Christopher Alexander (born October 4, 1936 in Vienna, Austria) is an architect noted for his theories about design, and for more than 200 building projects in California, Japan, Mexico and around the world. Reasoning that users know more about the buildings they need than any architect could, he produced and validated (in collaboration with Sarah Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein) a "pattern language" designed to empower any human being to design and build at any scale. Alexander was a licensed contractor and architect in England. In 1958 he moved to the United States, and has lived in Berkeley, California from 1963 until the present. He is professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley. October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Vienna (German: , see also other names) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... Official language(s) English Capital  Sacramento Largest city  Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... Murray Silverstein co-authored the book A Pattern Language. ... A pattern language is a special form of textual documentation, used to document successful solutions to typical challenges in a design process. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... Berkeley is a city on the east shore of San Francisco Bay in northern California, in the United States. ... Sather tower (the Campanile) looking out over the San Francisco Bay and Mount Tamalpais. ...

Education

Alexander grew up in England and started his education in sciences. In 1954, he was awarded the top open scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge University in chemistry and physics, and went on to read mathematics. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Architecture and a Master's degree in Mathematics. He took his doctorate at Harvard (the first Ph.D. in Architecture ever awarded at Harvard University), and was elected fellow at Harvard. During the same period he worked at MIT in transportation theory and in computer science, and worked at Harvard in cognition and cognitive studies. He became professor of Architecture at Berkeley in 1963, taught there continuously for 38 years, and is now Professor Emeritus at the University of California. He is widely recognized as the father of the pattern language movement in computer science. He was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1996 for his contributions to architecture. Full name The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity Motto Virtus vera nobilitas Virtue is true Nobility Named after The Holy Trinity Previous names King’s Hall and Michaelhouse (until merged in 1546) Established 1546 Sister College(s) Christ Church Master The Lord Rees of Ludlow Location Trinity Street... The University of Cambridge (usually abbreviated as Cantab. ... A bachelors degree (Artium Baccalaureus, A.B. or B.A.) is usually an undergraduate academic degree awarded for a course or major that generally lasts for three, four, or in some cases and countries, five or six years. ... A masters degree is an academic degree usually awarded for completion of a postgraduate (or graduate) course of one to three years in duration. ... Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph. ... Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1636,[2] Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning still operating in the United States. ... 1963 (MCMLXIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (the link is to a full 1963 calendar). ...

Career

Writings

The Timeless Way of Building described the perfection of use to which buildings could aspire: The Timeless Way of Building is a 1979 book that ties life and architecture together, written by Christopher Alexander. ...

A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction described a practical architectural system in a form that a theoretical mathematician or computer scientist might call a generative grammar. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction is a 1977 book on architecture. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Generative linguistics. ...

The work originated from an observation that many medieval cities are attractive and harmonious. The authors said that this occurs because they were built to local regulations that required specific features, but freed the architect to adapt them to particular situations.

The book provides rules and pictures, and leaves decisions to be taken from the precise environment of the project. It describes exact methods for constructing practical, safe and attractive designs at every scale, from entire regions, through cities, neighborhoods, gardens, buildings, rooms, built-in furniture, and fixtures down to the level of doorknobs.

A notable value is that the architectural system consists only of classic patterns tested in the real world and reviewed by multiple architects for beauty and practicality.

The book includes all needed surveying and structural calculations, and a novel simplified building system that copes with regional shortages of wood and steel, uses easily-stored inexpensive materials, and produces long-lasting classic buildings with small amounts of materials, design and labor. It first has users prototype a structure on-site in temporary materials. Once accepted, these are finished by filling them with very-low-density concrete. It uses vaulted construction to build as high as three stories, permitting very high densities. The Lierne vault of the Liebfrauenkirche, Mühlacker 1482. ...

This book's method was adopted by the University of Oregon, as described in The Oregon Experiment, and remains the official planning instrument. It has also been adopted in part by some cities as a building code. The Oregon Experiment is a 1975 book by Christopher Alexander and collaborators Murray Silverstein, Shlomo Angel, Sara Ishikawa, and Denny Abrams. ...

The idea of a pattern language appears to apply to any complex engineering task, and has been applied to some of them. It has been especially influential in software engineering where patterns have been used to document collective knowledge in the field. A pattern language is a special form of textual documentation, used to document successful solutions to typical challenges in a design process. ... Software engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software. ... {{Hide = {{{ Hybrid reference style allows grouped references at top, but uses m:Cite. ...

The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe, which includes The Phenomenon of Life, The Process of Creating Life, A Vision of a Living World and The Luminous Ground, is Alexander's latest, and most comprehensive and elaborate work. In it, he puts forth a new theory about the nature of space and describes how this theory influences thinking about architecture, building, planning, and the way in which we view the world in general. The mostly static patterns from A Pattern Language have been amended by more dynamic sequences, which describe how to work towards patterns (which can roughly be seen as the end result of sequences). Sequences, like patterns, promise to be tools of wider scope than building (just as his theory of space goes beyond architecture). The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe is a four-volume work by Christopher Alexander published in 2003-2004. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article/section may require removal of excess red links (links to non-existent articles, like this one). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article/section may require removal of excess red links (links to non-existent articles, like this one). ... A pattern language is a special form of textual documentation, used to document successful solutions to typical challenges in a design process. ...

Architecture

Among Alexander's most notable built works are the Eishin Campus near Tokyo; the West Dean Visitors Centre ^[1] in Sussex, England; the Julian Street Inn (a homeless shelter) in San Jose, California (both described in Nature of Order); the Martinez House (an experimental house in Martinez, California made of lightweight concrete); and the low-cost housing in Mexicali, Mexico (described in The Production of Houses). This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Nickname: Capital of Silicon Valley Location of San Jose within Santa Clara County, California. ... Martinez Court House, California Martinez is the county seat of Contra Costa County, California. ... Mexicali is the capital of the state of Baja California, Mexico as well as the capital of the municipality of Mexicali. ...

Influence

Computer Science

Alexander's Notes on the Synthesis of Form was required reading for researchers in computer science throughout the 1960s. Marvin Minsky, founder of MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab, recommended it to students and colleagues. It had an influence in the 1960s and 1970s on programming language design, modular programming, object-oriented programming, software engineering and other design methodologies. Alexander's mathematical concepts and orientation were similar to Edsger Dijkstra's influential A Discipline of Programming. Marvin Lee Minsky (born August 9, 1927), sometimes affectionately known as Old Man Minsky, is an American cognitive scientist in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), co-founder of MITs AI laboratory, and author of several texts on AI and philosophy. ... ... Computer code (HTML with JavaScript) in a tool that uses syntax highlighting (colors) to help the developer see the function of each piece of code. ... Modular Programming is a programming paradigm that was first presented by Information & Systems Institute, Inc. ... Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that uses objects to design applications and computer programs. ... Software engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software. ... Edsger Dijkstra Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (Rotterdam, May 11, 1930 – Nuenen, August 6, 2002; IPA: ) was a Dutch computer scientist. ...

A Pattern Language‘s greatest influence in computer science is the design patterns movement. Alexander's philosophy of incremental, organic, coherent design influenced also the extreme programming movement. The Wiki was invented to allow the Hillside Group to work on design patterns. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction is a 1977 book on architecture. ... This article is about the book by Gamma et al. ... Extreme Programming (XP) is a software engineering methodology, the most prominent of several agile software development methodologies. ... Look up Wiki in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about the book by Gamma et al. ...

Will Wright wrote that Alexander's work was influential in the origin of The Sims computer game, and in his current new work. Publicity photo of Will Wright and a character from The Sims William R. Wright (born January 20, 1960) is an American computer game designer and co-founder of the game development company, Maxis. ... For games beginning with Sim, see List of Sim games. ...

Published works

Alexander's published works include:

• The Production of Houses
• A New Theory of Urban Design
• A Foreshadowing of 21st Century Art, The Geometry of Very Early Turkish Carpets
• The Mary Rose Museum
• The Oregon Experiment (1975)
• A Pattern Language (1977)
• Notes on the Synthesis of Form (1977)
• The Timeless Way of Building (1979)
• The Linz Cafe
• Community and Privacy with Serge Chermayeff
• The Nature of Order Book 1: The Phenomenon of Life
• The Nature of Order Book 2: The Process of Creating Life
• The Nature of Order Book 3: A Vision of a Living World
• The Nature of Order Book 4: The Luminous Ground

The Oregon Experiment is a 1975 book by Christopher Alexander and collaborators Murray Silverstein, Shlomo Angel, Sara Ishikawa, and Denny Abrams. ... A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction is a 1977 book on architecture. ... Notes on the Synthesis of Form, by Christopher Alexander (ISBN 0674627512), is about the process of design; By the time it was published, the book was considered as being one of the most important contemporary books about the art of design, what it is, and how to go about it... The Timeless Way of Building is a 1979 book that ties life and architecture together, written by Christopher Alexander. ... Serge Ivan Chermayeff (October 8, 1900 – May 8, 1996) was a British architect, writer, and co-founder of several architectural societies, including the American Society of Planners and Architects. ... The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe is a four-volume work by Christopher Alexander published in 2003-2004. ... The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe is a four-volume work by Christopher Alexander published in 2003-2004. ... The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe is a four-volume work by Christopher Alexander published in 2003-2004. ... The Nature of Order: An Essay on the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe is a four-volume work by Christopher Alexander published in 2003-2004. ...

External links

• Official website for Alexander's Pattern Language
• Essay on Christopher Alexander's Pattern Language
• Introduction to Christopher Alexander
• Review of The Nature of Order
• NPR radio interview with Christopher Alexander

References

See also

• Pattern Garden