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Summary: The first step to becoming a designer
Review: This book is maybe more popular with computer guys than with architecture people, but it's applicable to all sorts of fields. It's about how you construct a design given a problem and a set of forces acting upon it. I have long worked this way in computing, but since reading the book I have been applying the same techniques to designing the garden in my back yard. I'm sure there's lots more I need to know about design, but I am feeling inspired and confident.
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Summary: A book that describes the essence of the beauty of nature!
Review: This book needs plenty of reading, as it is full of ideas and images that slowly come together to form a whole. It describes "the quality with no name" that make some buildings come "alive" and be wonderful to live in. It is this same quality that makes nature so appealing. The quality is formed from patterns - the second book in the trilogy "A Pattern Language" describes a large number of patterns for architecture in detail.It is my current opinion that when the "quality without a name" is present in a human relationship it is called "love". If I am right, then in a way this book answers the eternal question "what is love?". Powerful eh? [I discovered this book following a recommendation of "A Pattern Language" on an object-oriented computing course. The power of patterns in computer software is only starting to be realised]
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Summary: Building and Poetry, Entwined :)
Review: This book should really be read twice.
It is one of the most powerful books that I have ever read.
It is poetic, and yet very precise and concrete, about the state of things as one perceives them in nature.
First he explains what is the Quality without a Name. Then he proceeds to distinguish it in our acts of construction by highlighting it in nature.
I have to confess that I am currently biased by General Systems Theory, Emergence and all these relatively new concepts, and cannot help but analyze this book from that perspective. It is a wonderful book that talks about stability in natural systems, and how this very beautiful and poetic stability is reached through natural processes. Nature has a way of 'stabilizing' its own systems. Nature itself is constantly changing in order to cope with this ever changing conditions.
The author assumes heavily that human beings, when letting themselves be free and at peace, are able to identify at the most profound levels with stable systems in nature. Everything nature does awakens our natural and hidden intuitions of beauty and stability, and it is at this moment, when we 'let go' of thoughts and ideas, that this beauty can be apprehended and completely acknowledged, making us whole, and by doing so, becoming a part of the Place as much as the place becomes a part of us.
The proposed way of building mimics, to the extent this is possible, nature's way of building, and constructs things in the world organically, this is, build them as if they were being generated from a seed, not "composed".
One starts with the very basics On Site, and lets go its preconceived ideas and images, and focuses only in the site, and in the specifics of the site: paths the Sun light travels, trees nearby, roads, accidents in the ground, previous buildings and, most importantly, the use that will be given to the building by those that will actually use it. This way, whatever the end results, the building thus created is constantly able to adapt to its surroundings, being able, through specific applications of the patterns proposed, to resolve the ever changing systems of conflicting forces which are constantly found as development progresses.
It is a truly beautiful book, even if you have no business in architecture, as is my case (Software Engineer). I can see how and why this book had such a tremendous impact on Software Development when it came out. However, this book actually goes much beyond the ideas in design and enterprise architecture patterns. It is a book for your heart. It is a book that will definitely change the way you face the world, the way you let yourself be in places, the fact that a building is much more than the geometries and materials used to build it.
A book everyone should read. Really everyone.
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Summary: Thought provoking for many fields
Review: This is a book written to an audience of traditional building (what I call "brick") architects. It is the foundation of the pattern approach to system design that has sprung up in many disciplines, most notably software design. His goal is to teach the basic, repeatable process of understanding forces acting on a given problem space and how to find a pattern that solves the problem in a way that imbues the space or item with "the quality without a name". This is essential reading for anyone who is building any software, back end or front end. The reason is that you are creating spaces that people spend their lives in. Be it the IT guy who needs to keep your stuff up and runnning to the end user who just want to complete his goal in a delightful way. Alexander derides the people who choose bad patterns which result in the "dead" sameness in many mass-produced items (including office parks and most modern apartment complexes). He calls for a return to a more organic process. A process in which any person can go ahead and design a house. With the patterns and process, the person is able to directly design the house (or anything else) to directly suilt his or her personal needs. Alexander points out the danger that having everything designed by "experts" who make everything complicated and thus beyond the reach of the common user - this is rampant in both bits and bricks - I think it has to be stamped out. Also keep in mind that patterns provide a framework for solving a given problem, there is lot's of room for customization, but certain rules must be observed. Afterall the system is one of language, a language of patterns with a grammar all it's own. In musical terms, western music gives you 12 tones. They can be put togeher in an infinite way, there are genres that help limit the variety and give a stricter framework. Remeber that patterns exist at all scales. Each pattern is really made up of sub patterns. Each pattern, at a given time, is a constituent part of a larger pattern. When all workers speak the same pattern language, the outcome is more predicatable and all people involved in the bui;lding can adapt to problems autonomously and be assured that the solution will have coherence with the whole. It's liberating. It is democratizing. It invites other to add on. Once set in motion, there is no need for centralized control.
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Summary: 5 stars for software building 3 for architecture
Review: This is the book that set the whole software patterns movement in motion. It's a great read. It made me realize how the builder blew it when they made my house. One small design change, the house is 1 ft too narrow makes it impossible to put a screen door on the front door. It made them build a extra platform which causes people to fall down into the living room. On the other hand, if I was building a building I'd use his visualization techniques before I drew plans. But I wouldn't use this technique to actually construct a building. It would triple the cost. (The essence is to build it as you need it.) On the other hand he explains why swiss barns look "alike" without the need for a design review committee. (Or barns in general.) As for software, Design patterns give programmers a way to talk about problems and solutions without talking about code. Its a great idea and I use software patterns all the time. (Get the GOF book for actual software patterns.) Read this one to understand how they came onto this idea.
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Summary: Very much worth noting
Review: Towards the end of his life, the philosopher and teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti enjoyed having sections from the Timeless Way read to him each evening.
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Summary: Changes how you look at everything
Review: ``The Timeless Way of Building'' explains the idea of patterns in architecture. A pattern is a way to solve a specific problem, by bringing two conflicting forces into balance. Here's a very simple example of a pattern. When a room has a window with a view, the window becomes a focal point: people are attracted to the window and want to look through it. The furniture in the room creates a second focal point: everyone is attracted toward whatever point the furniture aims them at (usually the center of the room or a TV). This makes people feel uncomfortable. They want to look out the window, and toward the other focus at the same time. If you rearrange the furniture, so that its focal point becomes the window, then everyone will suddenly notice that the room is much more ``comfortable''. I applied that pattern to my own living room, by moving the TV under the window and rearranging the furniture, and I was amazed what a difference it made! That's a very simple example, and there are literally hundreds more in this book and its sequel. Simply reading them is fascinating; it will convince you that you can make your own home into something as wonderful in its own way as the Taj Mahal--which is Alexander's whole point. In fact, the book's main idea is much more powerful than that. It applies to almost every aspect of life, not just to architecture. When a situation makes us unhappy, it is usually because we have two conflicting goals, and we aren't balancing them properly. Alexander's idea is to identify those ``conflicting forces'', and then find a solution which brings them into harmony. It's a simple concept, but once you appreciate it you realize how deep it really is. This is definitely one of the best books on my shelf. It has really changed the way I look at...everything.
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