Christopher Alexander: Difference between revisions

'''Christopher Wolfgang John Alexander''' (4 October 1936 – 17 March 2022)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patternlanguage.com/ca/ca.html|title=PatternLanguage.com|website=www.patternlanguage.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.patternlanguage.com/leveltwo/caframe.htm?/../ca/whoswho.htm|title=CA FRAME|website=www.patternlanguage.com|access-date=10 February 2016|archive-date=19 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319154126/http://www.patternlanguage.com/leveltwo/caframe.htm?/../ca/whoswho.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Sustasis">{{Cite web|url=https://www.sustasis.org/media|title=Media|website=Sustasis|access-date=20 March 2022}}</ref> was an Austrian-born British-American [[architect]] and [[Design theory|design theorist]]. He was an [[Professors in the United States#Professor emeritus and emerita|emeritus professor]] at the [[University of California, Berkeley]]. His theories about the nature of human-centered design have affected fields beyond architecture, including [[urban design]], [[software design]], and [[sociology]].<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060618085753/http://amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterA.pdf |archive-date=2006-06-18 |url-status=dead |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=14 April 2011}}</ref> Alexander designed and personally built over 100 buildings, both as an architect and a [[general contractor]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pps.org/reference/calexander/|title=Christopher Alexander|website=www.pps.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nbm.org/support-us/awards_honors/scully-prize/christopher-alexander.html|title=2009 Scully Prize|website=nbm.org|access-date=12 February 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160216001841/http://www.nbm.org/support-us/awards_honors/scully-prize/christopher-alexander.html|archive-date=16 February 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In software, Alexander is regarded as the father of the [[pattern language]] movement. According to creator [[Ward Cunningham]], the first [[wiki]]—the technology behind Wikipedia—led directly from Alexander's work.<ref name="C2 Wiki Front Page">{{cite web |title=C2 Wiki Front Page |url=https://wiki.c2.com/ |website=wiki.c2.com |access-date=10 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161024110012/http://wiki.c2.com/ |archive-date=24 October 2016 |language=en |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="c2.com">{{cite web |title=People Projects And Patterns |url=https://wiki.c2.com/?PeopleProjectsAndPatterns |website=wiki.c2.com |access-date=10 June 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161216210210/http://wiki.c2.com/?PeopleProjectsAndPatterns |archive-date=16 December 2016 |language=en |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Cunningham">{{cite book |last1=Cunningham |first1=Ward |author1-link=Ward Cunningham |last2=Mehaffy |first2=Michael W. |author2-link=Michael Mehaffy |date=2013 |chapter=Wiki as pattern language |title=Proceedings of the 20th Conference on Pattern Languages of Programs, October 23–26, 2013, Monticello, Illinois |series=PLoP '13 |location=Corryton, Tennessee |publisher=[[The Hillside Group]] |pages=32:1–32:14 |isbn=978-1-941652-00-8 |chapter-url=http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2725669.2725707}}</ref> Alexander's work has also influenced the development of [[agile software development]].<ref name="Cunningham"/>

Alexander is best known for his 1977 book ''[[A Pattern Language]],'' a perennial seller some four decades after publication.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Alexander |first1=Christopher |date=20 September 2018 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FTpxDwAAQBAJ&q=A+Pattern+Language:+Towns,+Buildings,+Construction |title=A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-005035-1 |language=en}}</ref> Reasoning that users are more sensitive to their needs than any architect could be,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alexander |first1=Christopher |last2=Silverstein |first2=Murray |last3=Angel |first3=Shlomo |last4=Ishikawa |first4=Sara |last5=Abrams |first5=Danny |date=7 June 1975 |url=https://archive.org/details/oregonexperiment00alex |title=The Oregon Experiment |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-501824-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/oregonexperiment00alex/page/42 42] |quote=Christopher Alexander users of a building know more. |url-access=registration |via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gehl |first1=Jan |last2=Svarre |first2=Birgitte |date=1 October 2013 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DUGiAQAAQBAJ&q=%22christopher+alexander%22+%22users+know%22&pg=PA53 |title=How to Study Public Life |publisher=Island Press |isbn=978-1-61091-525-0 |via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="OregonEx">{{cite news |last1=Bryant |first1=Greg |date=Spring 1991 |title=The Oregon Experiment after Twenty Years |url=http://www.rainmagazine.com/archive/1991-1/the-oregon-experiment-revisited |work=Rain Magazine}}</ref> he collaborated with his students [[Sara Ishikawa]], [[Murray Silverstein]], Max Jacobson, Ingrid King, and Shlomo Angel to produce a pattern language that would empower anyone to design and build at any scale.

==Education==

 

==Honors==

Alexander was elected to the [[Harvard Society of Fellows|Society of Fellows]], Harvard University 1961–64; awarded the First Medal for Research by the American Institute of Architects, 1972;<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.rainmagazine.com/archive/2014/reflections-on-puarl-01062014/christopher-alexander-aia-medal |title=AIA First Medal for Research |work=Rain |date=August 1972}}</ref> elected member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Arts, 1980; winner of the Best Building in Japan award, 1985; winner of the ACSA (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture) Distinguished Professor Award, 1986 and 1987;<ref>*[http://acsa-arch.org/programs-events/awards/archives/DP ACSA Archives, Distinguished Professor Award winners.]</ref> invited to present the [[Louis Kahn]] Memorial Lecture, 1992; elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]], 1996;<ref name=AAAS/> one of the two inaugural recipients of the Athena Medal, given by the [[Congress for the New Urbanism]] (CNU), 2006;. awarded (''in absentia'') the [[Vincent Scully Prize]] by the [[National Building Museum]], 2009; awarded the lifetime achievement award by the [[Urban Design Group]], 2011; winner of the [[Global Award for Sustainable Architecture]], 2014<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.patternlanguage.com/bios/vitae.htm|title=Curriculum Vitae|website=www.patternlanguage.com}}</ref> and 1994 Seaside Prize recipient.<ref>{{cite web |title=Seaside Institute Board of Fellows |url=https://www.seasideinstitute.org/fellows |website=Seaside Institute|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210416094428/https://www.seasideinstitute.org/fellows |archive-date=16 April 2021}}</ref>

Among Alexander's most notable built works are the Eishin Campus near Tokyo (the building process of which is outlined in his 2012 book ''The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth''); the West Dean Visitors Centre<ref>''[http://www.livingneighborhoods.org/ht-0/westdean.htm England, The West Dean Visitors Centre]'' – Project History</ref> in [[West Sussex]], England; the Julian Street Inn (a homeless shelter) in [[San Jose, California]] (both described in ''Nature of Order''); the [[Sala House]] and the Martinez House (experimental houses in [[Albany, California|Albany]] and [[Martinez, California]] made of lightweight concrete); the low-cost housing in [[Mexicali|Mexicali, Mexico]] (described in ''The Production of Houses''); and several private houses (described and illustrated in ''The Nature of Order''). Alexander's built work is characterized by a special quality (which he used to call "the quality without a name", but named "wholeness" in ''Nature of Order'') that relates to human beings and induces feelings of belonging to the place and structure. This quality is found in the most loved traditional and historic buildings and urban spaces, and is precisely what Alexander has tried to capture with his sophisticated mathematical design theories. Paradoxically, achieving this connective human quality has also moved his buildings away from the abstract imageability valued in contemporary architecture, and this is one reason why his buildings are under-appreciated at present.<ref name="nikos"/>{{Page needed|date=June 2025}}

Many urban development projects continue to incorporate Alexander's ideas. For example, in the UK the developers [[Living Villages]] have been highly influenced by Alexander's work and used ''A Pattern Language'' as the basis for the design of The Wintles in Bishops Castle, Shropshire.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://transitionculture.org/2009/02/24/a-wander-round-the-wintles/|title=A Wander Round the Wintles » Transition Culture|first=Rob|last=Hopkins|website=transitionculture.org}}</ref> [[Sarah Susanka]]'s "Not So Big House" movement adapts and popularizes Alexander's patterns and outlook.<ref name="Sarah Susanka 2001"/>

Alexander's ''[[Notes on the Synthesis of Form]]'' was said{{by whom|date=January 2025}} to be required reading for researchers in computer science throughout the 1960s. It had an influence<ref name="naur">{{cite conference |first=H. |last=Kilov |title=Using RM-ODP to bridge communication gaps between stakeholders |book-title=Communications H Kilov |conference=Workshop on ODP for Enterprise Computing 2004 |citeseerx=10.1.1.161.553 |quote=Peter Naur proposed in 1968 to use Christopher Alexander's work…}}</ref> 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''.<ref>{{Cite book

The greatest influence of ''[[A Pattern Language]]'' in computer science is the [[design patterns]] movement.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/Chris.text.html#COMPUTER |title=Christopher's Alexander's influence on Computer Science |author=Nikos A. Salingaros |access-date=8 February 2014 |archive-date=15 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415002236/http://zeta.math.utsa.edu/~yxk833/Chris.text.html#COMPUTER |url-status=dead}}</ref> Alexander's philosophy of incremental, organic, coherent design also influenced the [[extreme programming]] movement.<ref name="accu">{{cite web|url=http://accu.org/index.php/journals/509|title=ACCU :: eXtreme Programming An interview with Kent Beck|first=ACCU|last=Members|website=accu.org}}</ref> The [[Wiki]] was invented<ref name="C2 Wiki Front Page"/><ref name="c2.com"/> to allow the [[Hillside Group]] to work collaboratively on programming [[design patterns]]. More recently the "deep geometrical structures" as discussed in ''[[The Nature of Order]]'' have been cited as having importance for [[object-oriented programming]], particularly in C++.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cs.pitt.edu/~chang/budha/coplien.htm|title=Space: The Final Frontier|website=www.cs.pitt.edu}}</ref>

Alexander often led his own software research, such as the 1996 Gatemaker project with [[Greg Bryant (computer scientist)|Greg Bryant]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://gatemaker.org|title=Aspen – early 1997|website=gatemaker.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first1=Bryant |last1=Greg |date=2013 |url=http://www.rainmagazine.com/archive/2014/gatemaker |title=Gatemaker: Christopher Alexander's dialogue with the computer industry |website=Rain Magazine}}</ref>

The fourth volume of ''[[The Nature of Order]]'' approaches religious questions from a scientific and philosophical rather than mystical direction, focusing in human feelings, well-being and nature interaction rather than metaphysics. In it, Alexander describes deep ties between the nature of matter, [[human perception]] of the universe, and the geometries people construct in buildings, cities, and artifacts. He suggests a crucial link between traditional practices and [[belief]]s, and recent scientific advances.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.natureoforder.com/summarybk4.htm|title=Summary of Book Four of The Nature of Order|website=www.natureoforder.com}}</ref> Despite his leanings toward [[Deism]], and his naturalistic and anthropologic approach to religion, Alexander maintained that he was a practicing member of the [[Catholic Church]], which he believed to have accumulated, within its knowledge, a great deal of human truth.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Alexander |first1=Christopher |date=February 2016 |url=http://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/02/making-the-garden |title=Making the Garden |website=First Things}}</ref>

* ''The Grass Roots Housing Process'' (1973)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.livingneighborhoods.org/library/grassroots.htm |title=Grass Roots Housing Process |website=www.livingneighborhoods.org}}</ref>

* ''The Battle for the Life and Beauty of the Earth: A Struggle between Two World-Systems, ''with Hans Joachim Neis and Maggie More Alexander (2012)

Unpublished:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://transitionculture.org/2010/12/23/exclusive-to-transition-culture-an-interview-with-christopher-alexander/|title=Exclusive to Transition Culture! An interview with Christopher Alexander » Transition Culture|first=Rob|last=Hopkins|website=transitionculture.org}}</ref>  

* [http://www.pps.org/info/placemakingtools/placemakers/calexander Introduction to Christopher Alexander]