Timeless Way of Building - Softcover

Alexander, Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195022483 ISBN 13: 9780195022483

Publisher: New York, Oxford University Press, 1979., 1979

Synopsis

Alexander, Christopher. The Timeless Way of Building. New York, Oxford University Press, 1979. 20 cm x 13,8 cm. XV, 552 pages. With several black-and-white illustrations throughout book. Original Hardcover. Very good condition with only minor signs of external wear. Only slightly foxed. Includes for example the following essays: Patterns which are alive / The multiplicity of living patterns / Our pattern languages / The creative power of language / The breakdown of language / The structure of language / The evolution of a common language / The genetic power of language / The process of construction / The slow emergence of a town / The kernel of the way etc etc. Christopher Wolfgang Alexander (born October 4, 1936 in Vienna, Austria) is an architect noted for his theories about design as well as over 200 building projects 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 to empower anyone to design and build at any scale. He moved from England to the United States in 1958, living and teaching in Berkeley, California from 1963. Currently an emeritus professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Alexander lives in Arundel, England. Alexander is often overlooked by texts in the history and theory of architecture because his work intentionally disregards contemporary architectural discourse. However, Alexander's polyvalent approach to the discipline of architecture has had enormous ramifications through his vast corpus of essays and books. He is regarded as the father of the Pattern Language movement, and various contemporary architectural practices such as the New Urbanist movement have resulted from Alexander's ideas, which seek to help normal people reclaim control over their built environments. (Wikipedia).

About this title

Review

This book is more a philosophy of life than an architectural commentary. David Abbott gave it to me some years ago and I constantly refer to it. It is full of wisdom and inspiration, written in Alexander's beautiful prose style ... anyone who cares about the spaces we inhabit should read it. (Mike Dempsey, founding partner of CDT Design, Creative Review)

About the Author

Christopher Alexander is a builder, craftsman, general contractor, architect, painter, and teacher. He taught from 1963 to 2002 as Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, and is now Professor Emeritus. He has spent his life running construction projects, experimenting with new building methods and materials, and crafting carefully articulated buildings--all to advance the idea that people can build environments in which they will thrive. Acting on his deeply-held conviction that, as a society, we must recover the means by which we can build and maintain healthy living environments, he has lived and worked in many cultures, and built buildings all over the world. Making neighborhoods, building-complexes, building, balustrades, columns, ceilings, windows, tiles, ornaments, models and mockups, paintings, furniture, castings and carvings--all this has been his passion, and is the cornerstone from which his paradigm-changing principles have been derived.

Edition details

• Publisher: New York, Oxford University Press, 1979.
• Publication date: 1979
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195022483
• ISBN 13: 9780195022483
• Binding: Paperback