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the_timeless_way_of_building [2007-07-11 16:20] – 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.
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 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. 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.+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.
  
  
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 It does not mean that space create events, or that it causes them, it simply means that a pattern of events cannot be separated from the space where it occurs. It does not mean that space create events, or that it causes them, it simply means that a pattern of events cannot be separated from the space where it occurs.
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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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