inspired by Alexander et al's work to develop a pattern language of programming together. As far as I know this was the first significant effort at a pattern language after A Timeless Way of Building. Patterns (if not pattern languages!) really took off in programming. And it would not be the last field to give it a go.
There may or may not be a WikiBirthday call this Friday to honor Alexander's work, including his inspirations for wiki, arguably one of the most native-to-Internet mediums.
posted by johnabbe at 9:52 PM on March 22, 2022
There may or may not be a WikiBirthday call this Friday to honor Alexander's work, including his inspirations for wiki, arguably one of the most native-to-Internet mediums.
posted by johnabbe at 9:52 PM on March 22, 2022
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I grew up with my father inculcating the ideas in A Pattern Language and similar books like How Buildings Learn and Ivar de Wolfe's The Italian Townscape. It's not an overstatement to say that Christopher Alexander shaped my entire view of buildings and towns. One of my sorrows is that the pattern movement in software totally missed the point of A Pattern Language.
More recently I've been working with the material in The Nature of Order. People think of it as abstract or woo woo until you start trying to actually use it...and you realize that it's almost entirely excellent, concrete advice. It seems to be the sufficient conditions for what Alexander was trying to accomplish, as opposed to the necessary conditions in the earlier books.
How many people can say that they actually accomplished their life's work?
posted by madhadron at 7:51 PM on March 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
I grew up with my father inculcating the ideas in A Pattern Language and similar books like How Buildings Learn and Ivar de Wolfe's The Italian Townscape. It's not an overstatement to say that Christopher Alexander shaped my entire view of buildings and towns. One of my sorrows is that the pattern movement in software totally missed the point of A Pattern Language.
More recently I've been working with the material in The Nature of Order. People think of it as abstract or woo woo until you start trying to actually use it...and you realize that it's almost entirely excellent, concrete advice. It seems to be the sufficient conditions for what Alexander was trying to accomplish, as opposed to the necessary conditions in the earlier books.
How many people can say that they actually accomplished their life's work?
posted by madhadron at 7:51 PM on March 23, 2022 [2 favorites]
Here is the New York Times obituary for Christoper Alexander.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 8:39 PM on March 29, 2022
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 8:39 PM on March 29, 2022
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