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the_timeless_way_of_building [2007-07-11 16:18] – nikthe_timeless_way_of_building [2019-01-18 16:22] – nik
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-==== The Timeless Way of Building ====+===== The Timeless Way of Building — Christopher Alexander=====
  
 by Christopher Alexander 1979 ISBN 0-19-502248-3 by Christopher Alexander 1979 ISBN 0-19-502248-3
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- +==== a summary  ====
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-a summary : +
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 There is a timeless way of building , it's a process through which the order of a building or a town grows out directly from the inner nature of the people, and the animals, and plants, and matter which are in it.  Without the help of architects or planners , if you are working in the timeless way's town will grow under your hands, as steady as the flowers in your garden. When we have seen deep into the process to make a building or a town alive, it turns out that this knowledge brings us back to that part of ourselves which is forgotten. There is a timeless way of building , it's a process through which the order of a building or a town grows out directly from the inner nature of the people, and the animals, and plants, and matter which are in it.  Without the help of architects or planners , if you are working in the timeless way's town will grow under your hands, as steady as the flowers in your garden. When we have seen deep into the process to make a building or a town alive, it turns out that this knowledge brings us back to that part of ourselves which is forgotten.
  
  
 +==== The Quality ====
  
  
 +There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named.
  
-The Quality+The quality of places is never twice the same,  because it always takes its shape from the particular  place in which it occurs.  It is not simple beauty of form and color. Man can make that without making nature. It is not only fitness to purpose. Man can make that too, without making nature. And it is not only the spiritual quality of beautiful  music or a quiet mosque, that comes from faith. Man can make that too, without making nature. The quality which has no name  includes  these simpler sweeter qualities. But it is so ordinary as well, that it somehow reminds of the passing of our life. It is a slightly bitter quality.
  
  
  
-There is a central quality which is the root criterion of life and spirit in a man, a town, a building, or a wilderness. This quality is objective and precise, but it cannot be named. 
  
-The quality of places is never twice the same,  because it always takes its shape from the particular  place in which it occurs.  It is not simple beauty of form and color. Man can make that without making nature. Is is not only fitness to purpose. Man can make that too, without making nature. And it is not only the spiritual quality of beautifull  music or a quiet mosque, that comes from faith. Man can make that too, without making nature. The quality which has no name  includes  these simpler sweeter qualities. But it is so ordinary as well, that it somehow reminds of of the passing of our life. It is a slightlly bitter quality. 
  
 +==== Being alive ====
  
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-Being alive 
  
  
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-Patterns of events+==== Patterns of events ==== 
  
  
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-Patterns of space+==== Patterns of space ====
  
  
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 Isn't it true that the features which you remember in a place are not so much pecularities, but rather the typical, the recurrent, the characteristic features; the canals of venice, the flat roofs of a Maroccan town, the event spacing of the fruit trees in an orchard, the slope of a beach towards the sea, the umbrellas of an Italian beach, the wide sidewalks, sidewalkscafes,  cylindrical poster boardings and pissoirs of Paris. The qualities which make Paris a special place, which make Broadway and Isn't it true that the features which you remember in a place are not so much pecularities, but rather the typical, the recurrent, the characteristic features; the canals of venice, the flat roofs of a Maroccan town, the event spacing of the fruit trees in an orchard, the slope of a beach towards the sea, the umbrellas of an Italian beach, the wide sidewalks, sidewalkscafes,  cylindrical poster boardings and pissoirs of Paris. The qualities which make Paris a special place, which make Broadway and
  
-  exicting, the qualities which make Venice special, the qualities which make an eighteencentury London Square to peaceful and refreshing- the qualities in any environment which give it the character you like it for- are its patterns.+exicting, the qualities which make Venice special, the qualities which make an eighteenth century London Square to peaceful and refreshing- the qualities in any environment which give it the character you like it for- are its patterns.
  
 A barn gets its structure from its patterns. A barn gets its structure from its patterns.
  
-Is has a cetrain overall shape, roughlly a long rectangle; there is a central position where the hay is stored, with aisles along the sides wher the cows stand; there is a row of columns between the centre and the aisle; along these colums are the feeding through where the cows feed; there are great doors or double doors at one end; perhaps smaller doors at the other end, in the aisle, for cattle to pass in and out"+Is has a certain overall shape, roughly a long rectangle; there is a central position where the hay is stored, with aisles along the sides wher the cows stand; there is a row of columns between the centre and the aisle; along these colums are the feeding through where the cows feed; there are great doors or double doors at one end; perhaps smaller doors at the other end, in the aisle, for cattle to pass in and out"
  
 The number of  patterns out of which a building or a town is made is rather small.  A buiding is defined, in its essentials , by a few dozen patterns. An a vast town like London by a few hundred patterns at the most. The number of  patterns out of which a building or a town is made is rather small.  A buiding is defined, in its essentials , by a few dozen patterns. An a vast town like London by a few hundred patterns at the most.
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-The patterns which are alive+==== The patterns which are alive ==== 
  
  
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-The multilicity of living patterns+==== The multilicity of living patterns ==== 
  
  
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- +==== The quality itself ====
-The quality itself+
  
  
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 The idea that a building can-and ought- to be made of modular units is one of the most pervasive assumptions of twentieth-century architecture. Nature is never modular. Nature is full of almost similar  units (waves, raindrops, blades of grass- but though the units of one kind are all alike in their broad structure, no two are ever alike in detail. The idea that a building can-and ought- to be made of modular units is one of the most pervasive assumptions of twentieth-century architecture. Nature is never modular. Nature is full of almost similar  units (waves, raindrops, blades of grass- but though the units of one kind are all alike in their broad structure, no two are ever alike in detail.
  
-1. the same broad features keep recurring over and over again.+1. the same broad features keep recurring over and over again.
  
 2. in their detail appearance these broad features are never twice the same. 2. in their detail appearance these broad features are never twice the same.
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 The repetition of patterns is quite a different thing from the repetition of parts. When two physical windows are identical the relationship which they have to their surroundings are different, because their surroundings are different. But when the relationships of their surroundings-their patterns- are the same, the windows themselves will all be different, because the sameness of the patterns, interacting with the difference of the contexts, makes the windows different. The repetition of patterns is quite a different thing from the repetition of parts. When two physical windows are identical the relationship which they have to their surroundings are different, because their surroundings are different. But when the relationships of their surroundings-their patterns- are the same, the windows themselves will all be different, because the sameness of the patterns, interacting with the difference of the contexts, makes the windows different.
  
-In a place which is alive, the right angles are rarely exact; the spacing of parts is hardly ever perfectly even. One column is a little thicker than another, one angle is a little larger than a right angle, one doorway is just a little smaller  then next, each roof line departs just an inch or two from the horizontal. They follow from the process which allows each part to be fitted carefully to its position. A building in which angles are all perfectly right angles, in ehich all eindows are exactly the dame size, andf in which all  columns are perfectly vertical, and all floors perfectlly horizontal, can only reach its false perfection by ignouring its surrounding utterlly.+In a place which is alive, the right angles are rarely exact; the spacing of parts is hardly ever perfectly even. One column is a little thicker than another, one angle is a little larger than a right angle, one doorway is just a little smaller  then next, each roof line departs just an inch or two from the horizontal. They follow from the process which allows each part to be fitted carefully to its position. A building in which angles are all perfectly right angles, in which all windows are exactly the dame size, andf in which all  columns are perfectly vertical, and all floors perfectlly horizontal, can only reach its false perfection by ignouring its surrounding utterlly.
  
-The cahracter of nature is fluid, rough, irregular, but it will not be true, unless it is made in the knowledge that it is going to die.+The character of nature is fluid, rough, irregular, but it will not be true, unless it is made in the knowledge that it is going to die.
  
 No matter how much the person who makes a building is able to understand the rhythm of regularity, it will mean noting so long as he creates it with the idea that it must be preserved because it is so precious. If you want to preserve a building, you will try to make it in materials which last forever. You will try to make sure that this creation can be preserved intact, in just its present state, forever. Canvas must be ruled out because it has to be replaced; tiles must be so hard that they will not crack, and set in concrete, so that they cannot move, and so the weed will not grow up to split the paving; trees must be nice to look at, but not bear fruit, becauses the dropped fruit might offend someone. No matter how much the person who makes a building is able to understand the rhythm of regularity, it will mean noting so long as he creates it with the idea that it must be preserved because it is so precious. If you want to preserve a building, you will try to make it in materials which last forever. You will try to make sure that this creation can be preserved intact, in just its present state, forever. Canvas must be ruled out because it has to be replaced; tiles must be so hard that they will not crack, and set in concrete, so that they cannot move, and so the weed will not grow up to split the paving; trees must be nice to look at, but not bear fruit, becauses the dropped fruit might offend someone.
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 +==== The gate====
  
-The gate  
  
  
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-The breakdown of language+==== The breakdown of language ====
  
  
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- +Local Symmetries
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- Local Symmetries+
  
 Organic, small-scale symmetry works better than precise, overall symmetry. Organic, small-scale symmetry works better than precise, overall symmetry.
  
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